Candidate experience
Candidate experience is defined as the way applicants feel about their interactions with a company throughout the hiring process. A great candidate experience starts before the job ad is posted and continues long after the position closes.
The perception that a candidate has of a company is based on the processes, methods and approaches they encounter when applying for a job.
If the process is long and tedious , chances are the candidate experience will be poor. On the contrary, if it is innovative and attractive, the results will be beneficial, both for the company and for the applicant.
Why is it important for candidates to have a good experience?
The opinion of candidates about a hiring process is even more relevant than you think. Most candidates would not even apply for a position without a positive perception of the company in question.
An IBM Smarter Workforce Institute study conducted in 45 countries during 2016 found that more than half of candidates had a positive impression of the company or organization they were applying to before applying.
Candidates’ willingness to apply to a company and experience in the hiring process go hand in hand. This is because the perception of potential hires is largely based on the experiences that other applicants have shared on social networks.
According to a recent report from the Talent Board – a non-profit organization focused on promoting the candidate experience – more than 80% of candidates who said they had a positive experience during the selection process indicated that they will share this experience with their acquaintances. .
Likewise, over 60% of applicants who experienced a negative process will discuss this with their family, friends and colleagues.
Additionally, candidates who are satisfied with their experience during the hiring process are twice as likely to become clients of the company they applied to.
The results of the Talent Board are very relevant, since these circles of acquaintances are partly made up of other potential candidates, as well as the company’s clients and suppliers.
In other words, it is very important to understand that the candidate , beyond being interested in working for a company, can be a consumer , promoter and influencer of it, which can have both a positive and negative impact on the company.
10 tips to provide a better candidate experience
To make your company’s HR day-to-day easier, we have separated 10 important tips so that the candidate’s experience is positive. Follow up!
1. Use technologies to facilitate job registration
The selection process for a vacancy begins when the candidate registers. But there are still procedures that make this registration difficult, which ends up generating frustration.
Therefore, making it easy to create career pages is a key step. In this sense, they should contain, for example, only the most relevant information about the position, avoiding excesses.
Therefore, consider how curricula can best be adapted. To do so, you can use tools that are specific to your company or use sites that have already been created for job applications.
The internet and increasingly advanced technology only serve to help these processes. So, put aside archaic recruiting methods to provide a better candidate experience.
2. Advertise vacancies that are clear
It is very common to see advertisements for very complex job openings. In addition to what is needed to fill the opportunity, other unnecessary information is added. This can cause the right talent not to apply as they may find the company’s communication too confusing.
3. Publicize your company’s purpose
Communicating the purpose of your organization to the candidate is of great importance. After all, it is a way to keep professionals more engaged with the selection process.
Today, companies that care about the candidate’s well-being and not just about profit are more respected. Therefore, clearly show the purpose of your business so that candidates feel they will work in an environment that makes a difference.
4. Timely Feedback
Surely, you have already participated in a selection process in which the feedback for the position was delayed, right? This does not provide a good candidate experience. Therefore, even for those who are not selected, feedback has to be given in a timely manner.
Currently, companies take too long to give this feedback to the candidate. So, if a talent waits for weeks for that contact, that’s not good and they’re still disappointed.
Therefore, organizing HR so that this return is as fast as possible is ideal. There is no set deadline, but don’t take, for example, more than a week. This can be tiring for both of you. Therefore, always have e-mails ready, just edit the candidate’s name and the process he participated in to give this feedback.
5. Stick to schedules
Planning is everything, in any area. Therefore, your selection process must be well-planned and executed to offer the candidate a good experience, especially when it comes to hours. So, if the interview or dynamic is scheduled to start at 9 am, be on time. Don’t make your candidate wait. This is disrespectful.
However, we know that unforeseen events always happen. After all, we are human beings. So, establish a lag margin, for both the candidate and the company, of up to 20 minutes, for example. But don’t go too far over the stipulated time.
6. Have a good atmosphere for the interview
The face-to-face interview is one of the most important moments in the selection process. After all, it is here that the professional and the company will stand face to face. Therefore, take care of the candidate’s experience!
Still, nothing to have a very tense atmosphere. Think that this moment can be stressful for some professionals who have difficulty speaking, for example. So, make this moment as pleasant as possible.
7. Have a recruiting and selection platform
Technology is an ally in all HR processes. Thus, having the help of a good recruitment and selection platform is essential for the process to run quickly and assertively.
After all, a good tool will have filters to see which candidates have the necessary skills to participate in the process. This avoids wasting time.
In addition, it is possible to schedule messages to be sent to candidates who have been approved or not, streamlining feedback. Furthermore, this tool will optimize the entire recruitment and selection process. But it will also provide a better experience for the candidate, as it will speed up the process.
8. Customize communication
Candidates who are advancing in the stages of the selection process must be communicated in a personalized way. After all, receiving an answer that suggests it was sent to everyone can be quite annoying. The professional will feel like one more. And that’s not what you want.
Therefore, customize your messages and the contact you maintain with this professional. Give personalized feedback. This will make all the difference!
9. Show testimonials from your company’s talents
To make the selection process even more charming, select some testimonials from professionals who already work at the company and show them to the candidates. That way, they will feel even more motivated.
10. Monitor candidate experience
This step can be done by analyzing the number of people who continued in the selection process or who dropped out, either due to lack of feedback or because recruitment takes too long. It is a way to improve the candidate’s experience. So having a satisfaction survey at the end of the process can be a good tool to check how the candidates felt.
