3 Tips for Engaging Job Candidates

There’s plenty of talk about keeping employees engaged, but what about engaging job candidates? After all, hiring managers need to sell a position to a top candidate just as much as that candidate needs to sell his or her skills and fit to the hiring manager.

Blogging4Jobs.com, a blog and website that’s all about recruiting, human resources and how social media works in recruiting, had a few tips for engaging candidates in a March 13 post. The article offered what it called “easy to adopt ways” a hiring manager or company could engage candidates in order to “separate your opportunity from the noise.”

First, you should start with the job description (job descriptions always are a good starting place in the hiring process). Don’t forget that your job description is as much a marketing tool as it is a nuts and bolts description (or even legal document) of a position’s duties and expectations. “Who says [your marketing language] can’t be livened up a bit,” the article posits. Instead of a boring list of requirements and duties, use the description to sell the job, the department and even the firm.

Consider building what the article calls a “talent community.” This is something akin to “your own personal LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter community,” but on a larger scale. Be sure to give 10 instances of information, referrals, etc. for every one thing you ask of someone.

Build that community with content, the article continues. Create, with your hiring managers’ input, videos, blog posts, news releases, podcasts, even an “Internet radio show,” in which you showcase your company’s current employees goals, missions, hopes, quirks, opportunities, etc. You’ll then post these different types of content as appropriate. Consider sending a video blog to the candidates you choose to interview. Send them links to your blogs. Send them a link to the department’s Facebook page. And so on.

In other words, bring the candidates in to your company before they’re even an official part of your team. Help them feel as if they’re already members. Engage with them on a one-to-one basis regularly in addition to any calls/e-mails/interview sessions you have with them.

Looking for great people for your Redlands-based firm? Contact the recruiters at Arrow Staffing to help you find reliable professionals for your temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire opportunities. Contact us today.

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