You work for a top-flight company, treat your people well and go out of your way to make contractors feel part of the team. But, somehow, it seems like the best talent keeps passing you by for other opportunities. Why aren’t they choosing to work for your company?

It could be you’re not paying enough attention to the candidate’s experience – the feeling prospects develop when they interact with your business. If their emails go unanswered and they feel as if they’ve been forgotten as soon as they leave their interview, chances are the same professionals you’re trying to attract are thinking you view workers as interchangeable parts. The good news is this can be easily addressed. Staying in touch with candidates, and in particular providing them with post-interview communication, goes a long way toward showing you’re not just another employer looking for a body to put in a seat.

The importance of feedback

In particular, honest feedback and communication builds trust with candidates and demonstrates your respect. It says you view them as professionals who deserve professional courtesies. Providing them with information they can use on their next interview – whether it’s with your company or somewhere else – shows you care about how they feel and they are more than a cog in a machine. Candidates tell us time and again they want interview feedback, even when it includes criticism. Sharing details about how they might strengthen the way they answer questions or better dress for their meetings helps them be prepared for future employers. In fact, candidates tell us the only type of bad feedback is no feedback at all.

And, follow-up

We’re not saying you need to spend great amounts of time having postmortems with every person you interview. If you are doing your own search, give the candidate the courtesy of a follow-up email or phone call with a few things that may help them in the future. If using a recruiter, take a few moments to share key comments; it’s part of our job to give our job seekers honest feedback. Don’t let your good-bye handshake be your last interaction with a candidate.

Deciding factors

Of course, contractors base their decisions on bigger things than the follow-up. The compensation you’re offering and the assignment in question are the major factors in play.

But, the candidate’s experience with you and your team will be involved, too. In some cases, it can be a deciding factor when multiple offers are on the table. While a candidate may not be right for this opportunity, he or she might fit neatly into a role that opens up in the future. If that’s the case, it’s a lot easier to successfully recruit a candidate who views their previous encounters with your firm as professional, productive and respectful.

Finally, the feedback you provide helps the recruiters working on your search. Hearing your thoughts on how candidates perform during interviews, how well they might work with your team and whether their experience was the kind you had in mind will assist us in finding you the ideal candidate. Providing post-interview communication only takes a few minutes, but it can make a world of difference in your candidates’ experiences and, in turn, your company’s reputation and ability to attract talent.

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