How do I get more applicants to show up to interviews?

That’s a great question! Ghosting is never any fun, but when a candidate you were really excited about potentially adding to your agency no calls / no shows to an interview, it can be disheartening.

The good news is that there are a few things you can do to help increase the amount of applicants who show up to your interviews — and it all starts with putting the candidate experience first.

1. Sell your agency to potential applicants.

It’s 2022. In order to stand out to applicants amongst the other 16+ companies they applied to today, you need to make a really great first impression. There are a few ways that your agency can go about doing this.

First, make sure that you have a career site for your job descriptions to link to if they are hosted on job boards like Indeed. Career sites are the perfect place to boast about your company culture; think about what makes working for your company better than any other agency — and tell them!

Secondly, take a look at your current job descriptions. Do they tell the potential applicants what’s in it for them if they’re hired at your agency? In this job market, you need all the influencing power you can get; if you haven’t already, be sure to list the benefits, perks, and pay information close to the beginning of the job description. It’s not a bad idea to include the benefits and perks on your career site either, just as another way to incentivize them apply.

If you can convince more applicants to apply, you’ll not only increase your overall applicant volume, but also the likelihood of the candidates actually showing up to your scheduled interviews sheerly from a numbers point of view.

2. Pick up the pace.

Two weeks — that’s what your goal should be from receiving an initial application to extending an offer letter.

To meet this target, take a look at your hiring process; is it clearly defined? Are there any steps where you could set clearer parameters for recruiters to expedite the process? For example, something as simple as setting a 24 hour turnaround time on reaching out to candidates after receiving their application can do wonders for speeding up the process. As a bonus: the sooner you reach out to applicants, the better in this hiring market — especially if you want to give them the best candidate experience possible.

To help agencies like yours streamline their hiring process to effectively engage as many candidates as possible, I’ve also written this step-by-step hiring process guide.

Also, look for tasks that can be automated. Prescreening surveys make sure that applicants who meet required certifications are allowed to proceed in the interview process, all while saving your recruiters time. Collecting documents via email gives your HR team time back that would otherwise be spent during onboarding, meaning that your newest hire can start learning their role and being productive faster than before.

Simple adjustments like these make all the difference — the candidate and to your agency.

3. Consolidate your hiring tools where possible.

When you have all of your hiring tools in one place, you have fewer oversights that bog the hiring process down and detract from the candidate experience. Instead of your HR team shifting from spreadsheet to spreadsheet to input data or managing multiple people’s calendars to fit in an interview, many of these processes can be handled by the same application. Data errors are eliminated and it’s easier to avoid double-booking interviews for recruiters — plus, in some cases, you can better prepare applicants for their upcoming interviews depending on optional email campaigns and communication flows.

Consolidating your hiring tools gives your HR team time back in their day since the data seamlessly syncs once a new hire has been made, all while saving your agency money with fewer subscriptions and better results.

4. Candidate convenience is your priority.

Part of playing into the candidate experience is also making sure the candidate can navigate the interview and hiring processes as conveniently as possible. It’s your agency’s job to find solutions that make traditionally clunky tasks like candidate communication and interview scheduling easier for your applicants if you want them to remain engaged in the process and show up to those interviews.

One major way to prioritize candidate convenience is to ditch email communication in favor of texting. Candidates are on the go and likely don’t want to sort through their inboxes to see if your agency has gotten back to them yet. Sending a simple text inviting them to schedule an interview or reminding them of the benefits and perks your agency offers can go a long way in terms of keeping them engaged.

Home Care FAQs