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Candidates change jobs around every three years, while in larger cities this is just over a year. If recruiters want to see candidates getting placements by them or see them returning and recommending their agency, they should up their candidate experience game. That’s why we have put together tips on how to improve the candidate experience with technology.
1. Personalise communication
Each candidate has their own communication preference. They might prefer emails, as they’re still at their current job, or may prefer text messages only. Your CRM is valuable for keeping track of this information. By adding a custom field or using the notes section in your CRM, you can specify how a candidate would like to be approached and communicated with.
Recruiters try to find as many good candidates as possible, but they have limited time. If your CRM gives you the option to use templates or customise mass-mails, to save you time to communicate with your candidates without losing the personal touch: use them to your benefit! You don’t have to write the same email over and over again. Use customised templates, which will save you time, but won’t compromise the candidate experience.
2. To archive or not to archive
Recruitment Databases can contain thousands or even a million of candidate records. The main motto usually is: the bigger, the better, because what’s better than having a giant pool of candidates to choose from? We beg to differ. Adding a candidate that doesn’t relate to the sector you place for may seem relevant for the future, but when you are going to engage with this person is uncertain.
By decreasing the number of candidates in the database, recruiters can focus on a smaller pool of candidates. This allows to find the right fit for the job in contrast to a big pool of candidates where you can’t find anyone that qualifies for the job.
There is often a taboo feeling about deleting anything from a database with the idea that maybe one day it will come in handy. But It is important to understand it is ok to delete or archive candidates in your database. Determining if the candidate can be deleted can be based on a variety of data, such as: last note, last update, last contact, last opened email. If a candidate’s files lack key data like an email address or phone number, retaining their information isn't going to be of benefit to the company and will just lead to a cluttered poor-quality database which will make the recruiters job more difficult.
3. Keep your database up-to-date
This might sound like the most obvious tip of all, but we all know that those 5 minutes of admin is more difficult that it seems. Keeping your database up to date is a key way of improving the candidate experience. By having the relevant data on candidates, you can contact them with relevant jobs. Nobody wants to be contacted about a director position while they’re a junior at best. It makes it abundantly clear that the recruiter is uninterested or lacks information on them, and this is detrimental to the relationship.
Even when you make notes, make sure to not misuse data that’s out of date. A note about a broken leg, can mean that this candidate is unable to do heavy work. But if this note is two years old, it could occur to negatively impact a candidate’s placement if a note isn’t added that the candidate is fully recovered. Prevent misjudging candidate’s statuses by keeping your data up-to-date. The best way to do this in your database is to search for incorrect data. Tools like DataCleaner can look for a variety of topics, like missing email addresses, phone numbers or last added note.
Getting the right data to update these fields might even deem the trickiest. You call or email the candidate manually, but with 100+ candidates to call, this might not be the easiest route. CRM integrated tools like Publish can help you save time when it comes to bulk-updating data. It sends out a form for candidates to fill in and feeds the information straight back into the Bullhorn CRM.
If you would like more tips on how to clean your database, read our blog: 3 Tips to Clean Your Database here.
Author: Michael Fawcett
