As an employer, there’s nothing more exciting than finding the perfect candidate for your job openings. There’s also nothing worse than losing that potential talent to your competition.
You’ve narrowed down your talent pool and you’re confident that the top-level candidate is going to accept. The offer comes out and it’s the exact amount of money they’ve mentioned throughout the process with a great bonus structure.
They send you a rejection letter. Why would they turn it down?
Here are 4 reasons why you’re not landing the best candidates.
Your company doesn’t offer flexible work options
Almost as important to some employees as salary, flexible working conditions rank at the top of many job seekers’ must-have list here in 2018. According to writer, Jennifer Parris at flexjobs.com “If your company doesn’t already have a flexible work policy in place, well, what are you waiting for? Chances are, some of your competitors might be flaunting their flex in job listings—and eager job candidates wanting work-life balance might choose their organization over yours.”
This practice makes a lot of sense, especially with the way technology is moving at such a rapid pace. Most companies, spotlight on sales roles, should have an opportunity to flex and work from home or remote.
With this incentive, you’re much more likely to land that candidate!
Your company culture is weak sauce
Jennifer writes, “Much of today’s workforce isn’t just looking for a paycheck when it comes to their jobs—they’re looking for a purpose, too. That comes in the form of your company culture. It means that employees understand how integral the work that they do is not only to the company, but in a bigger-picture sense of the world at large. They want to feel connected to their coworkers (even if they work remotely), and feel as if management cares about them beyond their productivity.”
Take time during your interviews to allow the candidate a “shadow” opportunity or a ride-along, let them get a feel for the company, the people, and the culture. My suggestion would be to sit them down with multiple tenured employees. Typically these folks will tell a great story and be a cheerleader for your company.
Your company doesn’t offer good benefits
When companies need to save money on expenses, they’ll turn to benefits packages first. Wrong! “Bad benefits can detract top job candidates from even applying for positions, and it might cause you to lose your current talent to the competition as well”. It’s well known that employees want good medical and dental benefits, along with vacation time, raises, and 401K options. Be sure to list these in the job description, as they could entice top talent to submit their job applications.
Your company has a bad reputation
Let me start by saying that just because there are a few bad reviews on a company’s Yelp, Google, or Glassdoor page, doesn’t make them a bad company. We’ve all see a bad pizza review, but that doesn’t make pizza bad. Same for companies. “A job seeker who is potentially interested in working for your company might do a little pre-job interview online investigative digging” Says Jennifer at flexjobs.com. Do you know what they’ll find?
Your company should have an online presence that you actually care about! This will ensure that candidates only find only positive reviews. While you can’t control what people say, you can control the experience and interaction they have with your organization, from applying and working for your company.
Reputations start with a frustrated soul. You and your employees have the opportunity to change the course of that ship before it’s too late. Start by following up with candidates in your interview process, even if you don’t have any new info. It’s a very social world out there, word of mouth is not the worst of it any more. There are, what I like to call, Vent Apps, where you can get online and blast employers. Don’t be one of them!
Bonus tip
Use Crawford Thomas Recruiting and allow us to help land the best candidates on the market! We’re pretty darn good at it too.
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