Why Long-term Candidate Nurture is a Must for Modern Recruiters

‍Recruitment is a long game. Are you playing to win?

In business, building relationships is the key to closing sales.

Believe it or not, same goes for snagging your dream hire. 🤯

And it’s not just about making an instant sale (or hire), either. It’s about building a relationship today, so you can fill your pipeline with awesome talent that will be chomping at the bit to work with you tomorrow.

That’s where nurture campaigns come into the picture.

Up to 75% of people are passive candidates. Most of the time, these are your top performers. People who aren’t exactly thrilled with their current employment status and are biding their time, waiting for the right opportunity to come along. Thing is, they already have a paycheck. Winning them over is going to take some time and effort.

At the end of the day, there’s no room for instant gratification in the high-stakes game of recruitment. Start nurturing leads ASAP (even before you need them) and you’ll have a pool of high-pot talent ready to be your next “quick win”.

Why nurture candidate leads?

With today’s business climate being what it is and today’s labor market being what it is, there are probably more than a million reasons to build better relationships with candidates.

Here are just a few of the reasons at the top of the list:

• Focus on the best-quality candidates for faster, better hires
• Replace employees pronto if and when they leave
• Stand out amid the thousands of opportunities available to highly-skilled employees
• React to market shifts with lightning speed
• Reclaim your ROI on time spent with past applicants
• Get deeper insights into the parts of your hiring process that work best
• Keep in touch with hundreds of amazing candidates (without sacrificing your personal life)

We could go on and on. Suffice to say, you already have the best candidates right there at your fingertips. By nurturing relationships with the pre-qualified candidates already in your talent pool, you can fill roles faster and at a cost that’s about 33% lower than starting from talent-sourcing square 1.

There are always different reasons why awesome candidates aren’t ready to commit to a role, or why they weren’t quite the right fit for this role but would be perfect for THAT one. Despite its decidedly sales-y sound, all “lead nurturing” really means is that you’re with these candidates through every step of the journey.

The right way to nurture your candidates

We all want to be at the top of the list for our best candidates. But as with every relationship, it takes real effort to get there.

When you set up your first nurture campaign, it’s important to keep the conversation relevant. This is no place for spammy, robotic messaging about a vague “opportunity you might be interested in”. Send candidates exciting company-specific info and updates along with personalized content that lets them know you see them for who they really are. 💖

In order to do that without it taking all day every day, try segmenting your candidates by where they are (or were) in the hiring process. For example, ‘Interviewed’, ‘Phone Screen’ or ‘Rejection’. Don’t defeat the purpose of this strategy by making the mistake of using a one-size-fits-all approach that hits the wrong chord with candidates.

How automation can help

It’s tough out there for recruitment pros. You have to both the marketer and sales rep, responsible for attracting the leads AND closing the deal.

Nurture campaigns help you move from simply screening applicants to creating quality candidates that will be around for years to come. By automating the process to send out the right content at the right time, you can keep in touch with hundreds of candidates without burning out.

If you’re a Breezy user, our Nurture Campaign feature does most of the work for you. You can create customized messaging sequences to put candidate outreach on autopilot and even track opens and replies so you always know what’s working.

Remember, some of the best candidates are right there in front of you. Take the time to get to know them and you’ll set yourself for many more future wins.