As the world is shifting toward the hybrid work model, the recruitment industry has had to make exceptionally challenging changes within a short span of time. One of the major hurdles during these times has been effective candidate engagement. It’s tough to showcase a company’s culture through remote recruitment, and remote interviews also demand little commitment from candidates. Not to mention that even a small delay in the process can cost you an ideal recruit.

Here’s where recruitment marketing initiatives like designing the perfect careers page and leveraging social media can help. Many recruitment software systems help automate routine tasks and make the whole recruitment process more smooth, but industry-leading systems will also include features that boost your employer brand as well as built-in video interview functionality for a faster, more seamless candidate experience.

Here are some core functions that recruitment software optimizes to take candidate engagement to the next level:

Employer branding

Most candidates research a company before applying, so it’s imperative that they have something compelling to see during their initial evaluation. Use social media for more than just posting jobs; share your employees’ lives and growth inside the company to offer insight into your corporate culture. Host social media buttons directly on a well-crafted careers page that displays perfectly on both desktop and mobile devices—all built right from within your recruitment software.

Check out Zoho Recruit’s career page templates

Resume parsing

Certain automation tools can help you screen and evaluate resumes without bias. Not only do they autofill candidate data, but they also rank applications based on skills and qualifications. The integration between Apply with LinkedIn and Zoho Recruit, for example, saves plenty of time for candidates and recruiters alike by collecting and auto-filling data.

Automated responses

While all communication between you and your candidates shouldn’t be automated, candidates expect that some of it will be—and they prefer it in the long run. In fact, being more responsive and making the hiring process faster can make sure that you don’t lose an ideal candidate to your competitors. Using AI technology can help by streamlining administrative tasks, sending automated emails, triggering responses, communicating across business systems, and following up with candidates. This makes the recruitment process more time-efficient.

Job descriptions and assignments

A neat job description that can clearly convey the roles and responsibilities of the job is imperative. You can also give the candidates a taste of what the job will really be like by giving assignments or assessments that closely mirror what they will be doing in the company.

 Check out Zoho Recruit’s job description templates.

Multichannel communication

When you do communicate one-on-one with candidates, ensure that the tools you’re using make it as simple for them as possible. Communicate through both emails and SMS for better engagement rates, use dedicated portals to centralize your candidate conversations, and create crisp, decipherable messages with templates.

Read our blog on why SMS texting should be an important part of your recruiting process

Feedback

Feedback is crucial for both the company and the candidate to make sure that their experience was meaningful. Be sure to prepare interview and feedback forms ahead of time and get feedback from both the candidates and stakeholders. If you have access to a video interview feature, see if the system allows for automatic feedback forms to be sent out after an interview is completed. You can also use data analytics to understand what drives engagement amongst your candidates.

Final thoughts

Recruitment is a two-way street. Every candidate, whether they make it into a company or not, is going to talk about their hiring experience, and it’s crucial that they can come away with a great impression. Paying attention to these finer details during recruitment can improve your organization’s image, solidify an excellent employer brand, and save you a lot of time by making sure that the recruitment process is seamless for both you and your candidates. Investing in recruitment software can help you make these improvements easily and hire top talent, even as the world’s workforce becomes more dispersed and remote jobs rise in popularity.

Learn how Zoho Recruit can elevate the hiring experience for both recruiters and candidates