Whether you’re heading back to campus, recruiting virtually, or taking a hybrid approach this fall, now is the time for your team to examine your current early-talent strategies and objectives. A lot has changed since last year. Fifty-seven percent of companies are increasing their emerging-talent hires while also seeing significant turnover in their recruiting staff.
With this landscape in mind, it is more important than ever to be clear and concise about your goals and how to achieve them. Before heading into fall recruitment, your organization should spend time honing your focus on data, DEI, and the candidate experience to see priorities rise to the top of the list and what the expectations are in order for your team to succeed this fall.
To effectively develop goals for the fall recruiting season, identify the outcomes that align with your strategy and set realistic goals based on where you are right now. Pick three to five metrics that represent what you want to improve on, whether they are DEI metrics, candidate experience metrics, ROI, or a combination of all of the above. Every company starts at a different stage, so these goals should be unique to your situation. Evaluating historical data and level-setting expectations is key in knowing your organization’s “starting point”. Leverage analytical tools like WayUp and Yello that empower you to be data-driven in your pursuit of improvement.
Armed with this data, your team can dig deeper into your campus planning strategy and engagement goals to see where to improve. If you’re data-driven in your approach, you can surface your needs to vendors and leadership with enough evidence to secure buy-in. Remember that pre-Covid benchmarks and goals might not apply to your situation today. Goals evolve based on several factors like team structure and the hiring market. Below are some goal outlines that will set your team up for success this fall.
Candidate engagement is an ongoing process of meeting and staying in contact with potential candidates. Easy ways to communicate include providing them with information about your organization, your opportunities, what you’re looking for, and what candidates can expect from the process. Use tools like WayUp and Yello to easily message candidates before engagement events to let them know where you will be and get your recruiters in front of target audiences.
There are many ways to measure candidate engagement success, and many teams begin by measuring the number of candidates at the top of the funnel. You can also measure how many candidates you positively evaluate at each event to see if you’re engaging candidates who are qualified for your roles. It’s also a good idea to monitor candidate engagement with your outreach efforts. Are you driving traffic to your event booth or virtual hiring event? If not, it could be useful to check in on the open rate of your communications. Ways to boost candidate engagement include personalized outreach at key stages and consistent communication to keep them updated on where they are in your hiring process. Your team should also be as efficient as possible so you can quickly move candidates along in the process before they lose interest or take on other opportunities.
Conversion rates and candidate engagement go hand-in-hand. If you have a healthy pipeline for your open roles and you’re hitting your candidate engagement goals, you should see high conversion rates throughout your recruiting funnel. Good metrics for measuring conversion rates include how many candidates you can get to engage with your company through proactive outreach via an email campaign or LinkedIn, how many of the candidates you speak to apply to the role, how many withdraw their application before getting to the hire stage, and what percent of your offers are accepted. At what rate do candidates go from engaged for the first time to signing on the dotted line?
Diversity goals will look different in every organization because we are all starting at different places. Defining early-career diversity goals tailored to your company will help hold your organization accountable. Working alongside leadership and other stakeholders, understand your current benchmarks and identify where you’d like to grow based on what is important to your organization. Diversity also means a lot of things, so make sure your team agrees internally before executing your strategy.
A common place that companies like to start includes driving diverse candidates to the top of their recruiting funnel. Use our Campus Diversity Insights tool to see where your target candidates are before investing resources in recruiting at a school. Next is to evaluate where your diverse candidates fall off in the hiring process. WayUp’s advanced analytics tool shows which stage of the process is knocking off diverse candidates at higher rates than others. This way you know exactly where the bias is in the process.
Employer branding focuses on creating excitement about your company, roles, and culture to help candidates want to apply and stay engaged throughout the process. Strategies include creating resources purpose-built for emerging talent and including a careers page link on social media posts that highlight early-talent opportunities and showcase your company culture. Your employer brand should also demonstrate your values, how you give back to the community and how your organization supports DEI efforts. Through virtual events and participating in brand-boosting events like National Intern Day, you show candidates your organization cares about their future. Measure traffic to your company profile, engagement on social media, and views on your content like articles and company culture videos. See what is working and what is not for your target audience. With these measures in mind, you can augment your strategy for better performance down the line.
The technology your team invests in to support fall recruiting initiatives can make or break your success. Many recruiting teams have access to plenty of valuable tools and functionality but do not have the time, training, or resources to take advantage of it. This is a common cause of poor candidate experience or low hiring performance metrics. Every recruiter should know how to use the tools available and how it fits into the process. This will help everyone feel more comfortable and allow them to focus on what matters most: candidates!
To help advance your team's technology usage, ask your team for feedback and determine whether more training is necessary. Give shoutouts to team members using the technology most effectively, or contact your WayUp / Yello CSM for a usage report to see the data on which recruiters could benefit from further adoption of your tools.
As you think about goal setting for fall and start to get excited about what you and your team will accomplish, it can also be valuable to set some goals around employee satisfaction and performance. This contributes to aligning your team around a single mission and making sure everyone feels supported along the way. Setting recurring process and strategy check-ins throughout the season is an effective way to gain feedback on event strategy, team preparation, and candidate experience. You can also ask current employees or ,better yet, interns for feedback on your process since they just experienced it as candidates.
Want to learn more about how WayUp and Yello can help you set and achieve your goals this fall? Get in touch here and let's get started!
