Communicating with your candidates is one of the most important things you can do as a recruiter. While texting is rising in the ranks, email still stands as the most frequently used method of communication between recruiters and candidates. Now more than ever is a crucial time to be fine-tuning your communication methods and make sure you are connecting with potential job seekers in meaningful ways.
The way you conduct yourself at every point of the hiring process can end up coming back to haunt you if handled poorly. You have many opportunities to improve the candidate experience, and there really is no downside in taking them.
Here are some key tips for streamlining email communication and improving your candidate relationships!
Follow-Up
Following up after an interview is often a piece of advice given to job seekers, but it is just as valid for those conducting an interview. Following up not only ties up loose ends for your records, but also plays a huge role in how candidates view you as an employer overall.
A lack of communication during the hiring process is a major frustration for many job seekers. Leaving someone hanging for days or weeks at a time after they have gone through a stressful event won’t reflect well on you as an employer and can hurt your chances of a future relationship with them. If you find yourself at a loss for words, consider using email templates to make your life easier. Even if the message you send is short and to-the-point, some effort to connect is better than none at all.
Make Your Emails Count
On the opposite side of the spectrum, you also want to ensure you aren’t sending too many emails to your candidates. Nobody likes sorting through an inbox full of monotonous or unhelpful information, and multiple threads from the same person can become unnecessarily confusing. If you find yourself emailing the same person multiple times a day or week, stop and think: how can I make this more efficient?
Make sure that each and every piece of communication you send has a purpose, such as requesting a meeting, providing feedback or presenting a call to action. Choose your subject line and body text wisely and always proofread before hitting send to avoid sending correction emails. Remaining professional sounds like a given, but it can always be tweaked to improve your communication with your candidates and a balance must be found between professionalism and sounding like a fellow human.
Mindscope’s Outlook Plugin
As a recruiter, the two most commonly used programs are likely your email account and your applicant tracking system. We understand this, which is why we have made it possible to bring the two together in an extremely productive manner.
Mindscope’s Outlook Integration seamlessly synchronizes all inbound and outbound email communication with your candidates inside your Mindscope database. It will also sync conversations with clients, and store everything in the appropriate contact record. You can also use the integration to parse attachments such as resumes and certifications into the record without even leaving your inbox. Say goodbye to redundant data entry and possible margin of error when transferring files.
Another way that Mindscope helps to boost your efficiency is with our ‘Accept’, ‘Reject’ and ‘User Definable’ buttons. Integrated into your email account, every application you receive to your inbox will prompt these buttons to appear. After viewing their application, you then simply click which direction you would like to go, and a templated email will be sent to the applicant. These buttons will also trigger a custom status change in the database – for example, if you press accept, that candidate can now be automatically moved to the pre-screening phase, or reject can change their status to ‘do not use.’ There now is absolutely no excuse to not communicate with your candidates!
Interested in finding out more about how Mindscope can help you streamline your interaction with candidates? Our Outlook plugin is just one of the great features of our brand new UI/UX. Request a demo to find out more.