How to ensure human touch when recruiting candidates?

3 November 2023

As recruiters or HR professionals, your role in the hiring landscape is evolving. In the midst of technological advancements and automation, the importance of the human touch in modern recruitment remains indispensable.

Working in talent acquisition you’re navigating a landscape where focus on new technological developments might often be lacking a human-centric approach. This article explores how to build meaningful relationships with candidates, create an inclusive experience, and measure success, all while ensuring continuous improvement.

It’s time to rekindle the vital connection between people and the recruitment process. Welcome to the ultimate guide for the human touch in modern recruitment.

Contents:

1. What does human touch in modern recruitment mean?
2. What are examples of human-centric recruitment strategies?
3. How to build relationships with candidates?
4. How to create an inclusive candidate experience?
5. How to measure success and ensure continuous improvement in your recruitment?
6. How will Assess Candidates help you ensure human touch in your recruitment?
7. FAQs and Glossary of Terms

1. What does human touch in modern recruitment mean?

In a competitive job market increasingly shaped by automation and digitalization, the concept of the “human touch” in modern recruitment has taken on renewed significance. It’s not merely a buzzword; it’s a strategic approach that’s helping companies stand out and connect with top talent on a deeper level. It not only makes candidates feel valued but also strengthens the employer brand, making the company an attractive destination for top talent. 

In a world where automation has streamlined many aspects of recruitment, embracing the human touch sets your organization apart, creating genuine connections that lead to more satisfied, loyal employees and a competitive edge in the market. 

How does human-centric recruitment work?

Human-centric recruitment emphasizes personalized, candidate-focused approaches. Forward-thinking companies are recognizing that candidates are more than just their resumes. For instance, instead of sending generic automated rejection emails, some organizations now offer personalized feedback to candidates, providing valuable insights to help them improve and possibly reapply for future positions. This simple act not only respects the effort candidates put into the application process but also fosters goodwill and long-term connections.

What is Empathetic Hiring?

As a recruiter you should be familiar with the concept of empathetic hiring, where recruiters actively seek to understand a candidate’s unique experiences, needs, and goals. For instance, some companies are hosting virtual “coffee chats” or informal conversations to get to know candidates on a personal level, going beyond the formal interview process. Empathetic hiring is about adding human touch to the recruitment process. It not only helps identify the right cultural fit but also demonstrates an authentic commitment to a candidate’s well-being.

Why is relationship building with candidates so important?

Relationship building has also become a differentiator. Companies are investing in training their teams to be skilled not only in evaluating technical qualifications but also in building rapport. For example, recruiters might inquire about a candidate’s hobbies or interests outside of work, establishing common ground and a more comfortable atmosphere during interviews.

Building strong relationships with candidates is vital because it fosters trust, enhances the candidate experience, and reinforces your organization’s commitment to individual growth and well-being. By investing in rapport and connection, companies create a positive and lasting impression, even with candidates who aren’t selected for a particular role. This approach not only helps attract top talent but also cultivates a loyal, engaged workforce, contributing to the company’s long-term success.

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2. What are examples of human-centric recruitment strategies?

Human-centric recruitment strategies prioritize personalized, candidate-focused approaches that foster authentic connections. Here are practical examples of such strategies, with a focus on specific companies that have successfully implemented them.

Top 7 strategies for human-centric recruitment and examples of companies that do it right:

1. Personalized Outreach: Leading companies like Google tailor their outreach by using personalized emails and job recommendations, enhancing the candidate’s experience from the very beginning.

2. Candidate Experience Enhancement: Apple is renowned for its streamlined application process and clear communication, ensuring a positive experience for candidates at every stage, regardless of the outcome.

3. Embracing Diversity and Inclusion: Salesforce is a notable example, actively promoting diverse hiring by setting specific goals, establishing diverse interview panels, and participating in diversity hiring initiatives.

4. Interviewer Training: Airbnb provides comprehensive training for interviewers, emphasizing not only technical skills but also soft skills assessment, and creating an inclusive interview environment.

5. Talent Acquisition Technology: IBM leverages AI-driven tools to streamline administrative tasks, allowing its recruiters to focus on building relationships and providing a human touch during interactions.

6. Transparent Communication: Johnson & Johnson ensures candidates receive clear, timely information about the recruitment process, building trust and making candidates feel valued throughout their journey.

7. Continuous Improvement: Amazon actively seeks candidate feedback and has a dedicated team for process improvement, ensuring the recruitment process is constantly evolving to provide an exceptional experience.

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3. How to build relationships with candidates?

Building strong relationships with candidates is essential for creating lasting connections and fostering a positive candidate experience. Building relationships with candidates is not just a transactional process but a strategic approach that leaves a lasting, positive impression. It helps in attracting top talent, creating a strong employer brand, and fostering a loyal, engaged workforce.

