Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals

Throughout the college recruiting process, there are brief opportunities for employers to dazzle their candidates and strengthen their relationship. William Tincup, president of RecruitingDaily, calls these opportunities “micro-moments.”

“There are little things that you can learn about candidates while you are sourcing, marketing, recruiting, and nurturing,” Tincup explains.

“Once candidates get into the recruiting funnel, once they take an action and apply for a job, there are opportunities for your organization to make each micro-moment personalized, special, and memorable.”

For example, consider a situation in which a candidate goes all the way through the recruiting process and is negotiating with the company.

“The recruiter is going to send the candidate an offer letter,” Tincup says. “Generally, what happens is recruiters send a PDF or [an electronic agreement], and it is a very sterile process. However, there's an opportunity to dazzle candidates at that moment, and we could, but we just don't.”

In this scenario, a micro-moment could come when, for example, during the recruiting experience, the recruiter finds out that the candidate is very interested in drone racing or growing exotic flowers.

“The recruiter buys something that's associated with drone racing or growing exotic flowers, and puts the offer letter in a box along with this item and sends it to the candidate,” Tincup says.

“That way, the candidate knows that the recruiter has been listening. The candidate gets something that is in line with his or her passion—professional or personal—along with the offer letter. It’s special. This micro-moment creates stickiness. In each of these little, bitty moments, ask where can we make it personal? Where can we make it special? Where can we make it so they are dazzled?”

Capitalizing on micro-moments—which are fleeting—is particularly effective with members of this current generation. Tincup has done a good deal of research on Gen Z and explains that there are very substantive differences between members of Gen Z and Millennials.

“One way is that their attention span is four to six seconds shorter than that of Millennials, so we need to get there faster,” Tincup points out.

Most importantly, he notes, is this is the first generation that has always had the internet and, therefore, access to the information, products, and services they want.

“Members of this generation—using voice and touch computing, asking Alexa for this and Siri for that, listening to Spotify playlists that are built to their tastes—are accustomed to a world of personalization that no previous generation ever has,” Tincup says.

“It's expected; it's not extra. You don't get a bonus for making something personalized with this generation. College recruiters are feeling that pain because their interactions have to be personal to each candidate they meet.”

Tincup says recruiting is built on people, process, and product, and organizations need to audit all three of these elements to find micro-moments. Then employers need to ensure that the candidate is driving each interaction.

“Are we meeting them where they want to be met?” Tincup asks. “There's an easy way to do that. Let candidates know that you want to follow up with them and ask them how they would like it to be done. Email? Phone call? SMS? Facebook Messenger? Ask what they like and then do that. Gone are the days of a cookie-cutter approach where we applied one thing to many.”

Tincup recommends asking candidates about their preferences. For instance, if an organization is holding a meetup on campus, ask students who are registered to attend what food and beverages they prefer, then make it available.

“Don’t assume,” he advises. “Survey them and ask them.”

Tincup admits that this level of personalization is a scary proposition, especially if your organization is recruiting a large number of college students.

“Put it this way,” he continues, “you don't have a choice. If you don't pay attention to these micro-moments, recruits will just move on and you won't get them. However, the beauty of this is that once you change your mindset, you start to see it as a game of how your organization can make the experience special for your candidates and it isn’t so daunting.

“We have to look at the audience and then look at ourselves. The audience has changed and we need to change with them, get in front of them, and get there fast.”