I’m sure when you’ve logged onto LinkedIn you’ll have seen the plethora of ‘I’ve applied to hundreds of roles but never hear back’.
And, while I’m definitely not dismissing them, nor saying it’s untrue, I wanted to highlight behaviour that I’m seeing all too often as a headhunter that is negatively affecting candidates chances of being considered for roles.
What’s the issue I hear you ask?
Reply time from candidates is what I’d expect from Tinder, not from a jobseeker.
I’ve had candidates accepting connection requests with messages stating I’m reaching out about a role WEEKS/MONTHS after I’d sent them. Only for candidates to give me grief when I inform them the window of opportunity has passed.
I’ve had candidates tell me they’ve got plans with friends or a short stay-cay planned so wouldn’t be able to have a phone interview for an urgent role.
Or I’ve had candidates ignore numerous phone calls and WhatsApps because they were ‘busy’, only to get back to me weeks later asking what the calls were about.
In travel recruitment right now roles are scarce. Which makes behaviour like this even more shocking. But unfortunately, I’ve heard stories like this from cross-industry colleagues too.
So what can you do about this?
Here are some easy tips to pass onto your top candidates to ensure they don’t miss out:
- Tell them to download the Linkedin messenger app and enable notifications. This way they’ll get a nudge when they receive a connection request or instant message.
- Adding an out-of-office to the email they use for job seeking is never a bad idea. This gives an extra layer of engagement for hiring managers and also an extra means of contact.
- To switch their phone to loud, obviously where appropriate. Binging the Queen’s Gambit on Netflix is not an excuse to miss an important call.
- Walk them through the importance of up-to-date contact details and location on their Linkedin. We all know nobody is going to be sending job specs to joeblogsxoxo@hotmail email from 2001.
All of these tips are SO simple, but you’d be surprised at how many job seekers aren’t following them right now. And there is definitely no harm in reminding them. Every little helps.
But what can you do as a hiring manager/recruiter to ensure you’re always ready?
My top tip would be not to be reliant or get distracted on organic applications. Instead, take a couple of extra days before the madness of launching a role, to headhunt top candidates that you’d like to engage for the position.
By doing this it gives extra lead time for candidates to respond and you’ll already have an engaged longlist when you go to launch the role.
