Why can’t you get candidates to engage or why are they falling out in the process? Today, I’m going to teach you a simple and surefire way to increase candidate engagement. Whether you are using job postings, email messaging, LinkedIn or InMail messaging, text, or cold calling, your message should always differentiate your company as an employer from your competition. A high conversion message is the second crucial element to our three-part Talent Capture Blueprint. If you do not have a compelling story or message, at best you will likely only attract candidates that are unemployed and/or desperate. You must differentiate your company or the employment opportunity from your competitors if you want to attract or onboard exceptional talent. Quite simply, when a candidate opens the refrigerator door and there are two colas on the shelf; a Coca-Cola and a Great Value Cola, the candidate is reaching for the Coca-Cola.
Just trying to buy talent is a poor strategy as well. Not only is it costing you more money, but it opens the door to counter offers. If a candidate is a top contributor in the company, they are very likely to get a counter offer. Candidates are more likely to stay with the flawed company they know than deal with the hassles of changing employment to a company that they don’t, unless given compelling reasons to do so.
You have to sell yourself, the company and the opportunity every chance you get. Don’t kid yourself by thinking that you are special or different by offering:
- Great Pay
- Good Benefits
- Matching 401k
- Our company has a great reputation
- A Family Oriented Company
Candidates have heard these things over and over again. They are numb to it.
In my nearly 20 years of working in the heavy civil construction sector I find that over 90% of the companies that we work with struggle to communicate a message that converts passive candidates and gets them to engaged and on-boarded successfully.
What does this mean for you?
It means that if you can define a unique and attractive culture and effectively communicate that through Employer Branding and meaningful Employment Value Propositions you have positioned yourself to capture the top 10% of the candidates in the market place.
Having defined culture will usually benefit the existing employees as well and raises morale. It is a win-win-win situation but it does require some time, dedication, and consistency.
We can consult with you on your Employer Branding and Employment Value Propositions. We have nearly 20 years of experience in crafting messages that have a high conversion rate and get passive candidates engaged. In the next video we cover the third Pillar of the Talent Capture Blueprint, Volume and Consistent Contact.
