Progressing a candidate

A how-to and best practice guide for progressing a candidate in your portal

Em Powell avatar
Written by Em Powell
Updated over a week ago

Congratulations! - You've had an expression of interest from a candidate! ๐ŸŽ‰

First up, click HERE to read our top tips from our founder Neil Eastwood on responding to candidates.

Now you are ready to respond to your candidate, check out our step-by-step guide to start progressing them through the hiring process.

Progressing a candidate - a step-by-step guide

You have received an email notification to let you know you have a new candidate. If you would like to set up these notifications, please go to our guide to adding a job to find out more.

Step 1: Log in to your portal and select 'candidates' in the left-hand menu. Here you will see a list of all live candidates.

There are a couple of handy filters to help you find your candidates quickly and easily:

  • If you have sites set up within your portal you can filter by site

  • You can search for the candidate or referrer by name

  • Click on 'Filter' and you can sort your list by update date, alphabetically, or by expression of interest (EOI) date or filter by stage, status, site, or job. Sorting alphabetically will help you to see if you have any duplicate expressions of interest:

Step 2: We always recommend that you make initial contact with candidates by phone. You can find their contact details by clicking on the file card icon next to their name:

  • Their contact details will also show you their postcode, so you can check they live within a reasonable commutable distance of the role they have applied for. If they live further away, please still contact them as they may be intending to move closer.

  • In this area, you will also see whether they are 'New to care' (Applies to the Care Friends app only). Your organisation may offer a bonus for referring candidates who are new to care, so it is important to double-check this is the case when you speak to the candidate.

Step 3: Click on the first milestone "Contact made?". You will be presented with a list of options. Select the appropriate outcome:

  • If an outcome is successful select a green outcome and a notification will be sent to the referrer. When 'Interview Complete', 'Started Work' or 'Is the candidate still working...' are successful, the referrer will also receive points automatically in their app!

  • Select an amber outcome if you need more information and you can come back and update that outcome later.

  • If an outcome is unsuccessful select a red outcome and the candidate will move into the 'Archived Candidates' section automatically. Your referrer will also receive a notification with an update on their candidate's progress.

Then you can move to the next milestone and select the next outcome.

If you ever need to undo an outcome simply click the 'undo' icon in the top right corner of the milestone you want to change.

The most successful organisations always keep their candidate area up to date. Keeping your referrers informed about their candidate's progress will encourage them to refer more friends and maintain engagement with the app.

๐Ÿ’กTop Tip! The candidate notes feature can be used to leave detailed notes throughout the recruitment process for each of your candidates. Click HERE to find out how.

If you have any questions, please get in touch by clicking on the chat icon in the bottom right of your portal screen.

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