The recruitment process – when it comes to hiring, there seems to currently be a disconnect in the market with regards to expectations on timescales. It’s a candidate driven market and the power is in their hands. Are you losing out on securing strong candidates?

With the skills shortage still having a big impact on engineering and technical roles, how do you make sure that you can still secure the best candidates?

But it’s not just securing the best candidate, it’s also the reputation of your company. Even if a candidate isn’t successful in securing a role with you, if they had a positive experience, they may share this with their friends. You never know, they could have people in their network who could be your next perfect hire.

So, if you’re looking to secure the best technical talent, this blog is for you.

Candidate expectations of your recruitment process

Candidates expect the process of securing a job to be quick. Especially now. With over 675,000 vacancies currently in the UK, the competition for talent is back on!

Research suggests that a high percentage of candidates expect an initial response to an application within 2 days at maximum. They expect to attend interview within a week, followed by same day feedback from interviews attended. Without keeping communication consistent, engagement will reduce. And this can decrease the likelihood of top engineering talent accepting a job offer with you. It can even influence candidate’s perception and likelihood of future applications.

Keep this in mind when you’re moving top talent through the hiring process.

Top 3 reasons why you should consider candidate expectations when hiring

• Candidates are in demand: With a high skills shortage in the market, companies are left fighting over the best candidates. Without an efficient hiring process, candidates will disengage. Something so simple as getting back to candidates quickly can mean the difference between securing your perfect candidate or losing them to your competition.

• Candidates have multiple opportunities available to them: More than likely, talented, highly experienced engineering and technical candidates will be arranging 3-4 interviews a week. With remote working and video interviews, candidates are able to ‘attend’ multiple interviews a day.  Therefore, if your hiring process is slow, there are plenty of other options available to attract them.

• Candidates with low engagement may engage with your competitors: There’s nothing worse than witnessing top talent involved in your hiring process accepting a role with your competitors. If your hiring process is unnecessarily lengthy, overcomplicated or disengaging, candidates will go elsewhere, regardless how great your opportunity it.

We can help you to secure the best candidates

Here’s our tips for a successful recruitment process –

• Aim where possible to provide CV feedback within 24 hours. If you’re not, then your competitors will be!
• Communicate timescales to your recruiter. This helps us to manage the expectations of candidates to keep them engaged
• Conduct interviews within 3 working days of CV feedback and give interview feedback within 24 hours
• When making an offer, ensure that you get a contract or offer letter to us on the day of verbal acceptance. This will help prevent someone accepting another offer, even after giving verbal acceptance
• Delays should be avoided as much as possible. But if a delay is unavoidable, let us know and we will do the rest.

And our final tip – bear in mind that websites like Glassdoor are an open review platform where not only employees but also candidates who have experienced your recruitment process can leave a review. Protect your brand.

If you are looking to fill an engineering or technical job and require support to ensure that you can find, and secure the best candidates, contact our team today.