When was the last time you applied at your own company?
Now, more than ever, people searching for their next role is more competitive than ever. Understandably, applications for roles have quadrupled accordingly. #covid19
Over the last few weeks, friends, family members and ex-colleagues have been actively seeking employment as the impacts of Covid19 have hit. The common theme from all of them is poor candidate care.
Research shows that the No.1 frustration during the overall job search is the lack of response from potential employers or recruiters.
According to CareerBuilder survey, 75% of applicants never hear back from potential employers.
How would you like to be treated when you apply for a job? To live in uncertainty whether the application was received? To not hear anything at all from the company until a month later when you see a new email in your inbox with the rather dull wording “Thank you for your application. The position has been filled.” as the only, and final, communication.
Even worse is when you see the role re-advertised, without any correspondence regarding your application.
The applicant has taken the time to:
- Research the role and organisation
- Update their CV
- Respond to specific job criteria
- Created a targeted cover letter.
It’s hard to justify not responding to the applicant. Choosing not to respond, says a lot about the company, and how they treat their customers.
No matter if your company struggles with large volumes of applicants, or search to find any at all, it is essential that every candidate feels well treated. Contact, feedback or a simple confirmation of submitted application will influence how the candidate thinks about you as a potential employer. In turn, it may also affect your employer brand, reputation and in the long haul if other candidates will choose to apply to your company or want to engage with your organisation as a consumer.
A part of creating a better candidate experience has to do with how you communicate with candidates and potential applicants. Confirming that the application has been received, even if it is a simple auto-reply, is the most basic step towards creating rapport with your candidates.
And with that, a better candidate experience.
Replying to candidates
Replying to candidates to confirm that their application has been received can be done effectively using an automated response. It’s well worth putting some time and effort into the message itself. After all, it’s going to be the first message sent directly from you to a candidate. Confirmation messages are also an excellent way to inform applicants about the recruiting process. Are you waiting until the application deadline before going through applications? Let them know straight away. It will minimise the chance that candidates grow tired of waiting, and fewer will be in touch with questions about the same things.
In the confirmation email you should include:
- The name of the applicant (if possible) and what position they’ve applied for
- Let them know that their application has been received
- Explain the recruiting process
- Will interviews be conducted at any specific dates?
- How long is the recruitment expected to take?
- When and how till candidates know if they’ve not made it through to the next round?
- Contact information to the recruiter in charge in case the candidate has any questions
- Try expressing the company’s culture or personality
- Links to social media
- Write with a tone representative of your organisation
Save time using automated responses and templates
Are you in the early stages of the recruitment it’s quite alright to use a general template. Later stages of the recruitment should be more personalised and preferably contain feedback from the interview.
Depending on how many candidates have applied, you can either create a very general template where you can basically send out an auto-reply as is or a bit more personalised version with the candidate’s name.
Hint! Recruiting software can be a huge help for sending out personalised automated emails. If your organisation is not using a recruitment CRM, then set up an Outlook mail merge.
Here is a link to YouTube that explains the process.
Seriously, do it. It’s not that hard.
Need a template, because you are flat chat? Too busy to create a proforma? Here is one that has been prepared for you.
Email template thanking for the application
Subject: Your application to [Company name]
Hello [candidate’s name],
We’ve received your application for the position of [title]. [Short description of the recruitment process]. You can read more about us on our company career page [link to career page] or follow us on social media on Facebook [link to company Facebook page] and Linkedin [link to company Linkedin page] to get the latest updates.
If you’ve got any questions, you’re welcome to contact me at [telephone number and/or email address].
Regards,
[Your name]
[Email signature and contact information]
Personalised email templates for a bit of inspiration
Show a bit of personality! Just as companies use logos and colours to express their brand, written text and choice of words show company character and personality. Customise the email template with words, expressions and explanations that suit the tone of your business.
Informal and personal tone for applications to a specific position:
Hi [candidate’s name]! We’re thrilled that you’d like to join us here at [company]. We’ve now got your application that you sent us about [position], and since we have a look through applications as they come in, we’ll be in touch next week if we’d like to meet you for an interview. Unfortunately, due to the volume of applicants, we won’t have time to meet everyone. If we don’t feel that we’re a match [name of recruiter] will let you know by email. Keep in touch on Instagram and Linkedin and Facebook for more new and further opportunities.
General confirmation for any application:
Hello! We always look forward to reviewing applications of great people who’d like to work with us at [company]. Thank you for applying for a position with us, and here’s a confirmation that we received your application. One of our recruiters will contact you shortly to let you know about the status of your application.
Consequences of a bad candidate experience
According to Career Builder survey, the effects of one candidate’s negative experience can lead to a broader impact on the employer’s ability to recruit or sell products.
Further research showed that:
- 63% of job seekers will likely reject a job offer because of a bad candidate experience (Source: Software Advice).
- 72% of job seekers that had a bad experience told others about it, either online or in-person (Source: CareerArc).
- 64% of job seekers say that a poor candidate experience would make them less likely to purchase goods and services from that employer (Source: CareerArc).
Not only can a negative candidate experience have a disastrous impact on your recruiting process, but it can also very negatively impact your company’s bottom line – and cost you big bucks.
You are probably familiar with the famous case of Virgin Media, whose experts calculated that a bad candidate experience costs the company $5M annually.
This is because an unhappy candidate can easily turn into an unhappy customer who will boycott your company’s services or products. Ask yourself, ‘Are you inadvertently causing your company to have a poor brand image?’
Recruiting agencies should consider that today’s applicant is tomorrow’s potential client. Treat them accordingly.
Lastly, is it time to change your language from applicant and candidate to customer? After all, isn’t this really what they are?
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Benefits for the organisation
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Audience:
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About the author: Colleen Condon
Colleen likes to keep things creative in all that she does, often using marshmallows as a source of inspiration.
Everyone knows that ongoing learning is essential for both personal and professional success and yet, for many, this means hours of attending dead boring training or completing’ losing the will to live’ eLearning modules. Colleen’s mission is to end tedious professional development while ensuring targeted outcomes for learners and businesses.
Colleen has honed her skills over the last 20 years across multiple industries and locations. Her previous role saw her overseeing the training and development needs of over 60, 000 employees across 13 countries in the APAC region. This enabled her to hone skills that celebrated diversity and understanding human commonality through learning, and that in the absence of a common language, flip charts and coloured markers helped her to overcome most challenging situations.
After taking a ‘go away package’, in 2019, Colleen founded her own business, Facilitated Training, harnessing her global learning experiences and sharing them through ready to use learning resources, specialising in leadership, mentoring, guest speaking, creative problem solving, filling the gap of high quality, customisable training resources and tools.