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Companies that treat prospective employees like valuable customers—respecting their time and openly communicating with them—are poised to win the war for talent, while those that continue to regard recruiting as a cattle call will have fewer candidates from whom to choose.

Anyone who has applied for a job and gone through the interview process with a potential employer knows the experience is typically punctuated by excruciating periods of silence. You submit a resume electronically, and you wait. Maybe you hear from the company. More often you don’t. If you find yourself in the enviable position of having a recruiter summon you for an interview, afterward you’re likely to wait and wonder yet again, while the hiring team debates your qualifications and meets with other candidates. Considering that many employers require candidates to go through several rounds of interviews, the waiting and silence can carry on for weeks.

Job seekers’ lack of visibility into an employer’s recruiting process represents one of many pain points associated with a job search. Lack of feedback presents another. Some job seekers take multiple days off from work to interview with an employer, only to conclude from the employer’s lack of follow-up that their effort failed to yield an offer—never mind any meaningful feedback from the employer as to why they were not selected.

Some employers have begun to recognize that the traditional, linear recruiting process—an organization posts a job, collects and screens resumes, conducts initial phone interviews followed by face-to-face interviews, and six months later offers a job to a candidate—is as dysfunctional and disadvantageous for them as it is for job seekers.

“The traditional model for recruiting doesn’t allow employers to hire people as efficiently as they need them,” says John Henry, a director with Deloitte Services LP. “This can be devastating for technology companies and corporate IT departments that compete on the basis of talent and speed to market. In the amount of time it can take a company to extend a job offer, a more nimble competitor can snap up the candidate.”

In short, companies with onerous, protracted hiring practices that require batteries of tests, assessments, and interviews risk losing the war for talent, especially technology talent. They also risk alienating high-potential candidates.

“Employers that think they can treat recruiting like an episode of “Survivor” or “Wipeout” don’t realize the extent to which candidates judge companies and their work environments by the recruiting experience,” says Henry. “An organization’s recruiting process gives candidates a glimpse of the company’s culture and day-to-day operations, and a bureaucratic hiring process is likely to repel leading candidates—those who want to roll up their sleeves, get to work, and make an impact.”

Courting the “Candidate-Customer”

Companies that have lost top-notch candidates to faster competitors are rethinking their recruiting processes. To provide candidates with a better experience, they’re taking inspiration from sales and customer service, according to Peter MacLean, a senior manager with Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital Consulting practice.

“Forward-thinking companies are applying some of the same technologies they use to lure customers, like analytics, social media, and video technologies, to design recruiting experiences around candidates, that benefit them from start to finish—regardless of whether they’re ultimately offered a job,” says MacLean. “By treating candidates like valuable customers, these companies aim to strengthen their talent brands as employers of choice.”

Analytics: Many companies use analytics to identify profitable customers and drive revenue growth. Analytics can help these same companies make better recruiting decisions by identifying attributes associated with high-performing, high-potential employees. Indeed, organizations with mature analytical capabilities consider the performance, promotions, skill sets, and personality traits of existing high-performing staff, thereby creating a data-derived set of attributes for success, according to Henry. They then parse external data on potential candidates from social networks and career pages to understand their interests, skills, experiences, personalities, and endorsements. Finally, they deploy predictive modeling and advanced algorithms on both data sets to identify candidates that correlate with the organization’s attributes for high-performers.

“By mapping external candidate indicators against the attributes of their top internal talent, companies can pinpoint high-potential candidates and tailor their recruiting strategies to impress them,” says Henry.

Social Media: Just as brands have embraced social media to connect with consumers, recruiters overwhelmingly use social channels to identify and engage with potential candidates. Jobvite’s 2013 Social Recruiting Survey found that nine out of 10 recruiters use LinkedIn to contact, keep tabs on, and vet potential employees. By using the same tools for recruiting that job seekers use to expand their networks and explore career opportunities, recruiters can approach job seekers on comfortable turf where both parties come together as equals. Moreover, he adds, through the recruiter’s profile, professional networking sites give candidates a “face” in what’s typically a faceless experience. They also provide job seekers and recruiters with a forum for conversation and feedback. The recruiter can use a professional networking site to close the loop with candidates on opportunities that didn’t work out, while maintaining a connection with candidates in the event a new, more appropriate opening arises.

“Using social media in this manner creates a higher-touch experience for candidates and represents a leap from the traditional, rigid sequence of automated communications, which often leaves candidates in the dark between various stages of the recruitment process,” adds MacLean.

Video: Some retailers and hospitality companies have adopted video-based “live chat” applications to improve customer service and increase sales. Recruiters are also turning to video conferencing applications and newer screening technologies like “video resumes” to expand their access to potential employees and speed the interview process.

“Historically, companies have had difficulty accommodating the schedules of working candidates,” says Christina Brodzik, a senior manager with Deloitte Consulting LLP who leads its talent acquisition service offering. If candidates live outside of what an employer deems a “reasonable” commuting distance, those candidates risk getting passed over, as some employers worry employees with extra-long commutes are more apt to leave for a job with a shorter commute. “Video-based technologies help to address candidates’ geographic and scheduling limitations, lower barriers to contact between candidates and recruiters, enhance early interactions between them, and increase the talent pool.”

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Brodzik acknowledges that few companies have completely transformed their recruiting practices, and notes that many of the changes required may be difficult for recruiting departments to embrace. “It requires a shift in mindset from making candidates jump through hoops to satisfy the recruiter’s or hiring manager’s requirements to making the recruiting experience more pleasant for job seekers.”

But even small changes to the recruiting process can make a big difference. MacLean notes that when recruiters use social media and other engagement tools to connect with candidates and provide a higher-touch experience, candidates frequently learn much more about the company, the specific job available, and whether the company and the position suits their personal and professional goals. And those insights, says MacLean, “help candidates make better long-term career decisions.”