The 4 stages of the candidate journey:
How to optimise each step to attract the best talent

Talent recruitment is not just posting a job ad on your LinkedIn company profile and crossing your fingers. Your employer brand must be on point, you must appear attractive to candidates, and your job must be exciting. Those are just three small parts of the recruitment process. 

You can compare the candidate journey to the AIDA marketing and advertising model: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. We will show you how you can optimise each stage of the recruiting process with the AIDA model in mind!

Are candidates aware of your existence?

Awareness and attention are the two main key factors. Make sure you’re present and active on relevant social media platforms. The keyword here is “active” as activity, content and followers go hand in hand. A company page with 500 or 5000 connections is much more appealing to a candidate than a page with 50 or 5 followers. It may seem superficial, but in this case, it’s optics. You must also ensure that you have a presentable and modern website with a comprehensive and rich “About Us” page. A barren wasteland of a website that tells candidates nothing about your company as a workplace will either scare them off or make them feel indifferent and thus, they won’t apply for the job!

Candidates must know just as much about your company culture as the products or services you’re selling! Your employer brand will play a big part in this stage and the next too because attention and awareness strengthen the potential interest that the candidates will show in your company.

When candidates know about you or have read about you, it’s much easier for them to relate to the job and your company. They might even envision their future at your company, simply because they have a known reference point. If they don’t know about you, they’re less likely to form a connection to your company because the reference as mentioned earlier is non-existent.

Why should they work for your company?

First and foremost, you must make sure that the position is attractive to the candidate profile you’re looking for or expecting to hire. You need to create interest. If it’s a junior position, you can’t expect to find senior developers for the job, so align your expectations accordingly.

Secondly, the strength of your employer brand comes into play again here, as candidates need incentives to switch jobs. Offering a higher salary doesn’t cut it anymore, because employees want a great and comfortable workplace culture and terrific coworkers who can inspire them almost just as much as the numbers on their paycheque. If they’re comfortable in their current job, they need other incentives to switch workplace other than a higher salary.

With that said, don’t expect to be able to attract candidates with paid meals, company phones and weekly massages if the salary isn’t up to par! You must offer a competitive salary with yearly salary negotiations and other financial incentives if you want to find and hire the best talent.

You create interest by having a great workplace that is supported by a strong employer brand and by offering competitive salaries without compromising a positive workplace culture!

The talent wants to work for your company

There is an actual desire to work for your company. What are you waiting for now? If the candidate fits the job description, get to the phone and set up a job interview! Everything is moving fast these days, so act quickly if you want to talk to the candidate. The reality is that IT and tech professional get many offers from recruiters and hiring managers so you can’t delay setting up interviews until the deadline for applications has expired. Do it as soon as you receive the CV from the first great candidate!

Time and due diligence are the most critical facets of this stage. It would be best if you acted swiftly when a candidate shows great desire to work for your company. Never leave a candidate hanging! It shows an utter lack of respect for the person’s time, energy and emotional investment if you waste time or drag the process on in the hope of finding a better candidate. If you feel that you have found the right candidate, offer him or her the job and get the deal done as quickly as possible!

Even if there are any hold-ups in the process, inform the candidate why the operation is getting delayed - they will respect you for keeping them informed and are more likely to stay interested in the job and your company!

Let’s sign the contract!

You've offered the job to the candidate and the talent has accepted your offer. Sign the contract and don’t start changing the terms of employment! Again, messing around with the candidate will only make you lose the candidate that you wanted to hire. Furthermore, don’t wait around for a couple of weeks before sending the contract to the candidate. If you’ve offered him or her the job, it must be ready for signing within a couple of days. 

When the ink is on the paper, then you can celebrate that new talent is coming on board. Now the onboarding process starts, so be sure to have a great and structured onboarding process that ensures that new employees get off to a great start at their new job!