Essential tip to win the ‘War for Talent’

Finding a new job is challenging, and so is finding a perfect employee. The ‘War for talent’ is being fought as we speak. To win you have to provide a great candidate experience.  It all comes down to the hiring journey—from attracting candidates to onboarding them into their new position.
A candidate journey is comparable to a customer stepping into a shop to buy something. 

Before they decide to buy, a customer will think about if a product is right for them, make an effort to learn about the brand, judge the service from the company, read reviews of the product and the brand, and ultimately decide whether they want to buy.

The bottom line is a candidate’s experience while going through your company’s recruitment process matters. According to a CareerArc survey, almost 60% of job seekers said they had a poor candidate experience, and 72% of them have shared their feelings about the company online. 

There are several of your company’s touchpoints a candidate will hit during their hiring journey.

One stage of the candidate journey at the end is where you start communicating to them to get them excited about working for you and start building their commitment to you. This process is called pre-boarding.

How do you handle this pre-boarding today? Are you consciously starting to build a relationship with your new hire and let them know how excited you are that they’re going to be joining you on your epic company journey? For a good start you can use digital tools to improve the pre-boarding step.

Companies like LinkedIn send out pre-boarding communication via email, but also text and WhatsApp are widely used already. Instead of asking the new hire to send in multiple documents via email, post or physical hand-over on the first day, the communication per text or WhatsApp contains a secure link, which brings the candidate to his personal profile page. From this page he or she can easily upload the required documents, from their laptop but also via their Smartphone by taking a picture. Via this personal profile page the new hire can even sign contracts and approve policies digitally.

LinkedIn claims that pre-boarding increases new hires’ excitement and fosters a relationship with them even before orientation. The guide recommends putting together a new hire checklist for your recruiter to complete, along with a welcome email with clear instructions to help candidates feel welcome and included.

The best way to build a smooth candidate journey is to be organized and empathetic.

The hiring game has changed. The days of a simple interview and job offer are gone. Now, recruiters need to be thinking more about what their employees’ needs are, their impression of the company and channeling a message that goes beyond just a pay packet.

We wish you good luck in winning the ‘War for Talent’!