Whether there are candidate shortages or not, recruiting highly skilled payments professionals is tough and the current market conditions have a number of knock on effects when looking to grow your team. Candidates may not openly be applying for roles on LinkedIn or browsing job boards which means employers have to ensure they are constantly selling their opportunities.

On top of this when a candidate is in process they have increased negotiating power which has seen an increase in starting salaries across the payments industry, more flexible working options as well as a need for employers to spend more time managing candidates throughout the hiring process. Along with these demands candidates are also expecting employers to:

• Have a streamlined and transparent hiring process clearly communicated from the start.
• Be able to clearly explain how the role meets their needs and why they should leave their current role for this one.
• Be transparent about the company culture, management style as well as learning and development opportunities.

The organisations succeeding in this challenging climate are those that understand recruiting in 2023 is a two way street, the emphasis is as much on whether the candidate wants you rather than the traditional, do you want them.

There is nothing worse than investing both time and energy into finding a suitable candidate for your organisation and offering them the position; only for them to reject your offer or even worse, accept a counter-offer from one of your competitors.

There are many genuine reasons why this can happen, such as a change in personal circumstances or a legitimate concern about not fitting in to the company. However, when hiring it is not uncommon for businesses to forget that they are also being assessed by the candidates and that the recruitment process provides a plethora of opportunities to sell the benefits of working at the company.

So how can you put this into practice?

Treat candidates as you would treat your customers

This term has been used time and time again but for good reason. Ensuring you know as much as possible about your candidates allows you to create an engaging experience, tailored to each individual.

It is also important to discover exactly what it is the candidate is looking for from a job. A good barometer is to ask them about other roles they have applied for or if they have interviewed for any other positions. This allows you to see what the competition is offering in comparison to you as well as discover what the candidate values most.

Utilise candidate facing marketing channels

When applying for a job, candidates will of course carry out their own research on your company. They’ll check your website, social media channels as well as third party employee review sites. Some might even go as far as reaching out to current employees or looking at their social media profiles for insights into working at your organisation.

It is crucial to use these channels to your advantage and to create content that demonstrate the benefits of working at your company. However, remember to keep it authentic and true to the businesses values as promising more than you can offer can have negative impact on attracting quality candidates.

Top Tip: Showcasing your company doesn’t have to just be sharing a video from the latest social event or excellent testimonials from employees. It can be as simple as showing that as an organisation you invest in your employees through health and wellness activities or through fundraising for charitable causes.

Use your current employees as company ambassadors

Employee advocacy is an immensely powerful tool. Encouraging your workforce to take to social media and openly talk about their experiences can be daunting, but if you work hard at creating a great employee experience it can be highly effective in attracting high calibre candidates.

If a potential candidate sees multiple employees sharing authentic content about your company they will naturally be impressed and want to be involved. Ensure that employee advocacy is encouraged and not forced as the impact of negative connotations can have a profound effect on potential employees and stop them moving forward with an application.

Top Tip: If you have a management team, ask them to encourage their teams to partake in this activity but importantly ask them to lead by example by creating their own content showcasing the organisation.

Create a bespoke interview For Each Candidate

 By the time you arrive at the interview stage you should have gained as much information as possible about the shortlisted candidates, as well as impressed them through company communications and employee advocacy schemes. It is now time to use all of that information to create a bespoke interview process for each candidate.

Throughout the interview you will of course need to ask competency-based questions but you should also create several bespoke questions for each candidate. This can further help you to discover what the candidate is looking for and to be able to speak about what’s important to them when discussing the role at length.

Furthermore, you should also create company packages for each individual. For example, if the candidate has previously mentioned having a family, this gives you an opportunity to highlight family-friendly company benefits within the interview material they receive. This kind of personalisation will further align candidates to your organisation and make them feel comfortable throughout the interview.

Remember, the candidate is assessing you too.

 In conclusion, it is important to remember how big of an impact negative candidate feedback can have on your company. With the power of social media and multiple other channels at their disposal, ensuring every candidates experience is second to none will only benefit your company in the long term, whilst also attracting the best talent to your organisation moving forward.

Still need assistance?

A substantial advantage to partnering with a recruitment consultancy such as Mostyn Chase is that candidates tend to trust third-party testimonials more than those from the company itself. At Mostyn Chase we like to get under the skin of your organisation and truly understand what you are trying to achieve, which in turn allows us to sell your vision and opportunity in a unique way to our network of highly engaged candidates.

If you need assistance with your hiring process, please get in touch today.