Increasing Candidate Acceptance Rates Through Improved Engagement

Are you eager to drive higher acceptance rates for your job offers and bring on the best employees for your company and team? Get ready to supercharge your engagement! You’d be right to guess it has everything to do with the candidate experience — notably, providing stellar communication and thoughtful interactions from steps A to Z. 

What are some ways to enhance engagement? We turned to Senior Talent Recruiter Laura Langsenkamp to unlock tried-and-true insider tips. 

With experience building high-performing sales, engineering, marketing, and product teams, Laura has helped companies of all stages of growth to attract and engage exceptional talent. She shares some insider tips that you can use to enhance candidate engagement and acceptance rates. You can take your customer experience to the next level with her guidance!

3 Simple Ways to Improve Candidate Engagement 

1. Personalize your outreach 

As recruiters, we spend a great deal of time on LinkedIn, expanding our networks and engaging promising candidates. As simple as it may seem, the humble connection request is a powerful tool to get right the first time. Researching candidates and crafting personalized messages increases your response rate and establishes a foundation as an advocate for the candidate and your hiring team. 

Laura recommends tailoring your drafts to the candidate’s situation — for example, if they’re a passive candidate, open to work, or recently laid off — to help establish rapport while setting a positive tone. If candidates aren’t interested in the opportunity at that time, leave the door open to a future conversation and ask for referrals. You’ll want to customize your replies based on the responses you receive. 

2. Understand key drivers 

We all have our reasons for pursuing different opportunities throughout our careers. Understanding the very heart of candidates’ motivations and goals makes it easier to keep them engaged. Laura suggests three simple conversation starters to understand candidates’ goals better: 

• Are you actively looking for a new opportunity? 
• What’s your primary motivation for being open to a new role? 
• What do you care about most in your next role? 

Focusing on these talking points can help you identify key drivers, such as a lack of growth, unfulfilled promises or expectations, poor management, layoffs, organizational restructuring, acquisition, etc. Discussing key motivators with candidates can help them understand why the opportunity you’re offering is the best fit, as it’s better aligned with their values, needs, and goals. 

If a counteroffer or competitor opportunity arises, you’ll be prepared with the discussion points you need to refocus conversations. Another company offering a salary bump or bonus won’t remedy core issues. Understanding why the candidate was open to that first discussion with you is essential. 

3. Showcase your hiring brand 

One of the key pillars of Coit’s Method is employer branding — building a hiring brand and an employee value proposition that shines. Blending the right mix of messaging and marketing materials makes it easier to get your message across quickly in a way that candidates appreciate and remember. 

Laura recommends making it easier for candidates to get to know your company by packaging up essential resources to share based on what your candidate is looking for. This could be a few video links in your email providing an inside look at your company culture. Tailoring your message and pitch with a strong value proposition makes getting best-fit candidates excited and engaged easier.

Putting tips into action 

We all know the difference between rewarding relationships and experiences and those that leave us frustrated or disengaged. Candidate engagement can be challenging to troubleshoot and elevate, but it’s easier to master with these simple tips:

1. Personalize. It’s essential to personalize your outreach. Laura suggests mentioning things others might miss, such as the candidate’s school, education, years at their current company, recent project details, or mutual connections on LinkedIn. Attempting to build a relationship off the bat will benefit you in the long run. Take the time to get to know candidates, build rapport, and let them know you’re there for them. 

2. Illustrate what’s in it for them. Every candidate is different, so it’s critical to understand what each applicant cares about most. Tailor your message to candidates’ unique goals and motivations so you can keep them engaged across the entire hiring process. Even if a current employer or competitor distracts them with an offer to pay them more, you can keep them interested by focusing on core priorities and needs. 

3. Make a great first impression. A strong hiring brand is essential to showcase what makes your company unique and unforgettable. From the first conversation to an offer acceptance, you want to present a compelling and authentic representation of your company and why it’s the right fit for the candidate and your team. 

Need help with candidate engagement or looking for other ideas to boost offer acceptance? Contact us at [email protected], and let us help you improve your time to hire.

You can connect with Laura on Linkedin.