How Keeping in Touch with Candidates Makes Them More Likely to Start

<div class="grey-callout"><h2>In This Guide You’ll Learn</h2><p><ul><li>Why it’s important to keep in touch with candidates after they’ve accepted your job.</li><li>Why candidates who’ve accepted an offer sometimes never start.</li><li>Some ideas for maintaining contact with candidates before they join.</li></ul</p></div>

One of the worst things that can happen when you’re recruiting is finding a great candidate who accepts your job offer but never starts. You have to go back to the beginning and start the whole process again. To lower the risk of this it’s important to stay in contact with the candidate after they accept your job offer. This helps prepare them for starting work with you, as well as helping you to anticipate any problems that might come up.

Candidates Might Not Start a New Job!

There are various reasons why a successful candidate might not take up a new job:

• Their current employer may have come up with a last-ditch counteroffer that persuades them to stay.
• The candidate may have seen a better opportunity somewhere else.
• While serving out their notice period with their current employer, the candidate has a change of heart and decides to stay where they are.

Reasons to Keep in Touch

Immediately after a candidate accepts your job offer, you’ll need to be in touch with them to confirm the reference call with their current employer, check their right to work and agree terms of contract. It’s important to maintain engagement even after these tasks are completed. Here are a few ways of doing this:

• After the candidate resigns from their current job, call them to see how it went.
• Invite them to parties and social events or specially arrange a dinner for them with a few of your employees. This will help them get to know their future colleagues who might then keep in touch.
• Ask a senior member of staff to call the candidate to welcome them to your organisation.
• Give them any information that they need about your organisation and their new job to help prepare them for starting with you.
• Carefully plan their first few days in their new job. Ask them what areas are most important to them and make sure you cover these.
• Ask them if there are holidays, birthdays or anniversaries that they’d like to have put into the annual leave schedule.
• If they need a car parking pass, get their details so that you have one ready for them when they start.
• If they’ll be wearing a uniform, ask them what size they they’d like.

<div class="grey-callout"><h2>Key Takeaways</h2><p><ul><li>Keep in touch with candidates after they’ve accepted your offer.</li><li>This helps you prepare them for starting and anticipate any problems that may prevent them from doing so.</li><li>Stay in contact by inviting them to social events, asking a senior person to call them, giving them any further information they need about the role, and liaising with them about arrangements to smooth their transition such as car parking and booking upcoming leave.</li></ul></p></div>