11/14/2016  //  By deanna kane  //  Candidate Experience
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The weeks leading up to the start of the holiday season often mean the last opportunity to fill open positions until after the new year. With the added pressure of working against the clock, it’s important to remain focused on continuing to nurture your talent pipeline and provide an ideal candidate experience. Ensure your candidate pipeline stays interested in your organization and is grateful to receive company updates, by following these four tips.

Continue Communication Momentum

Creating timely and relevant candidate messaging can go a long way in keeping your talent pipeline engaged until they are ready to start actively searching. Continue to communicate with your organization’s talent community, sending the messages that will keep your company top-of-mind into the new year. Instead of focusing on communicating open positions, share information about how your company supports career growth, how employees can make an impact, and as annual reviews wrap up, how employees can best position themselves for promotions. This type of content will resonate when candidates are ready to re-launch their job search in the new year.

Create a Personal Touch

In addition to communicating with the talent community as a whole, reach out to high-potential candidates individually to discuss their short-term career goals. Use a talent relationship management (TRM) system to capture this information, so the talent acquisition team knows when to follow up and to reach out when a relevant position opens up. This will ensure your team is targeting the candidates who will likely be the best fit for your company, saving both recruiters and candidates unnecessary interview time.

Engage with Event Candidates

With the conclusion of diversity event season, ensure every candidate who met with your company received a follow-up communication. For the candidates with whom you will be speaking further, clearly communicate next steps and a high-level timeline. For the new candidates your company met at these events, send an email welcoming them to your talent community and share what they can expect to receive from you. Your organization is still fresh in their minds, so leverage this timeliness.

Connect with Employee Referrals

Launch a year-end employee referral campaign. Referrals are often the best employees, so engage your current employees to refer talent from their networks. This will help your team avoid sourcing from scratch from every hire, and provide a warmed up talent pipeline who is already familiar with your company’s recruitment brand. Consider increasing the referral bonus through the end of the year, to further incentivize employees to refer top talent to your company.

Are you interested in automating processes to build a grateful talent pipeline? Find out how talent acquisition software can help manage your candidate engagement efforts.