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This week’s post and podcast is about candidate aftercare and why it matters more than you might think. I’m chatting with Sandra Karamitelios from Recruitment Central in Australia, who’s been in the recruitment industry for over 20 years.

She’s transformed her agency’s approach to aftercare, turning what was once a loose, repetitive process into a structured programme that adds real value for both candidates and clients.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your aftercare efforts truly make a difference, or if you’re going through the motions, this conversation will provide you with fresh ideas to strengthen your approach.

How I Accidentally Became A Recruiter

I literally fell into recruitment a bit accidentally. I got a job in a recruitment agency, and the next thing I knew, the temp girl went on annual leave. My manager said, ‘Sandra, you can run a temp desk.’ Of course I can, right? So it just snowballed from there.

I worked with an agency for a while, handling various tasks. Then I accidentally had this opportunity to set up my own company, which I’d never really wanted to do. I grew up in a family business, and I didn’t want to own my own business. But here I am many years later. We started in 2003.

We work across the shared services sector, encompassing operational, accounting, and HR services, among others. We have a big focus on temporary staff. We’re based in Brisbane, but we recruit primarily across Australia. Generally, we do more work in Sydney and Brisbane than anywhere else. That tends to be our sweet spot.

The Moment I Realised Our Aftercare Needed Work

We’ve always had an aftercare programme. It’s always been something the business has had, but it was just a bit loose. It was the usual follow-up on the first day, the first month, the third month, the sixth month, and those kinds of things.

I just felt like I was ringing people, saying, ‘How’s it going?’ And I felt like I was being a bit repetitive. The gap for me was that we were doing these check-ins, but no one was really offering anything helpful to our candidates. The recruiters would call and say hello, and candidates would respond that everything was fine, but there was no structure or depth to what we were doing.

Then one day, I sat down and thought, ‘Okay, I really want to fix this programme because I just feel so bored when I do it.’ I thought about all the things I’d heard from people about their first day, about starting a new job. Also, from managers, what they’d heard about people coming on board for their team.

The same things kept coming up. Things like, I didn’t have a computer ready, there were no logins, my manager wasn’t there on my first day, and I didn’t know where to park my car. There are many little things that people sometimes get annoyed about. Or a candidate would turn up and they didn’t even bring a notebook to write notes for their first day, or something like that.

I started thinking about how I could add some value. But me being me, I couldn’t stop at just the first day. It had to be the first week, then the first month, and then I thought, well, what else can we do? So I just started adding more and more things that I thought would help. I put myself in their shoes and thought, ‘How would I feel, and what would help me in a better situation, starting a new job or managing a new person?’

What Happens When The First Day Goes Wrong

Mostly, they feel undervalued. They’ve gone through this recruitment process. They might have had two or three interviews. They’ve gone for coffee with the manager. They’re really excited, and they’re nervous on their first day. They don’t know anybody. They don’t know the expectations, those kinds of things.

Then, when they arrive and there’s no login, no computer, and no desk, a couple of weeks ago, there was no manager for the first time. They feel like they were really valued, and then they dropped the ball.

They can also feel a bit lost because they’re going in and have to prove themselves. I’ve come in to do this job, and they arrive and don’t have any of the necessary tools to do their job. No one’s really there to help them.

Little things like, did someone show them around for the first day? Did someone say that it’s a really quiet office and nobody talks to each other? We all email or WhatsApp, just those kinds of rules of engagement. People feel let down.

Where Recruitment Agencies Often Miss The Mark

I think they fall down because maybe they’re a bit like us. Not enough structure, not knowing what to say when they rang. But also, there’s probably that feeling of there’s nothing in it for them. Will they actually receive a return on investment?

When you’re busy with recruiting and have lots going on, it’s very easy to have aftercare as the thing you do when you’re not doing anything else. When actually, if you make it part of your everyday process, like just another step in the recruitment funnel, it makes it a lot easier.

For permanent placements, we have a guarantee period. That period is anywhere from eight weeks to three months, depending on the client. So for us, that is our core focus. We want to ensure that we’re protecting that fee by setting our candidate up for success from day one.

However, I think we received really good feedback from clients, saying, ‘Your aftercare programme is brilliant.’ When we first launched it, I think we had about 20 people go through the programme. We contacted every single client and said, ‘What did you think about our new aftercare programme?’ Every single one said it was excellent.

