In a skills-short marketplace, every candidate is crucial.
According to studies presented in a recent post by Kornferry, by 2030, more than 85 million roles may go unfilled because we simply don’t have enough skilled candidates in the market. The issue is particularly prevalent when it comes to digital professionals.
Around 3 in 20 UK employers are already facing the impact of a digital skills shortage, and the number continues to grow.
Combine a limited number of trained Salesforce professionals with trends like the Great Resignation, and it’s easy to see why hiring top talent is growing more complex. Today’s Salesforce superstars have endless opportunities to work for companies and end-users all over the world, thanks to remote working.
The only way to successfully fill your talent gap is to invest in an empathetic approach to employee engagement. Candidate care – the process of delivering support and guidance to talented employees through each stage of the hiring cycle, is more important than ever.
Defining Candidate Care: What Does it Involve?
The term “candidate care” covers all the steps involved in engaging and assisting your candidates through every touchpoint they have with your employer brand. It starts from the moment you write your job descriptions with a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and continues through the relationship you have with your new hire.
An effective candidate care strategy will often involve:
- Managing expectations: Giving employees a clear view of what to expect from their role, the company culture at your workplace, and how they’ll be assessed.
- Communication: Connecting with candidates both directly and through specialist recruitment teams to keep them informed.
- Feedback: Both sharing information with candidates and collecting details about their experience throughout the hiring journey.
Used successfully, a plan for candidate care allows you to demonstrate an empathetic employer brand, making you more appealing to the top talent in your area. It’s also an excellent way to improve your chances of gaining more applicants and retaining staff long-term.
Here’s why you should be investing in candidate care for your Salesforce hires.
1. Boost Your Chances of Attracting Top Talent
Finding skilled Salesforce professionals for your team is often easier said than done. Even as the Salesforce ecosystem continues to grow, the widening digital skills shortage makes it difficult to find available employees in your area. Improving your employer brand with a focus on candidate care, empathy, inclusion, and support can make your roles more attractive.
By investing in candidate care, you show top talent you’re committed to giving them the best possible experience when working with your brand. This is crucial at a time when staff are looking for more empathetic and caring employers.
The experience you provide during the hiring and onboarding experience will also provide your staff with an insight into what they can expect when working for your brand. This can help generate excitement about being a part of your team.
2. Improves Company Relationships
Studies show positive workplace relationships are the second most important factor in job satisfaction. The more your employees trust the company and leadership teams, the more likely they are to feel engaged and committed to their role.
A candidate care strategy focuses on building a stronger connection between your company and team members from day one. It opens the lines of communication between your staff and your leadership team and creates a rapport that can continue throughout the time your employees spend with your company.
During the initial stages of hiring and onboarding your new Salesforce staff, the values of communication and transparency you demonstrate will give them a clear insight into what to expect when working with your brand. As your relationship with your staff members evolve, they’ll be more likely to stay with your business long-term.
3. Reduce Hiring Issues
Good candidate care can improve your chances of hiring the right employees immediately. When you work with a recruitment agency to communicate your job role and company culture to your candidates, you improve your chances of attracting staff who will fit well with your team.
A clear and transparent job description, regular feedback through the interview process, and constant communication also ensure employees know what to expect. This means they’re more likely to be able to jump into their Salesforce roles quickly and conveniently, with minimal disruption. You could even provide advice on which Salesforce tools your candidates need to brush up on before they join your team.
A good candidate care strategy often includes an onboarding process which helps to streamline the transition into your team for your new employees too. This process will make it easier to introduce staff to the team members they’ll be working with and get them set up for productivity.
4. Enhance Your Chances of Referrals
In a skills short marketplace, it’s important to have a range of environments you can explore when searching for new talent. Your candidate care strategy not only shows your employees you’re investing in the things that matter most to their job experience, but it also encourages them to share positive reviews with others.
The candidates you impress with your onboarding and hiring process can quickly become advocates for your company, encouraging other Salesforce stars that you are the company to work with.
The right candidate care strategy will work alongside your investment in a professional recruitment team to add more people to your talent pipeline.
5. It Drives Useful Insights
Finally, a strong candidate care strategy can also open the door for collecting useful feedback and insights from your employees and applicants. The transparent communication you engage in with your potential hires during the recruitment process will encourage people to share the same transparency in return.
This could mean you can collect more useful information from your new hires about how you can improve the hiring process, or how you might be able to make onboarding more efficient. Even people who don’t join your team can give you insights into what might have caused them to choose a different role over yours.
Simple surveys or discussions with your recruitment team will provide access to data and information you can use to enhance your future hiring potential.
Thanks,
Lee
About Resource on Demand
Resource On Demand is Europe’s first specialist Salesforce Recruitment Company.
We assist innovative and disruptive organisations in growing their technology teams. Supporting companies to fill Cloud roles across the growing Salesforce.com suite of skills.
The team at Resource On Demand have access to an extensive database of key talent, registering over 8000 Cloud professionals each year.
To find out how we can support you call us on 01322 272 532