Attracting, engaging and enchanting candidates so that they become, in addition to employees, promoters of their employer brand is one of the goals of the R&S professional. For this, it is vital that you have well-defined candidate nurturing strategies . In this article we will explain the ways how to Nurture talent?
From attracting professionals to open positions to defining who will be hired, it is very important to keep people interested and open to communication with the company.
To understand more about the candidate nutrition process and its importance, follow us in the article.
How to create a recruiting funnel?
Before understanding the best way to nurture candidates during the selection process, you need to be inside the recruitment funnel , know its relevance and how to create it. The term comes from marketing and sales (the famous sales funnel) and follows the same logic.
The recruiting funnel is the set of processes candidates go through while they are applying for the open position. Using the tool brings more visibility and organization of each stage to recruiters and others involved in the process.
You can see data like:
- how many candidates applied for the opportunity;
- how many passed the first test;
- how many attended the interviews;
- how many were selected to talk to the manager;
- how many made it to the last stage.
Each company will be able to extract specific data from its processes, as they vary both from organization to organization and internally, from position to position. The important thing is that the funnel follows the basic steps:
- attraction;
- conversion;
- interview;
- offer;
- hiring.
Following the framework, you and your team design the most appropriate recruiting funnel, with all the necessary details, and begin to understand what strategies work for talent nurturing.
The artifact allows you to look at success metrics, such as percentage of conversion from one phase to another, closing SLA or even between phases and quantity of qualified and unqualified candidates.
The numbers make analysis possible to understand which are the strengths of the conduction of processes and which are the opportunities for improvement.
How candidate nutrition works
We have seen that candidate nurturing is based on the flow of the recruiting funnel. It is from this structure that the HR team, as a representative of the company, establishes a relationship with the candidates who applied for the open position.
Always assume that the candidate doesn’t know anything about your company when he finds an opportunity that he understands to be adherent. In this way, the ad itself should already work as the first step of the funnel’s nutrition: how will the content of the open job lead the professional from the job’s visitor to a candidate, effectively?
Job description is a very strategic step and should be thought out very carefully by the applicant (generally, the leader or manager of the area) and by the recruiter.
After the application has been made, the nutrition of these professionals follows the logic of the sales funnel. Think about content for the top, middle and bottom of the funnel, considering the entire journey of the selection process.
Note that you need to be close to candidates at all stages of the funnel. There is a way to go to attract them to their vacancies, convert them into potential employees, qualify them and bring them into the company.
How important is nutrition to candidates and recruiters?
Building a good relationship between recruiters and candidates is the key to a successful flow of nutrition for both sides. When successful, the flow will benefit everyone involved.
For the candidate, one of his biggest pains is the lack of communication with recruiters. This implies a lack of feedback between one phase of the process and another and non-compliance with agreed deadlines, for example. When there is an open communication channel, issues can be resolved and the candidate experience is much better.
In addition, with the informative emails that are part of the nutrition flow, the professional is much more prepared for interviews and for the job market in general. Armed with information, it will be much easier to prepare for opportunities.
All this makes the candidate feel respected and valued in the journey he goes through in your company, even if he is not yet a collaborator or does not pass the selection process in question.
Their contributions serve very well as a positive reinforcement of the employer brand: those who feel impacted by the exchanges and the information, certainly become promoters of their employer brand – strengthening the company in front of the market.
In addition, by assembling a network of candidates interested in being part of the organization, talent acquisition can be much faster. In addition, you have people who are likely to have a cultural fit with your company, since their interest in being part of the company has already been declared.
In addition to the benefits and importance that candidate nutrition has for the company and processes, you are contributing to the opportunity for people to better position themselves in the job market and get good job chances.
Therefore, always provide good information that is relevant to people’s professional lives.
Tips for nurturing and engaging talent
Now that you are aware of the nutrition of candidates in the selection process, you can start the process in your company.
We set up the step-by-step guide for you to create the nutrition flow that best meets the company’s needs. Check out!
Know Your Audience
The first action for the success of the nutrition flow is to know your audience very well:
- At what point in life are people applying for a particular job?
- What is the most common training among these professionals?
- Are there any characteristics that permeate the group?
Ask the company’s marketing team for help and learn more about who your interlocutor is. Only with this information can you build an effective funnel, with relevant content that makes sense to candidates.
Attracting Candidates For Vacancies
Here, you define how candidates will know about the opening of opportunities: via social networks, via specialized websites or other means of communication.
To do this, you and your team must understand which channels candidates are most active on. This can vary from opportunity to opportunity: the accounting professional may be in different places than the engineering professional, for example.
Remember: each vacancy is a vacancy, so each audience will also be an audience.
Topics Covered At Each Stage Of The Funnel
For each stage of the funnel, take the information that holds the attention of candidates. That way, understand which themes are interesting for each phase.
We have some suggestions for you:
- company guidelines;
- good practices for interviews;
- how to value strengths;
- reasons to join the company.
The themes must be defined taking into account, in addition to the funnel stage, the position to be occupied and the profile of the candidates, as mentioned above.
Golden tip: understand what the company’s fronts are (marketing, sales, technology, finance) and set up a nutrition flow for each one. That way, you will connect much more with professionals.
Frequency Of Communication
It is important to define the frequency that will keep candidates interested, but at the same time not bother them.
See how the open rate of emails is going, who unsubscribed from the list and metrics that point to the satisfaction of professionals.
Tool that will be used for mass communication
Choose a recruitment and selection software that performs well — after all, you will be sending many messages at once — and that allows you to have the complete experience both in communicating with candidates and in managing opportunities.
Vagas For Business, for example, can help your hiring journey, providing agility and efficiency to all stages of the process.
Data Collect
Candidate nurturing is a process that may need some tweaking along the way. To know when it is time to review the strategy, data collection is essential.
By collecting and analyzing the data, you and your team will understand which paths to take, what needs to change, and what needs to stay the same.
Don’t Skimp On Good Content
Anyone looking for a professional replacement or a new opportunity needs to be very well informed to stand out in the job market and in the selection processes.
As a recruiter, you are a subject matter expert and can direct candidates to the most assertive information. Don’t be afraid to deliver quality content in the nutrition stream! The better the content, the more engagement you will get back.
Make A Difference In Candidates’ Lives
Knowing who you are talking to and what topics are of interest to this group, you have a golden opportunity in your hands: making a difference in people’s lives.
Note how a relationship strategy has the power to make a genuine difference in the lives of candidates and how your employer brand can be present at that moment.