We had one particular client whose HR manager rang us and said, ‘I’ve received a new starter guide for the manager and one for the candidate. Can we use this as our new starter process for everybody coming on board?’ So that was a bit of a wow moment for us. That made it really clear that we were adding value beyond just the placement.

Building A Structure That Actually Works

If an owner is listening who thinks, as I mentioned at the beginning, that we do a bit but we could do better, we could be slicker, and we could add more value, I think the first thing I would put in place is actually just a process timeline.

Create a structure that works for your business. The fact that I’m doing pre-start, start, week one, month one may be completely irrelevant depending on what you’re recruiting for and who you’re placing. But make it something that you can actually stick to. If you make it every single week, you’ll probably fall.

I think every agency can adapt to what suits their personal rhythm within their business. And then just be consistent with that timeline. Actually stick to it. If you start with a larger first step, you can always add more steps as needed. But you can start with that overview and then go, ‘Oh, that’s really working nicely,’ and add in more.

Use Surveys And Feedback Loops

The second thing I would suggest is a survey or a feedback loop. People on the phone may not always tell you what they really want to say, but I find that they will often express their true thoughts in some form of feedback or survey, especially when allowed to write freely. People will generally always write something in there. I’m always surprised at what people will write.

You don’t have to add another subscription and another piece of software to your repertoire. Many people use Office 365 or Gmail. G Suite also offers tools that you can utilise. We use forms, and it’s super easy.

Conducting a survey and gathering feedback allows you to collect data, enabling you actually to start seeing what’s happening. If you’re getting lots of ones on how a first day went with a client that you’ve placed 20 people with, you’re going to have an alarm bell. These people don’t have a first day that goes well. I need to prep my candidates and say, ‘Listen, this company, day one, things don’t always go smoothly. Just be aware that it could not always go well.’

I have one particular client where we onboard temporary staff, and they have to log into Amazon Workspaces. It is incredibly frustrating because they have to log in from their personal account, create an account, set a password, and then reset their password. The day goes on a bit like that, with reading this and then that. By lunchtime, they’re pretty depressed.

All of my candidates who go to this company are aware that this will be their first day. Their first day is probably going to be depressing. Make sure you go out and have a really nice lunch because the afternoon probably won’t get any better. But day two will be great because they’re set up and they’ve read all the boring confidentiality stuff.

Add Practical Value At Every Touchpoint

The third thing I think is to consider how you are adding value to the conversation or whatever you’re providing to them. Something that’s practical for them. At every touchpoint, think about whether this is useful to my candidate and the client sector. The resource, the guide, the conversation, whatever it is, really think about that value adding.

Thanks to Superfast, there are a couple of things in my aftercare programme that have received an upgrade, thanks to some of the information I received from you. One of the main things I really love is that we send out a career growth planner at month 12.

Many people might view it as an opportunity to plan their next job. However, we’ve used that thinking to help them move forward with their career at that company. We also tie in personal branding, which is another resource I acquired from Superfast.

The Real Secret: Making It Easy To Follow

I don’t think it’s really that hard to do this, but I think what is hard is actually sitting down and creating the process and then working with it and tweaking it as you go along. Change is always the hard thing.

For me, one of the things was thinking about month 12. We’d had them through their rebate or guarantee period. We’d had them through their probation. They were established in their job. What can we do to add value at that point still? That’s when the career planner and personal branding resources come in.

We’re not coming in with a transactional mindset of just protecting the guarantee period and then forgetting about them. We’re building relationships that last beyond that initial placement. That’s when you really start to see the benefit in terms of repeat business, referrals, and candidates who come back to you for their next role.

Keep the emotion to one side. Deal with the facts. Look for a solution. There must be a really good acronym there. I like that process.

Thanks

Sharon and Denise

How We Can Help

At Superfast Recruitment, we understand that candidate aftercare isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. It’s a critical part of your service that protects your fees and supports stronger client relationships while enhancing the overall experience for everyone involved.

We work with recruitment companies to develop structured marketing plans that help them build market authority and the revenue certainty and business vitality that comes with that. If you‘d like to discuss further, schedule a brief call here.