Candidate Attraction & Retention - Survey Insights

How are employers and their recruiters combating this problem? Candidates expect experiences that forge strong relationships with their brands and the hiring process is becoming more critical to the candidates' perception. These are some of the top findings during 2022:

• "Candidates have the power now. Convincing people to work for us is key. We need to prove how we're better to work for than any other company even though we can't always offer the highest pay. Pay, culture, word of mouth, benefits, work/life balance will all be critical. Non-monetary perks will be more important than ever".
• "I would also include work culture. It's been a very candidate-driven market and talent is looking for not only work/life balance but also a company that puts people first".
• "Candidates are no longer interested in fancy campuses, snacks and ping pong tables. They want real values that resonate with their own, and to see those values from the top down. Candidates want true flexibility and to be able to put their family and their mental health first. They also want to be appreciated and treated fairly".

Employee Value Proposition

Companies throughout the pandemic have been making changes to their employee value proposition in areas such as remote working, work-from-home benefits, mental health and wellness benefits, employee recognition and retention bonuses. Talent leaders will invest heavily in employer branding in 2022. It's vital that talent knows about their brand and are top-of-mind; dedicated sourcing teams will be vital throughout the year to meet these challenging targets. Recruiters are also concerned that their interview process is too demanding, impacting the candidate's experience. Already, it appears that long-term candidate-nurture are seeing the best ROI.

Employees and job candidates are looking for connection, engagement, trust and respect. They are much more selective about their demands from employers.

One point in the survey questioned how employers had changed their employee's benefits during the pandemic. Alongside the various improvements made for mental health, companies are introducing:

• "Added work from home stipends and 'away days' to encourage healthy work-life balance".
• "Pension contributions, performance-based bonus structure, and more".
• "Monthly wellness days, no-meeting Fridays, frequent Town Hall, informal coffee club with CEO/leaders, WFH allowance, etc.".

Why Are Candidates Rejecting Roles?

It seems that speed is of the essence. A third of talent leaders from large organisations revealed that candidates would reject offers and drop out of the recruitment process because they've received better or counter-offers. Recruitment teams will have to work hard for the remainder of 2022 to craft accurate and efficient messaging around company culture and diversity, learning and development, and career trajectories. 

It's important to ensure that candidates are engaged. Finding talent might be relatively easy; but finding talent that wants to talk is a different ball game, which means recruiters have to amend the way they deliver their messaging by crafting compelling subject lines to improve click-through rates. Tracking open rates and interested replies will give employees an understanding of the recruiting company; this speaks volumes about the employer’s brand.

Remote Work

The willingness to relocate has created a bottleneck in hiring. Interestingly, enterprise organisations are more likely to expect current and new employees in the office at least part-time. Already smaller organisations are achieving their hiring goals because their employee value proposition includes remote or remote-first cultures.

Recruitment Marketing 

Regardless of company size, employment branding and recruitment marketing campaigns cited the most successful strategies as:

• “Long term nurturing has worked the best for us. We send updated blogs and articles every quarter to candidates we are nurturing”.
• “Multi-channel touchpoints have the best ROI at the moment”.
• “Long-term candidate nurture. Relationships don’t happen overnight, and the lion’s share of engineers that I talk to don’t have a great perception of recruiting. It takes time to earn trust. I pride myself on having long term relationships. I may not place someone now, but maybe in 2-3 years. It’s the long game, not the short”.

Recruitment marketing is a strategy for attracting and engaging the best talent through the same tactics marketers use to sell the value of their products with highly tailored content, personalised nurture campaigns, and long-term multi-channel engagement.

The employee value proposition is the unique set of benefits an employee receives in return for their commitment to an organisation, including positive company culture, CSR, vacation and diversity. This will form the heart of any recruitment marketing strategy, so it's essential it's spot on.

Highlights Of The Candidate's Experience

Talent professionals spoke that diversity, offers and culture were as crucial as prioritisation and speed:

• “Time to move candidates through the hiring process and make offers quickly”.
• “The market is extremely hot in Australia. Out of the blue, our withdrawal rates raised to 60% here. We had to speed up the process (not fewer steps, but faster scheduling to finish everything within 9-14 days)”.
• “More timely feedback to applicants irrespective of the outcome”.
• “Unconscious bias training and awareness throughout”.
• “Creating compelling offer narratives, selling the opportunity and company in the final stage”.
• “Culture and mission of the company”.

The most effective employee value proposition is shaped by direct feedback from current, past, and prospective employees, including those who don’t accept offers. It’s important to understand why they responded to messaging and how the benefits differ, such as remote work, health benefits, recognition, and a flexible environment.

Employee Personas

Before creating recruitment marketing content, it’s essential to understand the persona of the ideal candidate. The persona is imagined around career goals, core values, motivations, skills and frustrations. Younger applicants might focus on career development and fun office spaces, whereas work-life balance could be more critical to slightly older professionals. You'll attract these personas through various marketing tools such as social media, newsletters, blog posts, testimonials, infographics, leadership opinion pieces and an optimised career site.

What Candidates Want

The following touchpoints are essential to successful recruiting in 2022:



• Hiring should take no more than one to two weeks, from the first interview to a job offer.
• They insist on a simple, straightforward, and convenient job search.
• Candidates want meaningful experiences and communication designed with them in mind.
• Modern candidates expect to be informed.
• They are as interested in unique employment experiences as they are in the company.
• Candidates want to have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their fit for the role.