What candidates want – how to attract the best job candidates, by Pure Human Resources

In this article, Stephanie Fosh (BSc (Hons), MBPsS, Chartered FCIPD, CertMIoD, PG Dip), Managing Director at recruitment specialists Pure Human Resources, highlights some of the key things that are important to candidates when they are looking for a new role.

These useful insights help employers to attract the best candidates for their roles, and give them the best chance of their chosen candidate saying YES!

Good communication

Keep in touch with your candidates.

View every interaction with a candidate as a positive PR exercise for your company – an opportunity to create a positive impression and generate goodwill for your business.

How you treat them throughout the recruitment process will have an impact on whether they choose to accept your role or not, if you choose to make them an offer.

Acknowledge your candidates. Don’t take the approach “If you haven’t heard from us, assume you haven’t been successful.” It isn’t respectful to the effort they’ve put in applying for your role if you don’t take the time to respond with a personalised message.

Candidates’ priorities

Something that is top of mind for most candidates is the options for hybrid working, with salary expectations close behind, because of the cost of living crisis.

The amount of holiday they’ll be entitled to is also important. Gone are the days where people are happy with companies offering the statutory requirement of 20 days per year, plus bank holidays.

Anything else you can offer as value added benefits are popular with candidates too.

Excellent benefits

The job market is highly competitive and it feels like the candidates often hold the power, so you need to make sure your company stands out with an attractive range of benefits.

There are many options that don’t have to cost SMEs the earth to provide but add real value to an employee. For example, a hospital cash plan rather than medical insurance.

On-site car parking is another popular benefit for many people.

Think about your working hours, and your location stipulations. This can be a major deciding factor for many people.

One benefit you should not include on an advert is ‘free tea and coffee’. It sounds like you’re scraping the barrel on the benefits you’re offering!

The right culture

Culture is really important and a happy working environment is crucial, with many of us probably spending more of our waking hours at work than with our family.

Making sure that people feel engaged, especially in a hybrid working environment when you’re not all together in person, is important too.

You need to have trust, and you need to have a performance oriented culture to make sure that your employees have clarity on their job description, that they know what your business’s goals are, and what their own goals are, and that they have the support and the resources to be able to achieve those goals.

Having regular reviews is important too, giving your employees dedicated 1:1 time. Asking how things are going at home and at work engenders loyalty and boosts morale.

Training

Training and opportunities to develop are really important for a lot of people, which is an element that organisations quite often miss.

Most people want to grow in their role or in their career progression.

Our experienced team at Pure® Human Resources has been working with candidates for many years. We pride ourselves on really listening to what is important to them, so that we can help our candidates and clients to get the right match – the right role for the right candidate in the right business is a win win for both sides!

If you would like us to help you with your recruitment process, our friendly and expert team would love to hear from you.

You can call us on 01794 329470 or email us at info@purehumanresources.co.uk