Here’s a concise guide on how to do just that.

10 Best practices to successfully build relationships with candidates:

1. Personalized Communication: Tailor your messages to each candidate. Avoid generic, one-size-fits-all approaches and show that you value their unique experiences.

2. Active Listening: During interviews and conversations, actively listen to candidates. Show genuine interest in their responses, ask follow-up questions, and acknowledge their experiences and perspectives.

3. Transparency: Be open and honest about the entire recruitment process. Inform candidates about the steps, timelines, and what they can expect, ensuring they feel informed and valued.

4. Timely Feedback: Provide prompt feedback, even to candidates who aren’t selected. Constructive feedback not only helps them improve but also leaves a positive impression.

5. Follow-Up: Continue the conversation even after the interview. A simple thank-you email or a brief message to inquire about their well-being shows that you care.

6. Diversity and Inclusion: Promote diversity in your recruitment processes. Ensure interview panels represent diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and actively reach out to underrepresented groups.

7. Candidate-Centric Approach: Keep candidates at the center of your recruitment process. Address their individual needs and preferences, making them feel valued as individuals.

8. Technology for Efficiency: Employ technology to streamline administrative tasks, allowing more time for meaningful interactions and relationship building. This can mean employing assessment tests to reduce time for screening candidates.

9. Feedback Loops: Implement a feedback mechanism for candidates to express their thoughts and suggestions about the recruitment process, and act on their feedback for continuous improvement.

10. Candidate Journey: View the recruitment process from the candidate’s perspective, making their experience seamless and positive from application to onboarding.

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4. How to create an inclusive candidate experience?

As a recruiter you will be well aware that building strong relationships with your candidates requires a personalized approach to all individual candidates. To promote diversity and inclusion and ensure an inclusive candidate experience, consider various points of the candidate experience with the recruitment process. 

By implementing these necessary best-practice steps, you not only attract diverse talent but also establish your organization as an inclusive employer of choice. An inclusive candidate experience enhances your employer brand, generates positive word-of-mouth, and contributes to building a diverse and dynamic workforce.

8 steps to create an inclusive candidate experience in recruitment:

1. Inclusive Job Descriptions: Craft job descriptions using inclusive language, avoiding gendered or exclusive terms. Clearly communicate your commitment to diversity and inclusion in the role.

2. Diverse Interview Panels: Assemble interview panels that represent a wide range of backgrounds, ensuring varied perspectives in candidate evaluation.

3. Structured Interviews: Implement structured interviews with standardized questions. This approach minimizes potential biases, leading to fair assessments based on qualifications.

4. Accessible Recruitment Process: Make the application process user-friendly and accessible. Allow flexibility in interview scheduling to accommodate different needs, such as candidates with disabilities or other commitments.

5. Diversity and Inclusion Training: Train your recruitment team in diversity and inclusion practices. Equipping them with the right knowledge and skills is essential for fostering an inclusive environment.

6. Inclusive Application Forms: Ensure that your application forms do not require unnecessary personal information that could lead to bias.

7. Inclusive Onboarding: Develop an onboarding process that welcomes and supports candidates from diverse backgrounds, creating an inclusive experience from the moment they join your organization.

8. Regular Auditing and Improvement: Continuously review your recruitment processes to identify and eliminate potential sources of bias and ensure ongoing inclusivity.

9. Use Gamification for Recruitment: By incorporating gamification elements, such as interactive challenges and engaging scenarios, you create a more accessible and enjoyable assessment process. This approach levels the playing field, making the evaluation process less intimidating.

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5. How to measure the success of your human-centric recruitment approach?

Once you have reconsidered your recruitment for human touch, you will be asking yourself what possible ways of checking your progress are. Measuring the success of your human-centric recruitment approach is key to its long-term effectiveness. Here’s a concise guide on how to assess and enhance your recruitment processes continually.

6 key ways to measure success of your human touch based recruitment:

• Recruitment Metrics: Define and track relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) such as time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, and candidate satisfaction scores. These metrics provide quantitative insights into your recruitment’s overall efficiency and candidate experience.

• Candidate Feedback: Actively seek feedback from candidates about their recruitment experience. Use surveys or direct interviews to understand their perspectives, allowing you to identify areas for improvement.

• Quality of Hire: Assess the performance and longevity of candidates once they become employees. High-performing, long-tenured hires are a testament to the effectiveness of your recruitment process.

• Process Auditing: Conduct regular audits of your recruitment procedures to identify potential areas of bias, inefficiency, or bottlenecks. Ensure adherence to best practices and inclusivity.

