Step 6: Follow up with promising candidates
It’s common for organizations to have multiple rounds of interviews and several candidates that they put through the interview process. For any one candidate, it may take several weeks to months to go through the whole interview process. In the meantime, candidates are likely researching your company and exploring other employment opportunities.
It’s critical that the hiring manager apply tactics from sales teams to keep the candidate “warm” and interested. One approach is to continue the interview dialog through emails. Better candidates will follow up after interviews with a thank-you email to the interviewees. Instead of ignoring this message, use it to continue the dialog.
Follow up with a question from the interview. Share an article and ask the interviewers opinion. If your organization shared some recent news, or if your team reached a critical milestone, share this with the candidate. Continue the dialog to make sure the candidate knows he or she is a top contender.
Step 7: Seal the detail by marketing the team and mission
As you narrow down the candidate list or start making offers, it’s important to market and sell the role to the candidate. (You should have figured out your “sell” in Step 1.) Chances are that if you’re interested in the candidate, then there are other employers competing with you.
Consider the different ways to reward top performers and motivate developers and apply similar approaches to winning over the candidate. Yes, aspects of the financial offer and other incentives will be critical, but the candidate also wants to know his or her efforts will be recognized, that there’s opportunity for growth and promotions, that there’s a desire and tools available for individuals to learn, that the organization is open to experiment and taking calculated risks, and other cultural incentives.
In addition, candidates want to understand and buy into your organization’s and team’s mission and goals. Most developers don’t sign up just to solve problems and crunch code; they want to know there is meaning and value behind their efforts and accomplishments. Make sure to sell and win this mindset especially with developers that have competitive offers.