The recruiter-tech talent relationship is one that will continue to mystify the sourcing world, as more emails go unread and job opportunities remain unfilled.
If your team is getting brutally pwned by low response rates, the source of the problem isn’t too far off, and there’s a way to fix it. Fine-tune your outreach strategy and check out these tips for appealing to what tech candidates are looking for in a new opportunity.
Here’s a guide on what not to do or say in your message to a potential hire. Trust us.
Candidates have no idea who you are.
Your email response rates are likely to be higher if you’re recruiting from a well-known company like Google, Apple, or Facebook. But if you’re recruiting from a smaller, younger company, you’d better be sure that your organization’s online presence and digital footprint is authoritative and noticeable.
Candidates value a company who prioritize their branding strategy because it’s a reflection of how much the team cares about the way they present themselves to the general public. It also helps to have a top-notch company image so that candidates can do ample research on the team and product, and hopefully, be willing to be part of the growth.
One quick branding fix is making sure the name of the email sender isn’t something that’s too generalized or unattributed, like the name of the company or “No reply.” The name of the email sender should be an individual at the company, either the recruiter, hiring manager, or even the CEO. Include a picture in the email sender settings to add even more personality and identity to a message.
You aren’t A/B testing your email subject headers.
The email subject line is the first touch point with a candidate. "If the email never got opened, its contents didn’t matter at all,” Adam Jackson writes in a TechCrunch piece.
Keep it to 50 characters or less that tells the message in a concise, clear manner. Lines like, “Entelo is interested in hiring you” or “Designer role with San Francisco startup” could work for your team, although it varies company to company. See what works for your team.
Be sure to also watch bounce, spam, and unsubscribe rates. These can help you indicate what part of the message needs to be adjusted.
The message is generic, impersonal, and inaccurate.
Mass messaging candidates is a surefire way to get your email sent to the Trash. Most candidates see them as they do chain mail — pesky, irrelevant, and a waste of time.
In other words, you’re a recruiter and you sound like one...and in this case, that’s not a good thing. Recruiters often make the mistake of saying what they think engineers would say, which can come across as offensive and uninformed.
“Everyone says they’re VC-backed and are doing ‘exciting things’,” said Ayumi Yu, Entelo back-end engineer. “Recruiting messages never sound like engineers wrote them. It’s obvious they’re messages a recruiter crafted.”
Take the time to personalize the message and check out a candidate’s work portfolio so you can open up the conversation with a more customized, authentic ice breaker. Also, be sure that you have a thorough understanding about the position you’re recruiting for. No one likes being sourced for a more junior position.
In addition, the company benefits and perks you described may be too general.
Employees in each department are interested in benefiting from a company in different ways. Recruiting for a sales team isn’t the same as recruiting for an engineering team. Engineers know what’s indeed interesting and exciting to engineers.
If your company is seriously interested in a tech candidate, consider getting the hiring manager to do the recruiting for the individual. A full-stack engineer who receives an email from a senior engineer at the company will be more inclined to read through the message because there’s a genuine interest that’s communicated — all by making one slight change of the email sender.
The message is too pushy.
One easy way to rub candidates the wrong way is to be too forward.
The initial outreach to a candidate shouldn’t be perceived as the one and only chance to get your message across. Recruiters often stuff their entire job offer into an email, referencing a candidate’s previous work (which is good), along with lengthy details on the role, benefits, company background, and a proposed interview date and time.
Slow down.
Recruiters should first establish contact to start the conversation, give the candidate time to decide whether or not they’re interested or looking for a new opportunity, and follow-up with the usual interview and hiring processes.
Want to learn more about building a solid line of communication between you and candidates? Check out our award-winning eBook on effectively messaging candidates. (Just kidding, for now, but it is free.99.)
