Have you ever asked why some organizations experience high employee turnover and candidates not applying/accepting their job offers? Well, the reason is simple, poor candidate experience. Organizations should not overlook candidate experience as it is critical in hiring the best talent.

As an employer, you need to lay down favorable business values and know how to treat candidates during and after recruitment. This will contribute to not only hiring the best talent but retaining them long-term. Fortunately, this article takes you through the meaning of candidate experience, its relevance in talent acquisition, and how you can improve and boost your recruitment.

What is Candidate Experience?

Candidate experience is the attitude or perception your prospects have about your company and services. These ideas and feelings result from their interaction with your company during the entire recruitment process. However, a positive or negative candidate experience starts before the recruitment process. 

To help you find out if your organization ranks as one with positive candidate experience or not, you need to ask yourself what your company brand speaks about you. Plus, are your current employees acting as good ambassadors for your company? With these questions, you should know areas that need improvement to attract the best candidates. 

Why is Candidate Experience Important?

A positive candidate experience is essential because it helps you attract the best talent in the market. You see, job applicants want an environment where they feel valued and appreciated, and it should all start from the hiring process. Simply put, the best candidate experience gives them an overview of how they will be treated once hired. 

Moreover, a positive candidate experience significantly impacts your brand. If you offer a bad candidate experience, the candidates can use different social media platforms and websites to share their experiences. As a result, nobody would like to work or apply for a job in your company. Therefore, create a positive candidate experience to empower your company’s brand and compete favorably in talent acquisition.

As stated earlier, candidates’ experiences start right from the job search, where they perceive your brand. It flows through the initial application, communication, interviews, and the onboarding process. If you fail to give your best at any stage, the candidates will likely apply for jobs in other competitive companies. 

That being said, let’s consider what a candidate experience checklist should contain to improve the candidate experience 2022.

Things to Consider When Creating a Positive Candidate Experience 2022

1. Ensure You are Hiring To Fill a Real Need

Hiring professionals need to elaborate on the role in question so that candidates can apply for something they are sure to accomplish. It is a bad candidate experience to go through all the recruitment stages only to get hired and discover that the role does not match your skills. In this regard, organize your company to keenly identify the role needed to be filled before advertising the post.

In addition, perform a skill gap analysis, after which you need to choose the job title and definition of responsibilities. This strategy will help avoid confusion and time wastage for both candidates and recruiters, making it one of the poorest candidate experience examples in recruitment.

2. Have Clear Job Descriptions

Your job description should use simple language that everybody can comprehend. Structure it in a way that is easy to follow, describing your role requirements. Moreover, a clear, concise, and informative job description will enable candidates to decide whether they fit the role or not. You should be clear on why you want the candidate to apply and how you will compensate for their work. 

However, always remember to clarify the status and tell candidates about their managers. This information helps them prepare and be confident in their roles. As a result, you will reduce the chances of employees resigning because of disagreements with their seniors.

3. Improve Your Employer Brand

A good employer brand will give a positive candidate experience. Candidates already have information about you even before they apply for the job. If they have a good feeling about you, they will seek employment in your company and would want to be part of your success. One way to improve your brand is by asking current employees to leave their reviews about their experience and work on areas that require attention. Additionally, market your brand on all social media platforms to tap more qualified candidates.

4. Use Recruiting Technology To Make it Easy For Candidates to Apply For Jobs

With widespread digital use, employ technological strategies in your recruitment process. An AI-enabled system and ATS will have you conduct the process quickly and efficiently. This tip should top your candidate experience checklist because it’s the backbone of hiring top talent. 

Furthermore, if candidates spend a short time in the application, assessment, and interviews, they get a positive experience. Clear application instructions and easy website logins significantly impact how candidates feel about your organization. Additionally, most candidates prefer mobile recruitment, so it is a plus for you to integrate mobile-friendly strategies into your recruitment funnel.

5. Provide Good Customer Service and Treat Candidates as Your Employees

Customer service is vital in recruitment because you need the best employees, and they also need a good employer. Allow candidates to ask questions and always be there to give feedback on time. Furthermore, communicate your company values and culture openly so that the candidates know the truth about your organization.

However, not only do you need customer service as one of the positive candidate experience examples but treating candidates with the right attitude is mandatory. The way you provide employees with feedback and improvement suggestions should also apply to the candidates. Although you will not hire all of them, the feedback will help them adjust their shortcomings when next they apply for a job. Moreover, they will appreciate your concern and act as good ambassadors for your organization.

6. Respect Candidate’s Time

A candidate’s time is one of the critical things to consider when creating a positive candidate experience. You should build up open communication with job seekers to update them on every step they make in the hiring process. However, most employees ignore candidates who have applied and do not fit their role needs. 

Remember, the candidate invested time in the process, and genuine feedback that they were not successful is good enough to help them venture their energy into other priorities. On the contrary, you can help encourage them to re-apply for future openings to end their application on a positive note.

7. Inform Candidates on What to Expect In the Final Interviews

You should help the candidates prepare for the final in-person interview by telling them the questions to expect, the time, and the interview venue. Besides preparation, candidates will have enough time to ease their anxiety before the day, giving them a good candidate experience. Additionally, you should give the candidates your full attention during the interviews since they get to learn more about your company’s operations. 

8. Organize a Good Onboarding Process

Candidates hired should be welcomed to the work environment. They expect a kind gesture from all staff members, so this process must involve all of the workforce. Focus on them and show them they have all the support they need. However, you can always assign current employees to orient them and introduce them to their roles for a while. This strategy will help avoid confusion and lack of interest in the roles assigned.

Conclusion

Creating a positive candidate experience can be challenging and time-consuming, but the sacrifice is worthwhile since you will have the best employees. Besides recruiting top talent, candidate experience offers an opportunity to enhance your brand. Therefore, you can implement our tips in your sourcing strategies and improve your candidate experience in 2022.