Employer branding has been a hot topic in the recruitment world and it goes hand-in-hand with the candidate experience– a recruiter’s top challenge. According to Recruiting Brief, 80-90% percent of professionals say a negative interview experience can change their mind about a role or company.
The Talent Board hosts an American Candidate Experience Awards every year. Last year, they surveyed over 45,000 applicants concerning their candidate experience. Those who had a positive experience were more likely to actively encourage colleagues to apply to the organisation, and 40% of this pool of people claimed likely to buy the products or services from the company even if they weren’t hired.
On the other hand, those who had a negative experience were likely to discourage their colleagues from applying and would broadcast their unpleasant experience, negatively impacting the company’s employer branding.
The overall treatment applicants receive during the hiring process reflects how a company values its people; therefore, creating an excellent candidate experience is not so much a reputation management tool, it’s a hiring necessity.
Have transparent and personalised communication
In many ways, this comes down to etiquette. It’s as simple as exercising some empathy and treating your applicants like human beings instead of numbers in your busy schedule.
Rather than sending off automated replies to your candidates, take the time to interact with the people who made time to apply to your job posting, and respond to your applicants individually.
70% of online applicants say that they never even receive a response (Forbes). This not only demonstrates lack of human courtesy, it shows a lack of care on the part of the company.
A huge part of creating an excellent candidate experience strategy is having clear communication throughout the hiring process. It’s no secret that recruiters and hiring managers who treat candidates with consistent care and concern not only wind up with happier applicants but exemplify their business as an efficient, high-functioning team.
Make your applicants feel valued
In an earlier post, we share tips on effectively interviewing introverts. This involves active listening and eliminating the hiring biased towards extroverts. Give every applicant the opportunity to communicate their unique set of experience and skillset for the role.
Take notes and don’t be afraid to ask questions even after the interview for clarity. Not only will you feel like you’ve made a solid hiring decision, but it will make each candidate feel like you’ve really listened to what they can bring to the role.
Attract more candidates with an easy application process
It’s no surprise that people today are time poor. You’ll be deterring top talent if you insist everyone complete a tedious and extensive form for one job posting. Applicants are usually applying to multiple companies and if your online job application has them jumping through hoops before even speaking with a human being, this will put them off from even applying, limiting your pool of talent.
Ask for honest feedback
Ask the candidates you’ve hired and not hired for their honest feedback with a follow-up email or better yet a phone call. This is a huge opportunity for your company to evolve and improve your hiring process to deliver that excellent candidate experience. Not only will this demonstrate that the applicant was valued, this follow-up creates a dialogue for lessons learned for both the applicant and employer and can strengthen the relationship between the two.
Just because you didn’t hire the candidate does not mean you should never contact them again. If the interview and the resume checks out, but they just weren’t suited for the role, ask if you can keep their resume on file for future job postings. You can build your company an excellent pool of talent by keeping in contact with your promising applicants and ultimately save time in the future recruiting process.
