4 Things You Must Know About Candidate Experience

The candidate experience is not valued enough. Hiring managers unintentionally give applicants a negative first impression by failing to keep them informed about the hiring process or by just disregarding their application. A negative first impression could cause them to sever their ties with the organisation, both as potential employees and as devoted customers.

Unfortunately, hiring professionals frequently underestimate the adverse effects of a bad candidate experience on a brand's reputation with customers. A CareerBuilder survey on the candidate experience found that 82% of employers believe a candidate's unfavourable hiring experience has little to no effect on the business. 

According to the survey, a staggering 69% of job seekers claim they are less likely to purchase from a business they had a bad experience with during a job interview. If you ever kept a candidate in the dark, you didn't just lose a job candidate but also a customer.

Here are four things that every recruiting professional has to be aware of to establish a great candidate experience that draws applicants and turns them into future customers:

1. Applicants are tired of the hiring process

A candidate's first impression of the employer and the job is often formed during the application process. Based on the CareerBuilder report, 40% of applicants believe the application process has gotten harder in the last five years. 

It's time to review the approach. According to the poll, the following are the most common criticisms of the application process:

• It lacks personalisation and is too automated (57%)

• Candidates are unaware of their status in the process (51%)

• There are too many steps (50%)

How can hiring managers address these issues and lessen candidates' frustration? 

Start by discarding the pre-written email responses and make an effort to contact applicants. If they've advanced to the next stage, the interview, let them know that you have received their application and that you will contact them within a specified amount of time.

This prevents applicants who didn't make the cut from waiting and persistently following up. It also lets them know exactly where they stand in the process and when to expect a response.

2. Candidates value your ongoing communication with them

Nobody likes being kept in the dark, specifically when it involves a job opportunity. However, most applicants require more than just being informed that their application has been received and whether or not they were hired. The report says almost 40% of applicants anticipate being informed at various points during the application process, not only before and after.

Maintain open channels of communication. Send applicants a brief update if you know it's going to be another week before your company makes a decision. This will keep your candidates satisfied.

3. You lose the opportunity to connect with applicants

If you want to draw candidates to your job ads, you must have a strong offline and online presence. Hiring managers should use every chance to get in touch with prospects, especially since they use various tools during the job search process, including job boards, social media, search engines, and online recommendations.

You can ensure that your postings are viewed by having an active presence where job applicants go to search for jobs. Consider using monitoring or coding technology to pinpoint exactly where your candidates are finding out about open positions so that you can make optimal use of your time and efforts while recruiting.

4. Every company needs a strong employer brand

To draw in job seekers, you must have a good employer brand and market it. Yet, CareerBuilder discovered that over half of organisations lack a distinct employer brand. If you don't define your employer brand, job seekers will.

A company's employer brand could be made or broken by the candidate experience. A poor candidate experience will be spread widely in the age of online social sharing, which will result in a poor employer brand.

Companies should work to establish a positive candidate and employee experience since, based on the same survey, 83% of job seekers are prepared to take a lower wage if an organisation has a reputation as a great employer.

Source: The Undercover Recruiter