Why positive candidate experience matters in 2022 - create the best to secure top talent

Positive candidate experience can have a big impact on your business – get it wrong and it could cost you. Poorly designed recruitment process can lead you to miss out on top talent and damage your reputation as an employer. No matter how good your employer branding is, if your potential hires have an unsatisfactory candidate experience during the application and on-boarding process, they are likely to deter others from applying to work for you. Top talent can be easily get discouraged even during the recruitment process, so start with some research…

Are you one of the 74% who hasn't asked their candidates their view on the interview process?

That’s right – almost three quarters of businesses haven’t asked candidates for feedback on their hiring process. Applicants will rarely state their dismay during the process, as they are not yet fully committed to your company. But you can bet they will tell their friends and family, which can create significant damage - and if reviews endup on a social platform - then the message can spread further. You need to understand whether you are delivering a positive candidate experience. So, why not send feedback forms to previous applicants and interview your current and past employees. You’d be surprised at the feedback and insights this research will bring to light. Use this deep insight to improve your recruitment process.

Implement your employer branding in every stage of recruitment

So, you have your employee value proposition, you have branded yourself well on your careers page and throughout your marketing. But what about recruitment? Make sure those same values are reflected as the applicants go through the hire process.

Not only will this improve candidate experience, but it will also help you identify the people that are the best fit for your team and align with your values. Think of what your employee branding represents and review it against your recruitment process. Is your company culture and ethos clearly felt throughout each hiring stage? Do you communicate effectively with your candidates? Have you optimised your recruitment process to deliver the most positive candidate experience, so everything is straight forward and easy to follow?

Improved candidate experience leads to more referrals

Positive candidate experience will create a buzz among applicants, and they are far more likely to refer your company to friends and family, which can lead to significantly reduced cost per hire and increased retention. Get it wrong though, and candidates are even more likely to talk about it, which is why collecting feedback and acting on constructive criticism is so important.

But what about current employees? Their experience is just as important and shouldn’t stop after the hiring process. Over a third of employees would be likely to recommend their company to others. Referrals can help you find the right people for the job – candidates who likely already align with your company values and will become great assets for the team.

Hire top talent to help your company thrive

The bottom line of every recruitment process is to attract and retain top talent, so you can focus on growing a thriving business. You don’t want to spend excess time or money constantly looking for new employees, simply because your current candidate experience isn’t finding you the right talent.

Therefore, it’s so important to optimise every stage of the process from pre-application to on-boarding and beyond. Even after you have secured your new candidate, ensure that the values which attracted them to your company are still present in their everyday work life. Otherwise, if there is a disparity between their expectations and reality, you may soon find yourself back to square one and looking for yet another candidate to fill the role.

Some of the common issues with a recruitment process

We’ve covered some of the common gripes with the recruitment process and how they impact candidate experience. This includes recruiter as well as direct hires:

• No communication

• Initial reach out for a conversation and no follow up or meeting booked in

• Initial conversation about a role and no response back once CV has been submitted

• Initial meeting with the client but no feedback on how the process went

• Ghosted by employer / recruiter

• No response to follow up emails / messages

• Poor interview style - overly aggressive questioning

• Apparent lack of review of the candidate’s CV or experience by the hiring manager

• Poor candidate experience of invitations to interview - constantly being rebooked

• Rebooked interviews with no reasoning as to why - leaving the impression that the candidate’s time is not valued

• No contact / discussion with the recruiter prior to the interview - leaving the impression that the recruiter is not interested in the candidate

• CV being rejected by automation

• Rejected for not having a certain qualification or qualification from the ‘right’ institution

• Process taking too long

• Prospective employers taking too longer to respond

• No feedback given in any of the interview processes

• No chance to ask proper questions of the hiring manager or recruitment team

• Numerous stages in an interview process

As you can see there are many common areas within these gripes that relate to communication to the candidate between recruiter, recruiting team and the hiring manager. Get these wrong and you can bet that you’re not delivering a positive candidate experience. Candidates invest a lot of their time into the recruitment process but would like to feel that they receive feedback from that time investment whatever the outcome.

If you're struggling to see how you can improve think of it like this: treat your candidates like they're a customer and give them the best experience of your business.

If you are looking to partner with an experienced recruiter who can support you in all areas of the recruitment process and work as an extension of your employer brand, speak to Auxueris. We have a network of experienced recruiters who have specialist knowledge of recruitment, having supported clients over many years’ or industry experience within the sectors they are recruiting for. We can help you find the best talent for your business and ensure a smooth recruitment process that includes clear communication on process and outcomes.