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3 Candidate Engagement Strategies for Manufacturing Recruiters

Discover the power of candidate engagement in manufacturing recruitment with these three strategies: automating communications, streamlining the recruiting process and providing regular updates.

As Beyoncé famously said, if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it.

Manufacturing recruiters who have missed out on candidates because their recruiting process was too slow or because candidates felt disrespected know that candidates—like Queen Bey’s single ladies—want to be engaged. They want to feel that they’re building a relationship with a company that’s equally interested in them. 

Building and maintaining engagement can prevent you from losing candidates, sometimes without even knowing why. One survey revealed that “ghosting”—when a party stops communicating without explanation—is on the rise. The percentage of candidates who have ghosted an employer rose from 18% in 2019 to 28% in 2020. 

But employers can be guilty of ghosting too: a stunning 77% of candidates reported that a prospective employer had ghosted them. 

Leaving a candidate hanging reflects poorly on your company and can hurt future recruitment efforts. So while it’s important to be transparent with candidates who aren’t a great fit, it’s also imperative that TA teams stay engaged with candidates who are still in the running for open positions throughout the recruitment process. 

So, how can recruiters do a better job of engaging candidates? 

3 Candidate Engagement Strategies to Improve Manufacturing Recruitment

Candidate engagement requires time and attention, but it’s well worth it in the end when you have a strong pipeline of promising candidates to choose from. These three tips can help your team improve candidate engagement throughout the recruitment process. 

1. Automate communications. 

Consistent communication is the touchstone of a strong candidate engagement strategy, but that doesn’t mean your team has to craft and send every message manually. Every second they can save by letting recruiting automation software communicate with candidates is a second they can devote to other critical tasks

TalentEngage from FactoryFix is an SMS messaging tool that automatically engages manufacturing candidates within just minutes of their application submission to open the lines of communication. TalentEngage also automatically sends candidates reminders about their upcoming interviews to improve the odds that they’ll attend—and not waste your team’s time by ghosting them.

2. Streamline your recruiting process. 

What does time to hire have to do with your team’s success in candidate engagement? Plenty. The longer your recruitment and hiring processes are, the harder it is for your team to keep candidates engaged until the hiring team can make a decision. 

One survey found that 57% of job seekers said they would lose interest in a position if it took too long to hear back after an interview. How long is too long? Seven or more days, according to 39% of job seekers. If your recruitment process is taking too long or you’re leaving candidates in the dark for a week or more, there may not be anything your team can do to keep highly qualified candidates interested—or keep them from accepting an offer elsewhere.

Speeding up each stage of recruiting can lessen the chances that candidates will drop out for opportunities with other employers.

FactoryFix can help you hasten your recruitment process by automatically screening applicants and weeding out candidates who are unqualified or uninterested. This saves your TA team time by eliminating the need for screening calls and improves the candidate pool by weeding out applicants who aren’t a good fit. Plus, our automated interview scheduling can help your team move fast with qualified candidates and let those candidates know you value their skills and you’re serious about moving forward.

3. Provide regular updates. 

It doesn’t take job candidates long to get antsy when they haven’t heard from an employer. Don’t let your team leave candidates with the impression that they’re being ghosted; instead, have them provide regular updates about where you are in the process and when they’ll hear from you next. This steady stream of engagement can help candidates feel more comfortable and prevent them from accepting another offer or actively searching for other opportunities.

Use Candidate Engagement to Give Your Hiring Team More Options 

As a TA manager, you want your hiring team to have a hard choice to make—not because your team hasn’t surfaced enough qualified candidates but because you have an abundance of qualified, engaged candidates. Candidate engagement is one of the best tools to keep top candidates interested so you can bring the best workers on board. 

With FactoryFix’s proven recruitment technology, you can source top-notch manufacturing talent, keep candidates engaged and fill positions faster. 

Get started today with your free trial and experience the power of FactoryFix firsthand.