How HR Can Use Funnels For Long-Term Candidate Engagement

When it comes to acquiring top talent for an organisation, it’s about far more than just a few job postings. The long-term engagement for candidates requires human resources (HR) departments to strategically grow relationships with the candidates for their roles.

Much like a marketing sales funnel, it’s all about nurturing relationships for the future rather than just the present. The framework of the sales funnel can also be applied in a recruitment setting, where HR professionals are able to build a pipeline of qualified candidates over time.

 

What Is A Candidate Engagement Funnel?

 

A candidate engagement funnel is a constructed framework that outlines the journey of a potential hiring candidate. It begins from the initial awareness of the candidate about the company right up to their application. Similar to a sales funnel, it involves acquiring a pool of talent that demonstrates potential and engaging them through valuable content.

These relationships are then nurtured over time and as opportunities present themselves, the potential applicants are then recruited to join. The funnel doesn’t necessarily end at this stage, HR departments need to continue to retain interest of the individuals. As new opportunities arise in the future, the individuals within the talent pool should be made aware of them.

These funnels make the hiring process more strategic and quicker, as HR teams can build relations over time continuously instead of waiting for vacancies to become available.

 

Why Do Funnels Matter For Long-Term Engagement?

 

Funnel-based thinking has become a game-changer for HR teams, and for a number of reasons. Previously, traditional forms of recruitment fell short when it came to having enduring relationships with skilled talent. On the other hand, funnels focus on a long-term approach to keep these potential candidates engaged even if roles aren’t necessarily available at that moment in time.

Here’s why funnels matter more now than ever when it comes to candidate engagement:

Hiring switches from reactive to proactive: It’s common for companies to only hire when vacancies become available. However, funnels support a pipeline model where potential candidates are already present which reduces the time it takes to make a hire.

Candidates have an improved experience: Potential hires want to feel valued and informed at all times and with funnels, HR teams can maintain personalised communication and feedback efforts, always keeping top talent in the loop.

Employer branding is strengthened: The ongoing maintenance of relationships can assist with positioning the company as an employer of choice and top of mind, especially while the candidates are in the application phase.

 

The Stages Of The HR Funnel

 

Similar to the sales and marketing funnel, the HR funnel is also made up of specific stages. Each phase will contribute to guiding the candidate from initial interactions to their eventual hiring. By looking at each of these stages in detail, HR teams can create personalised content to engage the candidates at every phase.

 

1. Awareness

 

This is also known as the top of the funnel where the goal is to position the company in front of the right audience. At this phase, candidates may not be actively searching for new opportunities but they will learn about you through brand awareness efforts.

Some tactics to garner interest in the company can range from employee stories or purpose-driven content on social media platforms and optimising website pages for search engine optimisation (SEO) that speak to role-specific keywords.

 

 

2. Interest

 

The objective here is to grow the engagement with all potential candidates. In this phase, the candidates are now familiar with who you are and they are starting to consider the possibility of wanting to work at your company.

Here, HR teams can share highly valuable content like company culture highlights or sharing major milestones that the company has achieved.

Retargeting ads are also incredibly important at this stage to try and re-engage those who may have interacted initially with the brand but didn’t follow through with their applications.

 

3. Consideration

 

The next phase of the funnel is to encourage applications. At this point, the talent is strongly considering applying for a position or want to be considered in the future.

It’s crucial for recruiters to send out highly personalised messages that strongly align with each individual candidate’s background and skillsets.

The application process should be as smooth as possible, with one-click options to avoid candidates from losing interest if i’s overly complicated.

Here, HR teams also need to share role-specific content and what candidates can expect from the job and give an overview of the teams that they would be working with.

 

4. Conversion

 

The second to last phase is to seal the deal after candidates have applied and will move onto interviews.

It’s critical for HR teams to keep all communications prompt and transparent, and provide the candidates with packages for the role including welcoming messages and job benefits.

Candidates should also learn about the onboarding process, the day-to-day operations at the business and who their person of contact will be for any enquiries.

 

5. Advocacy And Re-engagement

 

The final step in the HR funnel is to not only utilise the hired candidates, but also those who weren’t hired for future roles. Not everyone who enters the funnel the first time will secure a hire, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t valuable for the future.

This is an ongoing phase where HR teams will need to proactively stay in touch with the promising candidates and advise them of any upcoming roles that they could be a fit for.

 

Enhancing HR Funnels With involve.me

 

Building an effective candidate engagement funnel can be significantly streamlined by utilising specialised platforms like involve.me. involve.me equips HR teams with powerful tools to create multi-step, personalised funnels that boost candidate engagement across all funnel stages, from initial awareness through long-term relationship nurturing.

HR departments can effortlessly design custom experiences, including quizzes, surveys, interactive forms, and personalised assessments, all designed to collect meaningful data about potential candidates.

With over 300 customisable templates and advanced features like conditional logic and real-time personalisation, involve.me allows HR teams to maintain dynamic and tailored communication with candidates, significantly enhancing their experience and engagement.

Moreover, involve.me’s comprehensive analytics provide actionable insights, helping HR professionals refine their funnels and strategically nurture talent relationships long-term.

 

What Is The Future Of Recruitment?

 

Long-term candidate engagement isn’t just a new strategic way of hiring, it’s completely changed the way in which companies think about recruitment.

It’s entirely possible that top talent may not be looking for a job and could be content where they are, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t consider a good opportunity down the line if it presents itself.

It’s the companies that take the time to nurture long-term relationships that end up succeeding. The funnels give HR departments a structured way to connect with top talent at every stage that they may be at, and to make the right hire when the time is right.