Just like good job candidates have to put their best face forward when going in for a job interview, those employers who are looking to fill job positions with good candidates must do the same when the HR department contacts a prospective candidate in 2019 about a job. Whether you are cold-calling in hopes of getting someone who isn’t actively seeking a position or you are making calls to potentials you have had interactions with before, proper communication is a must during the employer-to-candidate contact portion of the recruiting process. Take a look at a few important rules to follow in 2019 when reaching out to prospective job candidates by phone, email, or text.
If you truly want to grab a candidate’s attention during communication efforts, you should make the communication more personal by getting to know the person who is being contacted on a deeper level. Check out whatever information you have on the candidate, and review it in-depth. If you must, head to LinkedIn to take a peek at the person’s prior work history, professional connections, and their listed qualifications. This process will be important when you reach out to a candidate in 2019 because most good candidates will have multiple clients vying for their commitment to a company and they will not want their time wasted with a generic communicative interaction. You should:
According to Marketing Sherpa, the average email gets only about 15 to 20 seconds of a reader’s attention. A text message from someone unfamiliar may get even less of a candidate’s time if you do not get to the point. Therefore, you need to make it known who you are, why you are reaching out, and what you have to offer within the first few lines of text. If you are recruiting a candidate by phone in 2019, you will have to do the same.
In 2019 when people are so busy, you must be direct, and you must let people know clearly what they need to do if they are interested in a job with your company. So make sure you incorporate a call-to-action, which is basically an instruction to do something, at the end of any form of communication. A call to action can be something as simple as:
For a busy job candidate, it can take time for them to reply to an SMS text, email, or phone call, so do give them a reasonable time frame to reply before moving on to someone else. However, do not be afraid to follow-up initial contacts with reminder messages just in case. It is entirely possible for initial communications to be missed or forgotten.
Even though there are no real written rules for communicating with the modern candidate in 2019, how your HR department communicates with a prospect can make all the difference in the effectiveness of an onboarding plan. Utilize these tips during communications with candidates and you could land that perfect candidate much faster.