It’s clear that feedback is essential to keeping your team motivated and engaged – all the best companies make this a practice. Yet, it tends to become part of the process only after an employee is “on-boarded”. However, there’s an opportunity for these same companies to make it part of the hiring process in order to help distinguish themselves and effectively showcase their employer brand.

Why it’s important

1. Authenticity: How do potential hires know your culture focuses strongly on employee engagement and feedback, because you told them? Make it clear to them from the first step of the hiring process.
2. Perfect Information: Today, future hires have almost perfect information when it comes to background research on companies. Certainly, the very best ones will have done extensive research, including starting salaries, how many people work there, as well general impressions of your company and its products or services. If the hiring process doesn’t provide very good feedback or clarity, chances are someone’s going to write about it, post it and you might just miss out on your next great hire because of it.’The converse is also true – think Zappos and all the people who apply because they’ve read about their unique approach to hiring.
3. You’re not the only company on the block: The best hires will often have multiple offers or at least other tempting avenues they can pursue. It’s not just a matter of providing the best remuneration package and benefits, set yourself apart during the hiring process and they’ll want to join your team regardless of how many carrots others dangle at them.

How to Standout

So, how do you build a culture of feedback and engagement from the first click? There’s a few simple ways you can set yourself apart from other companies and convey all the right elements of your company culture at the same time:

1. Acknowledgement: When someone applies to a position at your company, acknowledge receipt of their application. Receive too many applications? Make the process more time consuming by adding a few steps to the process to ensure it’s not too easy to apply. The best candidates will be the ones that take the time to fill-out the additional information you ask for, but be sure to drop them a note “We got your application, it’s under review” or at the very least an automated email that outlines the process from that point.
2. Post-Interview Feedback: If you’ve interviewed someone, give them a very clear timeline and process from that point forward. If you decide not to proceed with their application, let them know why.
3. Making an Offer: When you make an offer, give some reasons why they would make a great fit for your team. At this point, you’ve spent a lot of time evaluating for the right fit and you want to make sure they feel as if they’d fit in.

In order to attract the best, companies need to ensure they make engagement, motivation and feedback as part of their hiring process. It helps distinguish yourself from others and provides a compelling case for them to join you.