Improving Candidate Experience – The Key to Winning The Talent War in 2018

The biggest challenge that recruiters face is the fact that most of the talented candidates they would like to hire are already employed with other organizations. More so in recent times, due to low unemployment rate. According to a report by the U.S. Department of Labor, unemployment rate in the US was 4.1% in January 2018, almost one percent below the “healthy” unemployment rate of 5%.

Traditionally, candidate experience was believed to enhance the reputation of the organization as an employer. But now, when a great number of talented people are already employed, a great candidate experience has become the most important criteria for hiring the right candidate and the key to winning the modern talent war.

But what is a great candidate experience in the current job market? And how different is it from a bad candidate experience?

Great Candidate Experience v/s Bad Candidate Experience

Great Candidate Experience :- 

• Continued communication at each and every stage of the hiring process
• Provides a human element to the hiring process by acknowledging the receipt of job application from candidates
• Gives comprehensive details about the hiring process and alleviates concerns of candidates
• A precise application process that respects the candidate’s time

Bad Candidate Experience :- 

• No communication about the position being filled
• No confirmation of application received
• Poorly written job description that does not give an option to the candidate learn everything about the position being applied for.
• An unnecessarily long application process that drains the candidate

Tips to Improve Candidate Experience in 2018

1. Give precise explanation in your job description

Give clear and accurate explanation in your job related content, including job responsibilities, perks, salary range, company values and benefits. This way you will have the opportunity to pass on the right message to the candidate. Write job descriptions that attract the candidates and will go a long way in providing a positive experience to them. Look at the Glass door job description mentioned below to get a fair idea about the right way to highlight your job description:

 2. Set the right expectations about the recruitment process

According to a research conducted on candidate experience, about 83% candidates say it would greatly improve their overall experience if employers could set expectations about the recruiting process. One way to do that is by clearly stating what your hiring process is going to be in a very transparent manner. Provide resources and tips to the candidates, so that they can understand your hiring process beforehand. For example; Google has a designated career web page that highlights their hiring process, FAQs and the way the organization believes in providing equal opportunities to each and every candidate.

3. Create a world class career site

According to a research conducted on candidate experience, 89% of candidates believe an employer’s career site is important for getting key information that is essential to a great experience. There are several things that you can do to enhance and optimize your career site, like:

• Create an employer branding video that makes your organization stand out
• Include culture photos that showcase the real life experience of working in your organization
• Add a search function
• Make it mobile friendly
• Integrate your ATS
• Always include a Call to Action (CTA)

Please go through these tips to create a world-class career site and learn in detail about these pointers.

4. Make the application process effortless and easy for candidates

It has been observed that most of the job seekers leave the online job application process without completing it due to long descriptions and hard to apply processes. This makes it very important for recruiters to evaluate their application process and try to make it shorter and simpler.

 5. Provide timely response to the candidates

According to a LinkedIn survey, it generally takes 2 to 3 months for candidates to move from application to hire. This is not an ideal situation in a candidate-driven market because top talent typically stays in the market for only a period of about 10 days. Improve the response time by providing timely response within 3 to 5 days from the day of the interview.

6. Continuous communication during the recruiting phase is critical

According to a research conducted on candidate experience, the number 1 frustration during the overall job search is the lack of response from employers. 81% of candidates believe that continuous communication of status updates can have a positive effect on their overall experience. The best way to counter this situation is by creating email campaigns to keep the candidates interested and engaged during the recruiting phase. Develop customized campaigns on the basis of different stages of hiring phase. Use a resourceful recruitment software like Recruitx to send automated emails to save your time in email communication without downgrading the candidate experience.

7. Give appropriate feedback to the candidate after the interview so that they can grow from this experience

Feedback is a way for a candidate to learn about their weak points so that they can improve on the points and ace the interview next time. According to a LinkedIn survey, 94% of the candidates want to receive interview feedback. The best resort to deal with this situation is by ensuring that you provide appropriate feedback to the candidate, even if you decide not to hire them. If you give them a constructive feedback for their rejection, it would make them associate a positive experience with your organization, and in all likelihood, they will reconsider your organization for the future opportunities.

Note:- This article was originally published on – https://www.talentnow.com/improving-candidate-experience-the-key-to-winning-the-talent-war-in-2018/