Businesses have just a matter of months to ensure that candidate engagement strategies are hitting the mark – or they risk losing access to vast and valuable talent pools. That is the advice of global talent acquisition and management specialist, Alexander Mann Solutions, as the launch of new data protection laws draw closer.
The introduction of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules, which are due to come into effect in May 2018, means that organisations must soon seek affirmative action by an individual in order to keep their contact details on file and subsequently engage with them.
However, with recent research from Alexander Mann Solutions and Social Talent finding that 72 per cent of potential candidates contacted by resourcing teams regarding a job role do not even respond, it seems that many organisations may fail to gain this consent.
Jeremy Tipper, director of consulting and innovation at Alexander Mann Solutions comments, ‘While we have long advised clients on best-practice candidate engagement strategies, the importance of mastering communications in this area will soon be business-critical. Effective talent pipelining pivots on an organisation’s ability to provide compelling content which instigates a mutually beneficial relationship. Businesses which do not recognise and address this now, risk losing access to an abundance of potential talent.
‘While some may look on the introduction of this legislation with trepidation, it actually offers a catalyst to review and strengthen existing engagement strategies to reduce wastage in the recruitment process.
‘A great piece of advice we often give clients is to take lessons from their own marketing teams. Personalised content and marketing campaigns are just as important for candidates as they are for consumers. In many instances, they are one and the same group of people.
‘Untargeted engagement is damaging to an organisation’s employee value proposition and could be detrimental to future hires. Never before have resourcing teams had more impetus to ensure that communications are tailored, relevant and engaging. And thanks to rapid advancements around the use of talent analytics, the goal of implementing a highly robust and super-efficient engagement strategy is no longer a pipe dream – but the clock is ticking.’
Further reading on candidate engagement
