Every professional recruiter knows this to be true: great candidate experience is critical for success. A negative one, well, is just bad for business. When it comes to improving the quality of the candidate experience you deliver, recruiter responsiveness plays a huge role. And the experience of your candidates can greatly impact your recruitment performance. In fact, 56% of candidates are most likely to consider re-applying to a company if they had a good candidate experience, and 37% of them would even make referrals.
Looking at those numbers, you would think that recruiters would be fool-proofing their recruitment strategies to minimize bad encounters, especially considering that referrals drive higher return-on-investment and lower recruitment costs. Yet, surprisingly, one of the most common factors contributing to a negative experience is recruiter unresponsiveness — the most basic form of courtesy in communication.
A report shows that 75% of candidates are frustrated that they never hear back from recruiters after sending their applications. Another 60% say they never hear back after the interview. The shortage of communication, or absence thereof, can negatively affect your recruitment branding. When your applicants don’t hear back from you, it makes them feel ignored and unvalued. Not only do you lose the opportunity to build a strong relationship with them, but your candidate engagement plummets along with your talent pipeline. Your candidate experience misses the mark, and your reputation suffers. All because you didn’t make that one call or message and left your applicants in the dark.
Responding to candidates is as important as any other element of the hiring process. If anything, it plays a vital role in shaping candidates’ perception of your recruitment brand because it reflects the human side of your recruitment service. Although the concept of time and communication may seem abstract compared to the nitty-gritty elements of your hiring process, it has substantial impacts on your recruitment brand value. This is why we listed three data-driven reasons why you should be more proactive in responding to applicants to build a positive candidate experience.
Meet candidate expectations and stay competitive in a candidate-driven market.
Reports show that recruiter responsiveness was ranked as the most crucial factor in candidate experience by 30% of job seekers back in 2020. In the same year, 63% of applicants reported inadequate communication during the hiring process as a primary source of frustration. This results in 51% of applicants ghost recruiters when they fail to schedule or give an update for an interview within a week.
If there’s anything these numbers are telling us, it’s this: recruiters should follow up with candidates. The delay or absence of responsiveness has a direct impact on your ability to secure the best talents. And considering that voluntary turnovers are continuing to increase year on year, this means that candidates have the liberty to pick whom they want to work for and are actively taking advantage of that control.
Candidates want to be treated less like transactions and more like people. Therefore, they expect a fast, efficient recruitment process led by responsive recruiters who communicate clearly and regularly. If you want to get ahead of the game, don’t wait three weeks to let them know they aren’t qualified for the job. Instead, take their call or send the email as soon as you can to show that you respect and appreciate the time they put into the application. As you do this, you already gain an edge against your competition.
Build a positive candidate experience and impact job acceptance rates.
Did you know that poor recruiter responsiveness can make you lose top talent and decrease your acceptance rates? So much so that survey shows 50% of applicants have rejected job offers because they had a poor candidate experience. Considering that you most likely want to make an offer only to the best talents, that’s already half of your prime talent pipeline gone in the wind.
Recruiter responsiveness is not a one-time thing; it’s a continuous and conscious effort in all the stages of the candidate journey. From the moment they apply to the point you present your evaluation, how you communicate can influence their decision to work with you. So, go the extra mile with every touchpoint and elevate your communication practices to serve your candidates better.
As we navigate a more competitive and candidate-centered talent market, it pays to treat every candidate’s experience with utmost importance. The effort you put in today can yield a high return on investment tomorrow.
Connect with candidates emotionally and encourage brand loyalty even if they don’t get hired.
When it comes to recruiter responsiveness, the how is just as important as the when. This is especially true for candidates that you end up rejecting, with reports indicating that the candidate experience you deliver improves by 29% when you reject applicants by phone call instead of via email or text message. It only shows how making that one small effort can possibly turn painful rejections into lasting relationships. After all, rejected talents are still potential candidates for future openings, so it’s important to keep in mind that how you reject your applicant matters.
One trick that you can use to improve the quality of your post-interview evaluations is to personalize your message. Review the applicant’s profile and take note of the positive details from your interaction with them, whether it’s big or small. You can highlight their strengths and also give constructive feedback to equip them better for future applications. As you do this, you build a genuine connection with your talents and inevitably make your recruitment brand stand out.
Add value to your recruitment brand with exemplary candidate experience.
Great Recruiters knows that it’s the little human touches that make the biggest difference in candidate experience, and recruiter responsiveness plays a vital role in making this happen. That’s why we have made it our mission to make a highly transactional business personalized and humanized through experience management.
Through our platform, your candidates can leave their reviews during specific touchpoints in their candidate journey so you can consistently measure the quality of candidate experience that you deliver. You can stay on top of your recruitment process with real-time data that reflects your actual recruiter performance and candidate satisfaction—including their opinion in your response time.
Request a demo today to find out how to optimize your recruitment process to set your brand apart and better win candidates.
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