Why is this helpful?
At best, candidates that apply will receive an auto-responder from your ATS; at worst? Well, they likely will never hear anything from anyone, ever. With Bullhorn Automation, you can flip your current candidate experience on its head and start engaging with candidates the minute they apply to your open positions.
Up to 80-90% of candidates may never hear anything from a recruitment firm. Change that with Bullhorn Automation.
- Automatic follow-up from the start
- Notifies candidate at key steps of recruiting process
- Candidates aren’t left scratching their heads because they never heard from a recruiter
- Establishes a 1:1 relationship from apply process forward
- Recruiters are only tasked if they DIDN’T follow-up on their own
- 100% follow-up for every applicant; no one falls through the cracks
Deeper dive
1. It should be obvious, but the main trigger for this campaign is when a candidate applies to an open position. There are some other modifiers you could use too, like sending a follow-up if there hasn’t been new activity in 5 days or the candidate applied but their email bounced. These things can help keep the new data coming in clean and also create a great experience for new applicants.
basic applicant search
2. How your workflow is set up after they apply is up to you, but we’d suggest at minimum sending an autoresponder email to the address they entered. You could also send an immediate text message if you’ve collected consent.
Bonus points
- Notify assigned recruiter
- Update candidate status to ‘Active’
- Adjust candidate’s Bullhorn Automation score
- Add a followup task for the assigned recruiter
- Notify recruiter if no activity in 3 days
- Enroll candidate in job alerts, newsletter, or other ongoing nurturing campaigns
Final Thoughts
You can expect better engagement scores from candidates that are actively being nurtured vs. those that are not. At a minimum, sending an autoresponder and subsequent follow-up messages improves your reputation in the eyes of candidates. Here are things you could measure:
Key metrics
- Open rate
- Engagement score
- Time to fill
- Submission rate
- Placement revenue
Starting a relationship off right is what new applicant follow-up is all about. Rather than falling into an ATS black hole, applicants are nurtured and communicated with, good and bad, so they aren’t left wondering. Consider that candidates spend a lot of time building a resume, applying and waiting. Give them a positive experience and improve your employment brand at the same time.