Looking After your Job Applicants During the Hiring Phase
The interview process can be overwhelming for job applicants, especially in a highly competitive job market. As a business owner, HR consultant, hiring manager or other, it’s essential to provide support and guidance to job applicants to help them feel comfortable and confident throughout the process.
In this blog post, we will be discussing a number of features for a typical interview process and explaining a number of tips that will help you support your interview applicants, including:
• Role Objectives
• Marketing
• Compensation
• Advertising
• Processes
• Interview format
• Comfort
• Culture
By following these 8 steps in efficient people management, you can create a smooth and supportive interview process that boosts the confidence of your applicants and helps you find the most suitable new hire for your company.
Orderly Objectives
To support your applicants from the start of their application process, it is important to clearly and concisely highlight the requirements of the role you are hiring for.
Several questions you should answer when writing the job description might be: what are the core duties, what are the requirements of the role, where does the role sit within the organisation, and who will be their main point of contact and collaboration.
If you can’t accurately describe the requirements of the role, how can you expect applicants to feel empowered and enthusiastic during the process?
With clear job objectives, applicants can get a better understanding of the role they are applying for including the responsibilities, requirements, and expectations, and you will be more likely to receive applicants with the necessary experience required.
Clarity can empower your applicants to feel more confident during the interview and with a clear understanding, applicants can practise tailored responses to the requirements listed to properly highlight their relevant skills and experiences.
Mindful Marketing
An important factor to consider in the recruitment process is where you decide to advertise the role: consider the type of people who are likely to want this type and level of employment and choose the most appropriate advertising channel with them in mind.
You may wish to select a marketing channel, such as an online jobs board, that promotes the role to a large number of potential applications to increase your chances of finding the perfect applicant.
However, it is important to consider that the greater number of applicants you receive, the harder it will be to support and maintain contact with each individual interviewee.
By positioning your role in the right places, you can reach the right audience and ensure that the job posting is seen by people who are both interested and qualified.
Competitive Compensation
When creating the job description for your new hire prior to the interview process, make sure the compensation is both researched and competitive to entice the best applicants.
Benchmark your proposed salary for the role to see where you are against competitors.
Importantly, if you can’t afford to match competitor salaries, think about what else you could offer employees to increase their benefit package. This could encompass staff discounts, healthcare, sick pay, hybrid working, flexi hours, discounted gym memberships etc.
If finances are tight, consider finding more budget-friendly rewards for your employees and interview applicants.
Ambitious Advertising
Creating an eye-catching and exciting job advert will attract similarly excited applicants, who will be motivated to put substantial effort into their applications and interviews.
If you want to best support your job applicants and help them be excited about the interview process, make sure that you stand out from the crowd.
To attract the best applicants, create a clear advert that provides a high-level overview of the role, clearly outlines the reward package for the role and provides a synopsis of your company culture– make yourself stand out from the other companies.
Purposeful Processes
To ensure a seamless application, interview and onboarding process, it is essential that all parties involved are aware of the processes necessary for a successful hire.
Internally, set out a clear recruitment process for any role you are recruiting for and make sure that this includes how and when you will communicate with any prospective candidates – a poor recruitment process is likely to put any prospective candidates off before they have even started with you.
Make sure that all candidates are aware of the processes involved, and provide them with regular updates as often as is necessary to maintain their awareness of their application.
Intelligent Interviewing
To support your candidates and find the most suitable hire for your role, make sure to consider the interview questions, how they relate to the role and how responses will be recorded and measured.
Make sure you set out your interview questions before the interview and identify how you will assess candidates’ answers effectively. It is always key to take notes or use a scoring crib sheet during the interview process as this will allow you to easily compare candidates’ performance in the interview.
Candidates who are asked well-considered questions and who’s answers are noted and respected, are likely to feel much more comfortable and valued during the interview and subsequent decision making process.
Warm Welcome
Always make candidates feel as welcome and at ease as possible during any recruitment assessment as no one performs well if they feel uncomfortable, but also, we want to try and assess people when they are at their best. Any recruitment assessment is stressful enough as it is, so we don’t want to add to that!
Whilst the interview panel should include the hiring manager and the person who will be in direct contact with the new employee, you should also consider the presence of an experience people manager or human resource consultant to facilitate a positive interview environment and ensure due diligence.
Culture Conservation
Remember when you are interviewing, although the skills that someone possesses may be important for the role, the attitude of the candidate is even more important – it is far easier to upskill someone than it is to change someone’s attitude.
Take note of their personal interests and hobbies, attitudes, willingness to engage with the interviewers and questions, and make sure to include questions that discover how they approach their work and different situations, personal and professional goals, and what they want out of the role.
After all, the interviewees who stand out will likely be those that develop a rapport with the interview panel, and this is more likely to come out when cultures and attitudes are aligned.
Conclusion
To recap, there are a number of steps you can take to make your interview applicants feel supported during the hiring process.
A number of these recommendations will also allow your company and the hiring team to be clear about the role, what the successful candidate will look like, and how they will fit into your team.
Ensuring that you make the necessary efforts and arrangements to best support your job applicants will lead to greater quality and quantity of applicants, who will feel motivated and supported to be at their best during the interview process.
This will allow you to more effectively hire high-quality employees that are well-suited to the role and your company ethos.
For any advice or aid in supporting your job applicants through the hiring process, get in touch with the human resource consultants at Aible HR Services
