Companies can’t afford to send cold emails saying “Dear Candidate, We have an opening for…” anymore and hope to attract talented candidates. Let’s admit it, the job market is changing – candidates have more choice than ever and that means more power. If you wish to attract top quality candidates, you need to offer a standout experience, right from the word go.

Read on to find out a few ways to personalize the candidate experience:

Personalize your communications

According to Experian, the click rates for personalized emails are 41 percent higher than that of non-personalized emails.

This is why personalizing your communications is critical. It makes it more relatable, targeted and engaging. The key here is to segment your talent pool based on various factors like qualifications, experience, skills, location, etc. Then, ensure that your content is tweaked accordingly.

End result: You will be able to build better candidate relationships.

Build trust

Without gaining their trust, offering a personalized experience is almost impossible. So, here are few ways to build trust with your candidates:

• Be honest with them about the profile, growth opportunities etc.
• Ensure that your website’s career section is up-to-date, easy-to-use and has ample information.
• Ensure that the hiring process is transparent.

By focusing on building trust, you will make it easier for candidates to open up. You will be able to understand them in a better manner and deliver a remarkable candidate experience.

Let the candidates meet their future peers

This is probably the best way to build a personal connection with the candidate – give them a glimpse of what it would be like to work at your organization. Invite them over for lunch, let their potential teammates interact with them. This kind of a session will help the candidate get a clearer picture of their role and know whether they can fit into the team.

Give candidates choices

One of the key motives behind personalization is to make the candidate feel valued. That’s why it is so important to give them the freedom to make choices.

Here are a few ways to do it:

• Allow candidates to upload files in formats convenient to them.
• Give candidates the option to save progress while completing the application process.
• Be flexible with interview slots.
• Be flexible with communication channels.

Giving candidates the freedom to make these choices will help avoid friction and allow them to tweak the process to suit their convenience.

Timely communication

Delay in communication can hurt your candidate experience – not only is it frustrating, but it can severely affect your brand’s credibility. We need to always keep in mind that top quality candidates are highly sought after. If you don’t reply to their queries or intimate them on time – they will end up with your competitors.

With the number of recruitment and communication tools available in the market, keeping your candidates informed and up-to-date about the status of their candidacy is not tough a task. For example, if you are using email to manage your recruitment, you can use email reminders to ensure that you don’t miss out on queries or replies by candidates.

Wrapping up

Candidates of today expect a similar treatment to that of customers, and that’s why offering a personalized experience has become so important.

It doesn’t matter if they join our organization or not; by providing an enriching experience, we will surely improve our credibility, retention numbers and spread positive word of mouth.