With a growing competitive market in a number of industries, there is not only pressure on job applicants, but on businesses themselves as well to make a good first impression to increase their chances of their chosen candidate accepting their job offer.
Keep reading to find out how your business can also make a good impression on job applicants.
It’s always been about how applicants make an impression on businesses, but…
For years, job applicants have been taught to believe that they must be the ones to make companies’ first impression of them last. First impressions, especially during job interviews, is what can truly set apart one candidate from another, so a part of preparing for job interviews has always been focused on how applicants can make a good first impression.
However, did you know that more than ⅓ of candidates make the final decision about a job within the first five minutes of the interview or sooner? This means that, as a business, you need to be able to sell your company and its culture to the job applicants to encourage them to accept a job offer, regardless of whether you’ve decided to offer them one at the time or not.
With this in mind, more attention is being directed towards the importance of companies making a good first impression on job applicants, not just vice versa. In the current economic climate, the best applicants are most likely to be receiving offers from multiple companies, so you need to make your company the most lucrative one out of the competition.
How to make a good impression on your job applicants
How can you do this? Well, there are several ways in which you can create a memorable experience for your job applicants and keep them interested in your company and the role, including the following ideas.
- Mention company benefits – you need to offer incentives for job applicants to even consider your company! These can range from flexible working hours to discounts on retailers to even group critical illness cover to show that you protect and care about your employees’ wellbeing.
- Know who you’re interviewing – if a candidate has passed onto the interview stage, before they even enter the room, read their CV and any additional documents to grasp a little bit more about them. For candidates, it looks better if the company actually knows their name and doesn’t repeatedly look at their CV during the interview.
- Smile – whether it’s the first, last, or third interview of the day, displaying a positive attitude and approachable manner is much better than an interviewer with a stoic expression who looks absolutely bored. Remember – the way you present yourself during interviews reflects your company too, so make sure you express yourself positively, maybe even enthusiastically, but not too much to the point it’s ungenuine.
- Be transparent – communicate clearly with the candidate and if they have questions, answer them truthfully! They respect your time and you should respect theirs, so don’t leave them with no response after an interview – make the effort to give a call to say that they didn’t get the job.
