Candidate Nurturing Helps Secure Top Talent

What Is Candidate Nurturing?

Candidate nurturing is the process of intentionally forging and maintaining relationships with potential employees so that your company stands out in a crowded field. The purpose of candidate nurturing is to present your brand as a great place to work so you can pack your workforce with talented employees when the time is right. 

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Candidate nurturing is generally targeted at: 

• active and past applicants in your recruitment funnel who aren’t a fit for available roles but who have desirable skills and experiences
• talented individuals who aren’t actively job hunting but who could be enticed to work for your company if the right opportunity presented itself

Either way, think of candidate nurturing a bit like a peacock spreading its feathers:  Effective candidate nurturing results in top talent looking your way—and taking notice!

How Does Candidate Nurturing Work?

In many ways, the process of candidate nurturing mirrors the customer sales pipeline. Just as companies guide end-users through different stages of the buying process in hopes of converting them into clients, candidate nurturing involves guiding job seekers through four stages of their job search in hopes of turning the right candidates into employees.

Stage One: Awareness

In the earliest stage, a potential employee discovers your company. This might happen when the person stumbles onto your company’s website or finds your organization through a job board, social media post, or career event. 

In this stage, your company will connect with the potential job-seekers so that it can begin nurturing a relationship. For instance, your company might have a form on its website that encourages potential employees to join your mailing list of job openings. 

Stage Two: Interest

This is the stage in which your organization maintains regular communication with candidates, even if there are no immediate openings. Your growing company can use various channels, such as email or social media, to showcase its culture and employee benefits. You might:

• highlight growth and development opportunities within the organization, such as upskilling programs, mentorship, and career advancement prospects
• post social media content advertising your company culture
• send newsletters announcing company updates 

These activities keep your company at the forefront of potential job seekers’ minds.

Stage Three: Decision Time

In the decision stage of the candidate nurturing funnel, your potential employee has decided that your organization is a great place to work. At this stage, your company’s employer brand can help sway the potential employee to respond to a job description or submit an application. 

Do you have a history of positive reviews on job boards? Have you showcased your company’s benefits and culture? Are your core values clearly stated? These are the factors that will move the candidate to the final stage. 

Stage Four: Action

This is the stage in which the potential employee applies for a role on your team. Here, your company can help convert a desired employee into an actual employee by: 

• crafting engaging job requirements that appeal to your ideal candidate
• writing thoughtful recruitment emails that keep candidates updated and interested
• conducting  well-prepared interviews like the boss you are

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Benefits of Candidate Nurturing

Implementing a candidate nurturing strategy helps you stand out in a crowded job market and ensures you attract top talent. Let’s look at a few benefits of candidate nurturing. 

1. A regular, personalized communication strategy helps maintain candidates’ interest in your company, reducing the likelihood of candidate ghosting. 
2. A thoughtful candidate nurturing campaign lets you connect with passive candidates and showcase your company culture.
3. A positive and engaging recruitment process reflects well on your company, enhancing its employer brand.
4. A pool of engaged candidates means you can fill positions more quickly, reducing the strain on your existing workforce and lowering recruitment costs.
5. A diverse candidate pipeline empowers your company to infuse fresh perspectives and ideas, enriching your team through the principles of culture add. 

Examples of Candidate Nurturing Strategies

Candidate nurturing strategies involve ongoing engagement with potential hires to build relationships and keep them interested in future opportunities. Check out some of these effective strategies. 

Best Practices for Candidate Nurturing

To maximize the effectiveness of your candidate nurturing efforts, consider the following best practices:

Create a Candidate Profile

By creating detailed personas of your ideal candidates, you can focus your nurturing efforts on the audience with the skills, values, and experience that will most help your company grow and innovate. 

Focus Your Efforts 

Keep a database of potential candidates who’ve shown interest in your company or have skills that align with future hiring needs. Regularly update your talent pool about new openings, company news, and relevant industry information to keep them engaged and informed.

More importantly, develop strategies to communicate with your pipeline of potential employees so you can collect data about which people might be great additions to your team of stars.

Encourage Employee Advocacy

Encourage current employees to share their positive experiences and company news on their social networks. This can help you attract potential candidates through authentic and relatable testimonials.

How to Build a Successful Employee Experience Strategy

Job seekers prioritize employee experience when searching for a new role. A comprehensive employee experience strategy can help your organization…

Consider All Ages

Your organization might benefit from workers new to the labor pool, as well as company veterans.

With this in mind, consider ways to attract people early in their careers. You might, for instance, emphasize continuous learning and development opportunities so that younger candidates see the value in joining the company. 

At the same time, maintain relationships with former employees who left on good terms. These individuals already understand your company’s culture and expectations, making them valuable additions to your talent pipeline. 

Use Technology

Take advantage of applicant tracking systems, recruitment automation tools, and predictive analytics to streamline this process and ensure you’re targeting the right candidates with relevant content. 

Wize Words

Candidate nurturing is a powerful strategy in a competitive job market, where top candidates have many options and tend to switch roles frequently.

Keeping connections alive ensures that ideal candidates stay in your pipeline—and can be welcomed into your organization when the time is right.

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Jocelyn Baker

Jocelyn Baker is a freelance writer, an editor, and a former political reporter who specializes in business management. She has written thousands of articles and edited dozens of books about recruitment, leadership, and governance. She focuses on simplifying complex topics into implementable strategies.