4 compelling reasons to follow up with candidates
Many of us have personally experienced hearing nothing back from an employer following a job interview. Can you remember how it made you feel, after you put all that time and effort into interview prep, making sure you came off in the best possible light?
You don’t have to have been in this situation to know that no follow-up can be a real hit on a candidate’s confidence and self-worth. It’s not a good reflection on your college, either.
So, inspired by a Glassdoor blog, here are four compelling reasons why you should always follow up with candidates.
- It closes the loop
Glassdoor’s policy is a good one to follow: ‘be fully transparent and alert candidates of our decision as soon as humanly possible.’ Uncertainty can feel like the worst feeling in the world when you’re applying for jobs, so, give candidates closure as soon as a decision is made.
Contacting unsuccessful candidates promptly means that they can get on with their job search. And it shows that your college is a good communicator; this alone may inspire those candidates to apply for other, more suitable vacancies when they arise in the future.
- It’s the right thing to do
The bottom line is, following up with candidates is the right thing to do – it’s respectful. It’s fair to assume that each candidate would have spent a good couple of hours (often more) fine-tuning their CV and cover letter, maybe even researching common interview questions and rehearsing what their answers would be.
A personalised response to each candidate, where you constructively inform them why they weren’t hired, is always the best follow-up method. But if you simply can’t manage that, they should at least get an automated response.
- It speaks volumes about your college
Competition for top teaching talent is so fierce these days, you need to portray your college in the very best light in order to appeal to super-skilled candidates.
Following up with interviewees shows that you’re a ‘college that cares,’ and contributes to creating a positive candidate experience. Candidates who feel like they’ve been treated fairly by you, despite being unsuccessful, are likely to spread the word about their experience, and feel inspired to apply again in the future. All this helps to build a positive employer brand – something that may very well inspire talented candidates to take a job with you over another college.
As well as following up with candidates, other ways you can build a positive candidate experience include: having interview questions prepared and being on time, tailoring your questions to each candidate (i.e. personalising each interview), reviewing every CV beforehand, and providing personal touches like food and drink.
Remember: you need to focus on building a good candidate experience throughout the entire recruitment process, not just during the interview.
- Candidates talk!
The flipside to all of this is that peeved candidates are very quick to voice their opinions – much faster than satisfied candidates, unfortunately! Even one negative review of your college and its recruitment processes can tarnish your reputation, possibly discouraging talented candidates from applying.
Improving the candidate experience with FEjobs
FEjobs can help you to further boost the candidate experience with our innovative applicant tracking software (ATS). Expertly created to save colleges time and money, our ATS is the most advanced recruitment technology in the education sector, and is available with the FEjobs Premium licence.
Candidate review is just one of its features, enabling college recruiters to create rich candidate profiles, review candidates against a range of qualities with ease, integrate all of your candidate communications and more.
FEjobs can help you to streamline and transform your recruitment process and attract top talent to apply for roles at your college. Get in touch today to find out more!