In times of dynamic competition in the labor market – especially in the case of the most specialized industries (high-tech, IT or telecom) – you can’t expect people with outstanding skills to be interested in your job offer. However, it is necessary not only to actively search for talent (called sourcing in recruitment), but also to maintain relationships with candidates, which we refer to as candidate nurturing. Below we will explain what the process is about and point out the most popular and effective methods of nurturing potential employees in the right way. Read on.

Candidate nurturing – table of contents:

  1. What is candidate nurturing?
  2. When to nurture candidates?
  3. How to nurture candidates?
  4. Summary

What is candidate nurturing?

It can be stated that recruiters are drawing on best marketing practices. After all, candidate nurturing is all about maintaining the engagement of a person who we have contacted to talk about a job offer and who has not expressed interest or has been rejected by us at the final stage of the recruitment process, but may be interested in our offer in the future. Marketing professionals carry out similar activities in the case of customers who have not bought the offered products at a particular moment, but are open to doing so in the future. To ensure that customers do not lose their interest, it is necessary to take care of them in the right way.

candidate nurturing

When to nurture candidates?

It should be strongly emphasized that you can nurture candidates at any time. However, if you know that in the near future it will be necessary to start recruiting for a given position, you can establish a relationship with a potential candidate from a previously created contact base – then the recruitment process will certainly go faster and with less effort. Thus, it can be said that from a marketing point of view, nurturing is a way to advertise a product (in this case, a company) to a customer (a potential employee).

candidate nurturing

How to nurture candidates?

The actions you decide to take depend, of course, on the individual situation (e.g., whether a person already wanted to join the company, but was rejected, whether they show little interest in a particular job offer, whether they have considered changing jobs, etc.). However, we can identify a few basic practices for nurturing candidates. We’ve listed them below.

Keep in touch

Everyone likes to be treated individually – especially when they notice that you remember what their professional interests, development needs or even hobbies are. By reaching out to a person from time to time with a training proposal, a question whether they will be attending a trade fair or even birthday wishes, you can build a relationship with them and keep their interest in your company and a possible future job offer.

Build a successful employer branding strategy in social media

It’s a good idea to encourage potential candidates to observe your company’s social media profiles and make sure to regularly share content on them that can build a positive image of the company. Showcasing your company’s culture, available benefits, possible collaborators, ongoing projects, and company values (along with regularly publishing job postings and updates related to daily life at the company) can help maintain the candidate’s interest. The more they know about the company, the easier it will be for them – when such an opportunity appears – to decide to take part in the recruitment process.

Build a community on Facebook or Discord

What benefits will you get from creating a community? By providing a space to share your thoughts and experiences, as well as coordinating the content that appears in the group, you will definitely show that you care about the needs of professionals from the industry you are interested in.

In the group, you can share content related to numerous topics – trends in the job market, expectations from job candidates, building a resume that is attractive to a recruiter, changes in the industry and much more. In this way, you maintain engagement and also build a positive image of the company as a workplace interested in employees. You can also use such a group, for example, to offer and conduct training courses to show that you support employee development.

Send out a newsletter regularly

The newsletter is another form through which you can stay in touch with potential candidates, providing them with access to interesting content in line with their short-term and long-term goals. By preparing relevant content (e.g. on professional development in your industry), you will show that you are trying to support them, which will certainly be positively received by subscribers – especially since newsletters don’t require the other party to interact (as opposed to being part of a community group). Sending it regularly, in turn, will give you the image of a serious company, which could be a good next step in their career.

Summary

The fact that a given person rejected your job offer does not mean that they won’t be interested in being recruited in the future, for example, when a managerial position becomes vacant, a new department opens that will be built from scratch or the working conditions that the company offers change. Just as the situation in the company changes, so do the specialists’ abilities, competencies, needs or expectations. Therefore, it’s important to implement appropriate candidate nurturing practices to build a relationship with the potential talent base (and thus positive employer branding) and ensure the candidates’ interest in vacant positions at the company.

Read also: 4 essential benefits of collaborative hiring

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Author: Nicole Mankin

HR manager with an excellent ability to build a positive atmosphere and create a valuable environment for employees. She loves to see the potential of talented people and mobilize them to develop.