Captivate Candidates Before They Even Apply

Tax time and candidate experience have something in common! Well, that’s a stretch, but I’ll show you the connection.

In order to spark my creativity, I subscribe to Creativity Dailyit’s a daily newsletter that highlights recent marketing ads and commercials, both the hits and the misses. I’ll admit it. I’m someone that will fast forward or skip over commercials when I can, but that doesn’t stop me from watching and loving great ones — on my own time. You may be thinking, “What does this have to do with candidate experience?” You’ll see.

In early January, Creativity Daily highlighted an ad for TurboTax. It showed a woman hiding in the closet, peeking through the cracks, desperately afraid of what was approaching. I sat there wondering, “what could this possibly be about and what she was afraid of?” Once all was revealed, I just smiled.

Haven’t seen it yet? Take a look.

I loved the ad so much that I tweeted about it and shared it with my network:

Exactly one month after my initial tweet, I received this message from TurboTax:

I followed the instructions and two weeks later, I had a package on my doorstep:

Love surprises and this wasn't at all scary, @turbotax! Now our sCAREBear 🐻 may have something to be afraid of! 🙈 Watch until the end. 🐩 #livingwithrocky pic.twitter.com/UONZR5McND

— Chrystal A Moore (@RecruitMoore) February 23, 2018

TurboTax’s attention to detail was amazing. From the “Found Ya” bear label on the outside to the “Found Ya” wrapping paper and the “Found Ya” postcard, they pulled the campaign messaging all the way through. Once again, I tweeted about it and shared it with my network.

After doing so, I couldn’t help but think about this from a candidate experience point of view. Recently, my teammate Shannon Smedstad posted a blog about A New Way To Think About Your Candidate Experience and the exaqueo CXmodel, shown below.

Companies are spending thousands and thousands of dollars to satisfy and engage candidates through great career sites, sponsored ads, CRMs, and other tools.

Where most companies are still falling short is captivating their candidates. I get it, you’re busy. I’ve been in a recruiter’s shoes before and have had upwards of 40+ requisitions at a time. Yes, I said 40 plus! So, I understand how challenging it can be to continue to keep candidates engaged and build those relationships, let alone be proactive and personalize a process.

Think of candidates as your customer and continue to put yourself in their shoes, and ask yourself: (<-- Click to tweet!)

  • If I were a candidate, what would captivate me?
  • What could my company do during the talent acquisition process that would make candidates say, “Wow” in a good way?
  • What can I do now to make an immediate impact on our candidate experience?
  • How can I start an internal dialogue with my team about captivating our candidates and treating them more like customers?  

I did a quick Twitter search for “wish I could work for” and came across endless tweets expressing their interest in working for companies. Are you tapping into this market? Are you captivating potential candidates even before they apply? When was the last time you looked through your CRM and reached out, not because you have an open position, but just because? (<-- Click to tweet!)

Imagine if you were to reach out to several of those candidates and send them a custom goodie box, a handwritten card or maybe even a tweet. This doesn’t mean you’ll need to hire new staff to own this process. Instead, challenge your recruiters or sourcers to keep an eye out for potential candidates and find a way to captivate them before they even apply.

If you liked this post, check out this one: How To Create Moments That Matter In The Candidate Experience

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