Candidate engagement is the process of building and maintaining relationships with candidates and applicants throughout their recruitment journey.
From the moment a candidate enters a recruitment brand's orbit through the job application and onto interviewing and beyond. It's a strategic blend of communication, user experience design and personalization to ensure candidates are informed and motivated to engage with a given company or staffing agency.
The entire mechanism is to improve the candidate experience in order to increase the likelihood of a conversion - everything from applying to a job, interviewing or accepting an offer.
Why candidate engagement matters
Engaged candidates are more likely to continue through the recruiting process and less likely to ghost you.
Let's look at a parallel from a non-recruiting workflow.
When you order food from DoorDash, you're greeted with a text message that your order was received, a link to see where your Dasher is in the process and more texts when you food is close and then delivered.
It's an extraordinarily high-touch process that keeps a consumer informed throughout the entire ordering lifecycle.
Now, pretend this is a hiring flow.
- Someone applies to a job -> they receive confirmation and next steps
- Someone is selected for an interview -> they receive email/text about time, place and what to expect
- Some is hired -> they receive email about the first day, how to park etc...
- Someone isn't selected for a role -> they receive a reason vs. going into the black hole
- Past applicants -> they continually receive email/texts from company when jobs match their skills
Communicating throughout the process (and after) improves the experience while improving the employer brand.
Over communication leads to better response rates for interviews, first-day show-up and job alerts.
Also, solid candidate engagement leads to less time and less costs to hire. Essentially using engagement as a way to build talent pools that become great sources for applicants and hires.
In short, candidate engagement matters because:
- Keeps candidates in the funnel
- Strengthens reputation
- Boosts offer acceptance
- Reduces wasted time and costs
- Gives company competitive edge
And for staffing agencies, engaging post-hire leads to higher redeployment and candidate loyalty between contracts.