Want to be successful in your recruitment? Personal touches will help

Personal touches build relationships, especially when hiring

Since COVID19 opened the door to online everything, many businesses are still grappling with online recruitment experiences and working out the best way to attract the best hires to their business. The lack of face to face meeting means that the experience has become less personal for some, particularly if you are recruiting for fully remote roles or choose to carry out your recruitment remotely for the initial stages. Due to this lack of personal time, touch and engagement, candidates (and hiring teams) are finding it more challenging to build a rapport.

If you don’t quite get your tech right, have disruptions during your video call with your prospective employees or move the meeting around umpteen times, you could be creating a negative impression for your candidates. Here were cover off ways why the personal touch is so important in the recruitment process and ways in which you can bring that experience to your shortlisted candidates. Don’t forget, or take too long to respond, your candidates will be gone and if they feel like they have had a poor experience they may share this with friends, family or Glassdoor interview review.

If your working practises are face to face then try and involve a face to face meeting

Even if this is over coffee - give your candidates the ability to meet some of the potential team members and their line manager. We’re humans and are driven by connection, if your future employee will be office based, then give them the opportunity to meet the team. Allow your candidates the opportunity to spend some time either on or off site with their prospective team. Give them the opportunity to see what the office is like and enable them to see what the wider team dynamic is about.

Alternatives to face to face meetings, get in front of the camera

If you are a global business and your teams are spread out or you are a remote mostly business why not try creating a video to introduce the team. You can ask your team members to record a very short intro about them, what they typically do and tell the viewer something about themselves. It is a great way to introduce some of the team members and shows that you are interested in sharing the experience with your prospective hires. The great thing about a video is that you don’t all have to be in the same place - and you can quickly pull together something short and fun that introduces any of your future colleagues to the business and their future team. This will also work for those people who don’t want to meet face to face and can be offered as an alternative to the point above even if they are going to be office based.

Lunch and learn to help sell in your team

Whilst meeting face to face may not be possible for one reason or another, you should still be interested in selling the business to your prospective candidates. Remember that recruitment is very much a two way process and even more so these days when candidates have a lot of choice available to them. Don't fall into the trap of making the recruitment process endless, but do think about how you can involve team members in the recruitment process and enable your candidates to meet some of the team. If it is feasible to invite them into the recruitment process then do so. You might be able to do this through a lunch and learn session. Make it informal and get your candidates to join your team for a virtual lunch session. Give them the opportunity to ask questions of the current team and see what the dynamic is like for themselves.

Personal touches helps build interest in your brand

If they are progressing through the recruitment process and you are down to your final candidates, why not try something different for their last recruitment interview with you? Send them a virtual gift card to gift them a drink of their choice to bring along to the meeting. First impressions count, you’ll be making the session memorable and be generating more interest in your business. If you want to stand out in the competitive marketplace and you are recruiting direct, you want to be creative with your approach to recruitment. Candidates want it all at the moment and due to the level of demand in the marketplace, they are willing to wait. They will go to the business that gives them the best opportunity, package and future prospects.

Auxeris makes the difference in recruiting talent

If you are looking to partner with a recruiter, take a look at Auxeris. Not only do we charge a low fee of 15%, our specialist recruiters are seasoned professionals in recruitment. They are experienced at finding and attracting the best matched candidates to your open roles. Thanks to their experience and great relationship building, they forge strong relationships with candidates. Find out more here.