A well-run offshore recruitment support team doesn’t simply identify qualified candidates, it contributes to the candidate experience itself. And we all understand that a providing a great candidate experience is a critical part of attracting and retaining good talent.
Achieving a positive, consistent candidate experience requires true integration of recruiting efforts from both the internal and offshore recruiters. Think of it this way: when you hire a new employee onto your internal team, it’s unlikely you’d throw them in the deep end without any training. Likewise, without the proper training and integration, your outsourced recruiters won’t have the knowledge they need to serve the candidates. The internal team, as a result, won’t take your outsourced team seriously. Candidate experience will suffer, and in turn reduce both quality and quantity of candidates in your pipeline. Alternatively, when both teams are well integrated each is able to reach its full potential and everybody wins.
With that in mind, we’ve assembled these tips for ensuring your candidate engagement efforts are making an impact!
Top Tips for a Seamless Candidate Experience
Present a consistent brand
For an offshore recruitment model to really meet success, candidates shouldn’t be able to perceive a difference between your in-house and outsourced teams. This means your outsourced recruiters need to become a genuine, collaborative extension of your own team with comprehensive knowledge of the client’s job, benefits, and work culture.
From day one of launching your RPO solution, the team of outsourced recruiters need to have email addresses with your domain, complete with company-consistent email signatures. They should be fully assimilated into the internal communication process, whether it’s via phone, email or instant messaging.
Same team, same playbook
Applicant Tracking System (ATS) access is a must, especially to features such as call history (because no candidate wants to be called 5 times in a week by 5 different recruiters), previous submissions, and client requirements.
If possible, get your outsourced recruiters to dial into any conference calls with your clients to really get a sense of their requirements, work culture, and overall benefits of working there. It’s this kind of information that can help your offshore team provide a valuable and engaging candidate experience.
Plan ahead
No matter how knowledgeable and assimilated your offshore recruitment team, the handoff of candidates from outsourced recruiter to in-house recruiter is one of the most crucial moments in the recruiting process. Even the best candidate experience won’t make up for time a candidate wastes sitting neglected in the pipeline.
It’s essential to establish clear procedural guidelines for passing the baton. Whether it’s a dedicated account manager or small team of in-house recruiters, someone needs to continue the recruitment process with each sourced and screened candidate with no lapse in service. Communication is key.
Bringing It All Together
These strategies are foundational, and though many of them seem common sense, it is surprising how few organizations follow through on implementing them. Candidates know when recruiting teams aren’t on top of their game; they feel the effect of lacking communication and failure to share knowledge. With this in mind, to achieve and sustain a positive and consistent candidate experience while using an offshore recruitment model, integration and communication is crucial.
