Understand why your talent acquisition team also needs to care for people who do not progress through selection.
When discussing employer branding, we think about attracting the right talent and providing a positive working experience so employees keep choosing the company as a good place to work.
But candidates who are not hired often feel left in limbo. Few employer brands recognize their value and give them feedback about the selection process or future opportunities.
In the daily rush, these people rarely become a priority. That is a major mistake for companies seeking strong employer brands. The turning point in your employer branding strategy may be right here.
Why invest in candidates who were not selected?
A professional’s experience matters in difficult moments too
Throughout the relationship with candidates, including when rejecting them, the experience must be consistent with your company’s cultural behaviors and EVP pillars.
According to recruitment software company CareerArc, 60% of candidates report poor recruitment experiences, and 72% tell others about those experiences.
Word of mouth is worth more than any advertisement
Bad news travels fast, but good news does too. Nielsen studies show that recommendations from friends and family are the most trusted form of advertising across generations.
How many thousands, or even millions, of potential recommendations is your employer brand missing?
When dozens or hundreds of candidates receive no response about a vacancy, or the feedback is unclear, that lack of transparent communication harms the company itself.
Talent and customers are the same people
Positive or negative candidate experiences affect both the employer brand and the commercial brand.
If you are disappointed by your treatment during recruitment, you are likely to reconsider your relationship with the commercial brand. Even without a job offer, an excellent experience makes it far more likely that you will remain or become a customer.
That is a strong reason to bring employer branding and marketing closer together.
Not this time, but perhaps next time
Sometimes recruitment ends with more than one ideal candidate for a vacancy. Or you meet the right person before the right role exists.
You may need to reject a candidate, but should keep the door open. The task is to keep the company memorable and desirable to that talent. The right match may come later.
How to invest in these relationships: inbound recruiting
Inbound recruiting is a long-term relationship strategy designed to attract the right people to the right jobs through personalized, frequent and automated conversations. It is part of talent acquisition.
Familiar email marketing can work particularly well here. A notable Brazilian example is Grupo Boticário, which increased organic job applications by 136% after introducing inbound recruiting with personalized email communications.
The process includes these stages:
Segment talent by location, roles of interest, experience and skills
To maintain a relationship, you need to know the person. At the scale of millions of people, this process needs automation.
Start by investing in an appropriate tool to manage and communicate with talent using inbound recruiting. Integrating it with your applicant tracking system (ATS) makes the work easier.
Segment unsuccessful candidates by the reason they were not hired
Common reasons include:
- Insufficient experience or seniority.
- Another candidate was selected.
- The vacancy was put on hold.
- Cultural fit.
Maintain the employer brand’s relationship with this talent
Each segment merits its own relationship journey. A common question is whether to maintain contact with someone whose cultural fit was not right.
This is not the highest priority among employer branding or inbound recruiting efforts. Still, consider how to end the relationship positively so the person can speak well of the company, buy its products or services, advocate for it and recommend it to friends.
The key is transparency and, where possible, offering something useful for their job search: an online course, dedicated content or an exclusive video from recruitment or the relevant team. There are many possibilities.
For other reasons for rejection, the person may still become an employee. Maintaining contact helps create a positive experience. You want candidates to speak well of the brand and become customers, and a suitable vacancy may appear soon.
Plan personalized content for this talent
Develop content about organizational values, the working experience and departments’ technical challenges, and share it in a personalized way.
Build and reinforce the connection, keeping people engaged with the brand. When a vacancy appears, the right people will already be in your network. This can reduce hiring costs and time while bringing in people who are more engaged and familiar with the business.
Remember: rejection in recruitment need not end the relationship. Do not break the connection with someone who entrusted a possible career move to your company.
Whether for reputation, marketing or better future hiring, leaving talent forgotten in endless ATS lists without communicating is a mistake your employer brand cannot afford.
Meet Smart
Smart helps companies design effective employer branding strategies by mapping the employee journey, structuring an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) suited to business needs and developing the employer brand narrative.
We also apply our proprietary EVP Research & Design methodology and support changes relating to the desired organizational culture.
We connect internal and external communications for employees and the market, supporting reputation management and brand authority, including the employer brand. Explore our services.
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