Don’t you just hate getting those direct mail flyers that are addressed to “Dear Occupant”? Do you feel overwhelmingly inclined to read those flyers? It is likely that you throw them straight in the recycle bin.

Why? The answer is simple. Humans have come to expect a more personalized experience. When technologies are available to deliver personalization, receiving such impersonal marketing messages is almost an affront.

A recent Thrive TRM blog explored reasons that personalization is essential to the candidate experience. Today’s blog, however, will expand on that premise by exploring how to actually create a more personalized recruiting process.

Step One: Write a More Targeted Job Description

Creating great job descriptions that speak on a personal level to candidates is a bit tricky. If your job descriptions are too vague, no self-respecting candidate will apply. If they are too involved, however, you may inadvertently talk a great candidate right out of applying.

To apply the concept of personalization to your job descriptions, think of them in terms of what your ideal candidate would really want to know about the position. Include content that speaks directly to the needs and desires of your candidate personas. Add a little pizzazz by including video content, eye-catching formatting, and headlines that reel in top talent. Show off your company culture by your word choice, your design, and your placement.

RecruitingBlogs offers this pro tip: “If you have one great video on your careers and organization, use this in the job description for all your jobs. As you create videos and content specific to certain audiences (i.e. sales professionals), use automation to display the appropriate content per audience while keeping the generic careers video for other audiences. This way as you build out your nurture strategy, you can get more targeted with your engagement via these channels without giving your recruiters more work to implement.”

Template: Creating Ideal Candidate Personas – Our free persona template will help you improve your talent acquisition by identifying who your ideal candidates are and how best to reach them.

Step Two: Personalize Your Candidate Engagement Emails

Do not believe for a moment that the way to personalize emails is simply to send a form email with the candidate’s name filled in. That tactic may have worked in the early days of the web, but it will not work any longer.

Now, emails should be targeted to specific segments of your candidate pool. For instance, you can use your talent management software to segment your candidates by factors such as location, job skills, and more. The article “How to Create a More Personalized Recruiting Process” gives this excellent bit of advice: “Pay attention to the wording and content of your emails. For example, sending an email that says you have personally reached out to them because of their industry background will encourage more responses than just a mass email about a job alert that is not even located in their state.”

Once you have the wording and design right, you can use automation tools found within your talent management software to time your emails correctly and get them to the right people.

Step Three: Remember the Importance of Human Contact

Though automation and talent management tools make the recruiting process much simpler for you and much more engaging for your candidates, do not overlook the importance of the human touch. The most personalized part of any recruiting process involves human contact, whether via a phone call, video conference, or face-to-face meeting.

Admittedly, reaching out to every candidate personally for an in-person interaction may not be feasible. Therefore, for candidates who are not a good fit, a courteous email may suffice to let them know the reasons for your decision. Taking this type of action will be appreciated by a candidate who is waiting on pins and needles to find out the status of his or her application. Any good will you can foster is a step in the right direction.

For those candidates who are a good fit, a highly personalized touch is preferred. The goal is to make these candidates feel valued and draw them quickly into your culture. Personalized communication will speed up this process and ensure its success.

The Takeaway

Personalization is the key to improving the candidate experience. By looking at your recruiting process through the lens of candidate experience, you will be able to see where your organization can offer a more personalized approach to top talent.

Thrive TRM is a comprehensive, cutting-edge talent management solution with features designed to promote candidate engagement at every interaction. To see Thrive TRM at work, simply schedule a demo today.