4 Recruitment Mistakes That Are Costing You Candidates

The talent shortage is creating a lot of competition for candidates. There simply aren’t enough qualified workers to go around, and candidates have many options to consider when looking for their next opportunities.

Is your organization investing a lot of money and time into recruiting, only to lose your top-choice candidates at various stages in your recruitment process?

If you want to attract, engage, and win talent for your teams, you’ll need to stop making the following recruitment mistakes:

1. You Don’t Promote Your Employment Brand

Candidates have a choice in where they work, and want to know what it’s like to work at your organization before they accept a position. They will scour the Internet to find what information they can, usually beginning with your website and social channels before making their way to review sites like Glassdoor.

Make sure these channels accurately and warmly reflect your employment brand.  That will go a long way in helping you attract and engage the best-fit candidates for your organization. Share pictures, videos, and employee interviews to give candidates a firsthand view of life at your organization.

2. You Offer a Poor Candidate Experience

Your candidates are evaluating your organization just as much as you are evaluating them, and a poor candidate experience  can cause job seekers to drop out from your recruitment process very quickly. Each step of your process, from sourcing to onboarding, should make the candidate feel welcome and comfortable in your organization. Find opportunities for improvement by regularly surveying recent candidates and new hires and share the pertinent feedback with others in your organization. The candidate experience is everyone’s responsibility.

3. Your Hiring Process Is Too Slow

A long hiring process can also cause candidates to disengage – particularly if they have other offers. Keep your hiring process moving along and respect your candidates’ time by eliminating unnecessary steps.

If your hiring process will take longer than usual, communicate the timing with your candidates up front (and throughout the process) so they know what to expect. Finally, keep tabs on whether the candidate is interviewing elsewhere — and where they stand in the process at other companies — so you can speed things up if need be.

4. Your Offer Is Too Low

The competition for talent is driving an increase in compensation, benefits, and perks. While a low offer isn’t necessarily a deal breaker, it certainly won’t help your organization attract and retain talent. Stay competitive by developing a strategic compensation plan based on available hiring data, and develop employee perks and benefits that contribute to your company culture. Strengthen your offer further by addressing your candidate’s motivations  in looking for a new opportunity. Your offer is your final chance to show candidates how excited you are to have them on board. It should be an offer that’s too good to refuse.

What other recruitment mistakes have you seen driving candidates away from the hiring process? Let us know with a comment!

A version of this article originally appeared on the BountyJobs blog.