Creating a positive candidate experience if it isn’t already, should be an integral part of the recruiter’s role. A good experience is brilliant marketing for your company. Whereas a bad candidate experience is damaging to your brand and company’s reputation. Good talent may even turn down a job if they feel the company doesn’t care about the recruiting process. After all it doesn’t invoke confidence in how you would be as an employer if the candidate has a bad experience during this process.
Creating a good candidate experience does not have to be costly or time consuming. Here are steps that you can take to improve the candidate's experience:
The candidate’s perspective
At some point you have been the candidate seeking a job, think back to what was important to you during this process. How can you best empathise with the candidate to give them a positive experience? As an insider, your knowledge of the company, it’s culture and processes will be intuitive, someone new to the company will need guidance and all of this filling in for them. What is obvious to you won’t be to them.
Think about the initial application process and how streamlined and user friendly it is. Are you using the right platforms to attract and recruit talent?
Try to personalise the experience, think about whether the position is creative, sales or in management etc. How can the recruitment process allow the candidates to best demonstrate their strengths? If you make the process too rigid without any flexibility you run the risk of eliminating talent.
Involve your employees
Leading on from looking at the process from the perspective of the candidate. What better people for you to engage and involve than your employees, who have been candidates themselves and now work for the company?
You could give the candidate the opportunity to speak to an employee, giving them another perspective about the company and its people. But also, to gauge their workplace culture fit with the team they would be joining if successful.
Communicate throughout the process
When a candidate has taken the time to make an application you should always give them the courtesy of notifying them whether they have been successful or not. Through each stage of the recruitment process always notify the candidates, especially of any changes or delays, and whether they are successful or not.
If possible give them informative feedback. If they have been unsuccessful explain why, for example where they had a knowledge or experience gap. They can take away constructive feedback and understand why on this occasion they haven’t been successful. They are less likely to feel disgruntled and can better prepare for future applications.
If you have been impressed by a candidate but they didn’t get the role, think about ways you could stay in touch. For example, can they receive job alerts and other company information by being on a mailing list?
Offer a tour of the company
You should be proud of your company and want candidates to get a full experience of what the company is about. Offering them a tour can give you another insight in to them, by seeing them in a different setting from the interview.
You can observe their non-verbal communication and how they interact with employees. You can gauge how they might fit in and it can help the candidate to make a more informed decision about whether they can see themselves working for the company. They are also more likely to feel valued as a candidate.
Ask for feedback
The recruitment process should always be evolving, so learn from it and amend it, this will help to improve the candidate experience. Whether someone is successful or not ask for their feedback, and listen to what they say and respond to what you have heard.
When newly hired staff have had a positive candidate experience, they have a better insight in to the company and role and are much more likely to settle in quickly. Even when a candidate hasn’t been hired, if they walk away from the process feeling they have been treated with respect they will appreciate it. They are far more likely to look for future opportunities with your company, and recommend you to other talent, which can only strengthen your brand!