Time and time again, we hear about the need to improve your employer branding. Talented candidates have more choice and power to choose where they go, so making your company a desirable employer is becoming a priority. Implementing a strong recruitment process can help strengthen your image as a company. How? If applicants have a good candidate experience, their positive impression of the company does not change, even if they are rejected. They are even still likely to recommend the company to their friends and family.

Here are a few tips to strengthen your employer branding through your recruitment process:

1. Make applying clear and simple.

First, keep the job description and requirements clear and easy to understand. In times of mobile recruitment, your candidates will only spend a few seconds per job ad and will definitely not read through a whole novel until they know if the job fits to them or not. Candidates want an easy way to submit their application and not waste their time spending hours with online forms and upload restrictions, so make it as easy as possible for them.

2. Communicate with the candidate throughout the process.

Dissatisfaction from candidates is mainly due to lack of communication regarding the status of their application. Candidates expect a response time of 3 to 5 days after submitting an application, so keep them on track. Even if the process will take longer, let them know what to expect and reduce uncertainty. Otherwise, your top choice will turn you down.

3. Take advantage of selection tools which help you save time.

For example, replacing telephone interviews with video interviews allows you to screen candidates quicker. Not only do you save valuable time, and can screen more candidates to help you find the right one, candidates spend less time waiting around for your decision.

4. Involve the relevant people in your hiring.

Candidates want to know who they will be working with, and often their managers can make or break a decision for them to accept or decline your job offer. Give them more access to the relevant people, so they know exactly what the job entails. Including managers in the hiring process is crucial and should not be left to the final step.

5. Just because you decide a candidate doesn’t fit to a specific job, doesn’t mean you can stop there and stop trying.

Sometimes there is more than one candidate that fits your requirements and the choice is not easy. Other times, a candidate might not fit a specific position, but fits another one. Will they re-apply after receiving a poor rejection letter or feel that they were treated unfairly? In times where candidates share their experiences via platforms like Glassdoor, not only candidates that would fit for another job are lost, but so are others, who read about poor processes. Therefore, rejecting candidates correctly to make them want to reapply is just as important as the initial contact.