• Feedback Integration: Act on candidate feedback and process audit findings. Implement changes to streamline the process, improve transparency, and enhance the candidate experience.

• Benchmarking: Compare your recruitment outcomes with industry benchmarks to gauge your competitiveness in the talent market and make necessary adjustments.

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6. How will Assess Candidates help you ensure human touch in your recruitment?

At Assess Candidates, we understand the paramount importance of infusing the human touch into modern recruitment processes. We offer innovative solutions that enhance your ability to connect with candidates on a deeper level while maintaining efficiency. Here’s how our services can revolutionize your recruitment strategy.

3 Ways Assess Candidates Ensures Human Touch in Recruitment:

• Personalized Candidate Assessments: We recognize that each candidate is unique, and one-size-fits-all assessments often fall short. Our platform allows you to tailor assessments to match individual backgrounds, experiences, and aspirations. By using personalized assessments, you demonstrate a commitment to understanding the whole candidate and identifying the right cultural fit.

• Candidate Engagement Tools: We offer a suite of tools designed to engage candidates meaningfully throughout the recruitment process. From personalized feedback reports to interactive Q&A sessions, our platform fosters open communication and rapport building. This not only helps candidates feel valued but also ensures a positive candidate experience.

• Continuous Improvement Analytics: Our system provides comprehensive analytics to measure your recruitment’s success. You can track recruitment metrics, assess candidate feedback, and identify areas for process improvement. With the ability to make data-driven decisions, you’ll keep refining your recruitment approach to maintain a human-centric focus.

Example of Ensuring Human-Touch Recruitment with Assess Candidates

Problem:

Since you have employed some level of automation in your recruitment processes, you’ve encountered a challenge that many recruiters face. The more automated your system becomes, the greater the risk of diminishing the human touch in your interactions with candidates. This shift has led to a noticeable decrease in candidate satisfaction with feedback and the overall experience, leaving top talent disheartened and less engaged.

Assess Candidates Solution:

In response to this pressing issue, Assess Candidates steps in to bridge the gap between automation and the human touch. Our platform recognizes the unique challenges posed by automated recruitment processes, which can often leave candidates lacking the human connection in a process. We empower you to restore the human connection by tailoring assessments to each individual candidate, whilst encouraging touchpoints and post interview communication, to ensure your candidates are engaged and well informed throughout their recruitment process. All in all, our streamlined platform will allow you and your team to spend more time on face to face interviews.

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7. FAQs and Glossary of Terms

FAQs

1. What is human-centric recruitment?
   • Human-centric recruitment is an approach that prioritizes personalized, candidate-focused strategies to create meaningful connections during the hiring process. It emphasizes acknowledging candidates as unique individuals rather than mere resumes.

2. Why is human touch in modern recruitment important?
   • In an era of automation and digitalization, the human touch sets companies apart by fostering genuine connections with candidates. It makes candidates feel valued, enhances the employer brand, and attracts top talent.

3. How can I build relationships with candidates in recruitment?
   • To build strong relationships with candidates, personalize communication, actively listen, be transparent, provide timely feedback, follow up, promote diversity and inclusion, adopt a candidate-centric approach, leverage technology, and create feedback loops.

4. What is the role of Empathetic Hiring in recruitment?
   • Empathetic Hiring is about actively seeking to understand a candidate’s unique experiences, needs, and goals. It involves informal conversations and personalized interactions to connect with candidates on a personal level, demonstrating a commitment to their well-being.

5. How can I create an inclusive candidate experience?
   • To create an inclusive candidate experience, use inclusive job descriptions, diverse interview panels, structured interviews, accessible recruitment processes, diversity and inclusion training, inclusive application forms, inclusive onboarding, and regularly audit and improve your processes.

6. How can I measure the success of my human-centric recruitment approach?
   • To measure the success of human-centric recruitment, track recruitment metrics, seek candidate feedback, assess the quality of hires, conduct process audits, integrate feedback into your practices, and benchmark your outcomes against industry standards.

Glossary of Terms

• Human-Centric Recruitment: An approach that prioritizes personalized, candidate-focused strategies to create meaningful connections during the hiring process.

• Empathetic Hiring: Recruiters actively seek to understand a candidate’s unique experiences, needs, and goals through personalized interactions.

• Inclusive Candidate Experience: Creating a welcoming and unbiased experience for all candidates, regardless of their background, abilities, or personal characteristics.

• Quality of Hire: The assessment of a candidate’s performance and longevity within an organization, indicating the effectiveness of the recruitment process.

• Process Auditing: Regularly reviewing and evaluating recruitment procedures to identify potential areas of bias, inefficiency, or bottlenecks, ensuring adherence to best practices and inclusivity.