Candidate experience is the positive or the negative experience that your candidates have with your business. Starting from the very moment they’ve come across the open position, to the end of the hiring process where they may be hired, maybe withdraw from the position, or reject the job offer.
Candidate experience entails all interactivity with your company; meaning, all parts of the process beginning with the certainty of listing to the ease of application, and of course all the interpersonal experiences with your recruiters and hiring managers.
Why is candidate experience necessary?
Candidate experience is an active scale of how your candidates feel about your recruitment process, along with how they think about your company as a whole. Candidate experience is essential because constantly listening to your candidates and cautiously keeping their feelings in mind will positively impact how you’re perceived as a recruiter.
In fact, most candidates constantly share their experiences within their peers' circles and tell their friends and family what they thought about your business. They also often share their stories with peers and strangers on the internet, especially if they had a negative experience. It would be in your company's best interest, therefore, to make sure that the talk about your business online and offline is in your favor!
How to provide the best candidate experience
In order to examine and enhance the candidate experience, you must be able to check and document it in the first place. But how might you do that? Well, you could give a voice to your candidates! They may have great insights to help lead you down the right path of improvement.
The most simple way to check and document candidate experience is by gathering information through candidate experience surveys.
Anyway, let’s have a look at the best practices to provide the best candidate experience:
Write clear job descriptions
You may believe you write clear job descriptions, but your candidates likely wouldn’t agree. Actually, a survey found that 72% of hiring managers stated they offer clear job descriptions, but only 36% of candidates say they agree.
So, try to put on a candidate lens and read the job offer inside out! Maybe you can even resort to your existing -but fresh- employees and ask for their feedback before posting the job out there!
Optimize your applications process
Internet users want an easy, complication-free experience, regardless of if they're shopping for clothes or subscribing to an online service. They have the same expectation when it comes to job applications! Unfortunately, many employers haven’t seemed to figure that out yet.
For instance, 60% of job seekers, according to the same aforementioned survey, have stopped filling out an application because it was long and complicated.
We recommend you spend some time examining your application process and observe any unimportant or elaborate steps. Think about questions they most probably have answered on their LinkedIn profiles or resumes… It’s highly advised you avoid such questions and/or any other ones whose answers won’t affect the process entirely.
Be as accommodating as possible
The majority of experienced candidates already have full-time jobs. That’s to say, they might have to request time off from their current job for an interview!
With obstacles like this, it’s necessary for hiring agents to accommodate and make room for a busy candidate. Be sure to accommodate the needs of your possible candidates in any way you are able.
Train hiring teams before interviews
Most employees are not born interviewers. Sadly, it only takes one unprepared, inattentive, or inconsiderate interviewer to ruin a candidate's experience. Considering these situations, make sure to prepare and train as many as possible. That is one of the most important moments for your candidate!
Create a stress-free interviewing experience
47% of job seekers state that in-person interviews have the most impact on their thoughts of an employer. For the majority of job seekers, the in-person interview has them full of stress and anxiety. Ease some of this anxiety by offering each candidate easy-to-understand instructions about the interview and hiring process.
Keep communication a priority
Studies show that bad communication is the most common issue for candidates. For instance, 52% of candidates state inconsistent communication from employers is their biggest frustration. 75% of applicants don’t even hear back from employers. 81% of candidates say employers consistently responding with updates would significantly improve their candidate experience.
Provide a timeline for your hiring process
A lot of times we forget that beginning a new job can be a huge life change for some. A new employee may need to inform their current boss, reconstruct their daily schedule, or even relocate to a new place. In these situations, it is helpful for candidates to know how long your onboarding process may take.
To Sum it up
Candidate experience is the difference between hiring an experienced candidate or having them get away and choosing one of your competitors instead. In fact, a negative candidate experience may also cause revenue loss, since you may end up hiring unfit candidates, or worse, your company’s branding might be affected.
Good candidate experience, on the other hand, can end with happy candidates speaking well about your company in their social circles; thus helping you attract more talent & retain existing employees. Follow this guide to get a better understanding from other perspectives, and to help improve your company's candidate experiences.