Understanding the candidate experience may be one of the most talked about topics between HR professionals but it can be a minefield. Today, we are going to go through what it means, why it’s important and how to develop the best practices for a great candidate experience.
What is your current recruitment process?
Think for a moment about your recruitment process. How does it work? How are people applying? How are they being evaluated? What do you send them before an interview stage? The list of questions can go on, but these are the things you want to think about when it comes to developing your recruitment process.
You may not have a formal process right now, or you may have tried to implement one but found it to be lacking in effective results. Understanding where you are currently and where you want to make your process better will undoubtedly help you with developing your candidate experience.
Why is the recruitment process important in business?
Think about what an employee is to your business. They are the people that represent you, the ones that are tasked with achieving your goals. Hire the right people, get the right results. There's more to it of course. Getting the recruitment process right is about these other things;
Adds to the overall reputation of the company (e.g. Glassdoor reviews)
Employees are your face, your voice, your brand. You want to hire people that reflect your business and its goals. You also want people that will provide and contribute to your organisation and make others want to work there.
First impression you can make on a potential new employee
New recruits will see how others are feeling and behaving. This will contribute to the perception of the business.
Chance to ensure meeting diversity and inclusion goals
If your business has set out to widen workplace diversity, the recruitment process is the perfect place to start. Blind CV applications, referral systems and even community outreach can help not only broaden the applicants but the community of people and viewpoints in your business.
Not getting it right can be costly
You don’t want to keep recruiting people. It takes money but also, valuable time. You want to get it right, so your recruitment process is essential to help you find the right candidates.
Best practices for candidate experience
You can of course make the candidate experience better. Put simply, the candidate experience is “the series of interactions that a job seeker has with your company throughout the recruiting process.”
1. Use the right technology
Whether you have an internal system or a recruitment platform, or you are using psychometric testing, getting the right technology to screen candidates before they talk to someone at the business is important. From ease of application to adapting for people with disabilities, the right technology can make the candidate experience significantly better.
2. Provide feedback
Successful or not, providing feedback in a timely manner is essential. This will leave the candidate feeling positive about the interaction and with more knowledge on how to develop their own interview skills. Unsuccessful candidates should always be told they have been unsuccessful. Failing to do so shows a lack of respect on behalf of the business which in turn leads to a very negative candidate experience.
3. Shorten the gap to onboarding
For successful candidates, shortening the gap between final interview/decision and onboarding is a positive experience. This will make the new recruit feel part of the business and team sooner; giving them the opportunity to show the business that they’ve made the right choice.
The candidate experience is about making every interaction throughout the recruitment process one that provides a positive or at worst, neutral experience. Thinking about your current systems and what you can do to improve them is a good starting point. Remember, it’s about making recruitment work for your business and it's important that you develop a process that reflects the best aspects of your business overall.
Create a positive candidate experience with Thomas
With the Thomas talent assessment platform, you can use assessment insights throughout the employee lifecycle, starting with the onboarding process.
Each new starter needs to be treated as an individual. What’s the best way to communicate with them? How do they approach decisions? What really motivates them? The smallest details can make a huge difference to how quickly they get up to speed, and even impact their long-term engagement.
Alternatively, speak to one of our team to find out more.
