Recruitment and Selection: 6 Tips to Ensure Ideal Candidates Don’t Slip Away

As a project manager and recruiter, you know how crucial recruitment and selection is to your organisation’s development. You also know that there are too few hours in the day to sufficiently dedicate yourself to it. Don’t let the best candidates slip away! Don’t keep coming back to phase one. Here are 6 tips for you to prevent this from happening:

1. Communicate – from day one!

Confirm that you have received candidates’ CVs. This may seem unremarkable, but a simple automated response creates a positive first impression. Don’t hesitate to include additional information to your response about the next steps in the process and the deadlines if they have been set. The candidate will know that his/her CV has arrived and what to expect next.

2. Do not delay, show your interest!

If the candidate seems interested, don’t take too much time to contact him/her back. Otherwise, your competitor may do it before you… whether it be by phone or email, let them know their application is interesting and make a date for a first phone or face to face meeting.

3. Additional deadlines ahead? Don’t panic

If the recruitment and selection process looks like it will be longer than planned, let your candidates know. If they don’t hear from you, they may assume their application was not successful and that the position was filled. Don’t seem disorganised.

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4. Don’t arrive second

During the face to face or phone meeting, try to obtain information about the candidate’s job searching situation. Is he/she applying elsewhere? Has he/she been offered work already? This will give you better tools to anticipate situation changes.

5. Don’t refuse candidates too quickly

Don’t make decisions too quickly! Take the time to evaluate each application. Don’t just reject someone for no good reason. Waiting for the “Mr or Mrs Right” is never a winning strategy in recruitment.

6. Announce your decision without delay

Following the interviews, many steps can stretch deadlines (consulting the selection committee, checking references, preparing the offer etc.). Your priority is to choose your final candidate and to inform him/her as soon as possible about your intention to hire them. Following this, keep them informed of the next steps in order to maintain their interest.

 
These tips will be sure to help you hold on to the best candidates and manage your time in terms of recruitment and selection. Don’t waste the effort and resources you have invested. Communicate generously with your favourite candidates and be proactive.

 
Are you a recruiter? What do you do to keep candidates interested?
 
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