Especially during a hot job market, one of the most important duties of a recruiter is to keep your top candidates “warm” on the opportunity.
On most executive searches, there is a lag between initially recruiting top candidates for the position and then presenting them to the client for their evaluation. Plus the client/candidate interview schedules have to be aligned so it is not unusual for a candidate to wait about 2-4 weeks before being interviewed on-site. Of course, this gives the top candidate plenty of time to talk to other companies and opportunities.
During this interim period, always send something of informational value to the candidate to keep them “warm” on the opportunity. I like to check in by sending them perhaps one or some of the following: company benefits, annual budget spend for the position, organization charts (if approved by the client to do so), company news information, etc. I send this information with the same basic message, “please stay very interested in the opportunity.”
Doing the little things right during the executive search process like keeping your best candidates “warm” will result in engaged candidates during a lengthy search process.
