4 sure shot tips to boost your candidate engagement to reduce the post-offer drop off rate

Do you know what inadequate candidate engagement’s impact your hiring? One out of three offers will end up getting declined. Yes, you read that right, and no, we aren’t exaggerating. This is the current statistics, and we know it is pretty alarming. These days, the competition is more challenging for companies than for candidates. With so many startups opening up and even more companies expanding their business globally, a good candidate can never remain jobless unless out of choice. So, what should you do to get the best talent for your firm? 

Here are some tips guaranteed to provide you with a better offer to joinee ratio trusted by leading companies.

Asset for a lifetime 

According to research, 79% of job-seekers search for jobs on social media platforms. So, if you are a company trying to focus on getting in young talent, you might have to look into your social media presence and engagement. In the constantly changing and evolving times, every company is at war to get hold of the best talent, and the best way to achieve that is by thinking like candidates and planning your hiring process accordingly.

This is what Chandrashekhar and his team at Harness, India, has been doing to engage candidates and has reached around 80% offer to joinee conversion. “We have created our LinkedIn page dedicated to the talent at Harness, called- ‘Harness Talent Community’ where we have curated over 800+ prospect candidates, and we engage them by posting information about Harness. So, when these candidates lookout for a job, the first thought in their mind is- Harness. Apart from that, we use our ATS to respond to all the candidates who have applied for the job, whether they fit into the parameters or not and share a one-page document about Harness. And post-offer, we have a 30-60-90 day notice period with weekly activities to ensure a good offer to joinee ratio. We also give candidates the freedom to choose skills and courses they would like to learn. And we would enroll them in the said courses even before they would join us. This has proven extremely effective in reducing the offer drop-off rate drastically.”

Flexibility of work 

If you aren’t already using the pandemic situation to your benefit by providing the flexibility option to your employees, it’s high time you should. Currently, over 56.8% of people globally would prefer to work from home setup than go back to offices. This switch alone has had a significant impact on how people seek jobs. The freedom to opt plays a great role in luring the candidates to choose you over other companies.

“Equinix has decided to remain remote in 2022, and that has been our pitch to our candidates. Informing them is a remote job and the various benefits of working remotely. We have been addressing it as safety, savings and flexibility. We are sure most companies highlight this aspect, and we are doing the same. In the current scenario staying at home anyway sounds the wisest choice, and people can stay in their home town and work without having to leave their families behind worried. 

And this has helped us a lot in reaching out to candidates from tier-2 and tier-3 cities and honing in their talents for helping the company grow. And these candidates are happy to have the flexibility of remote work, and that helps a lot with reduction of post-offer drop off.” Dennis and his team have been using the pandemic to better the company and make it a levelled field for everyone who has the required skill set, regardless of their location. 

Make them feel valued

Given a choice, would you instead go for a company that provides great compensation or a company that gives you peace of mind and the opportunity to learn and grow? According to the statistics, only 27% of job seekers choose other companies because of compensation. On the other hand, 35% of candidates reject an offer if their experience was terrible during the process or feel that there isn’t much scope for growth.

“We focus on making the candidates see the value proposition in joining PayPal. And that’s what we believe you win in the current candidate-led war of talent. If you can align the candidates with your mission and vision right from the beginning, you can be assured that you are moving forward with candidates who truly want to be a part of the firm. Hike has definitely become a huge factor for many candidates deciding which firm they want to join. 

However, we try to show candidates that more than the hike, they should be looking at things that are way more substantial in the long run, such as work-life balance. It’s the long term trade-off that the candidates should be focusing on, and that’s where we draw their attention to. We have also introduced a sign-on bonus along with the quarterly bonus. 

The sign-on bonus has definitely become a value proposition that the candidates are immediately attracted to. It has brought a significant dip in the post-offer drop off rate.”- PayPal’s technique to reduce the drop-off rate in the talent war as shared by Anish and his team.

Hyper-personalized communication 

Data shows that in 2021, only 41% of candidates who applied for a job received a response within a week of applying for the job rest either received later or never. This is a huge deciding factor when it comes to picking a company. Failure to communicate with the candidates leads to losing talent, offer declines, and, of course, bad reviews. Now, who would want that to happen? Just like everything else, communication is the key here too.

Vijay Arcot and his team at Y Media Labs have cracked the code of ensuring high-quality engagement with candidates by making it hyper-personalized based on the candidates they reach out to. “In the initial stages of candidate engagement, our focus is to analyse what stands as a priority to them and then see if we can match that, then we continue forward with them. This relationship-building at the early stages of interviewing helps a lot as the candidates feel connected to the firm even before they join. If you build a rapport with your candidates, they are less likely to drop off post rolling out offer letters, which is a significant challenge in current times.” 

Good candidates tend to stay in the market for long and reel them in that limited time companies to level up their game, especially when it comes to candidate engagement. Candidates can settle for a low paycheck at times, but they won’t settle for a company that doesn’t put the effort in getting to know them or giving them a sense of belongingness.