The Candidate Experience
Does Your Hiring Process Impress the Job Candidate?
The candidate experience is at the core of successful recruiting
The candidate experience is at the core of successful recruiting and hiring as it reflects your entire hiring process. Having an effective candidate experience is the best way I know to attract top talent. As we talked about last month in our blog, a potential job applicant’s exposure to your organization begins before their initial application. If your employer brand is strong and an applicant likes what they see and hear after doing their research, they’ll enter your hiring process.
Sell Your Organization
Its important to remember while your organization is judging a candidate, the candidate is also judging you. You should never stop selling your opportunity and your organization. The job market today shows candidates are being much more selective. They want to feel some sort of personal connection. That’s why it’s important to spend time talking about your company’s culture because candidates are trying to determine if they will be happy, valued and successful.
Timely Communication. Don’t wait. They Won’t
Successful companies understand the hiring process requires a great deal of communication and a high level of hand holding. Timely communication and personal touch points along the way gives the candidate a good idea of how your organization treats its people. And it helps maintain a candidate’s interest.
The Interview Process
Expectations and Communication
Interviews are all about expectations and communication. How many times have candidates walked into interviews and said to themselves, “I don’t know who this person is and why they’re interviewing me?” A good recruiter or hiring manager will help the candidate prepare for the interview so there is clarity of what to expect. If possible, candidates should be provided tours of the facility or campus. They should meet other people like themselves who work at the organization – even if it is just to say hello in a brief introduction so the potential hire feels welcome.
Delivering a great candidate experience doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Evaluate your current recruitment practices, identify where candidates drop out and improve your strategy to fix what you’re missing in delivering a great experience.
