Candidate Experience: the Woefully Under-Leveraged Recruiting Tool

If you’re a Twin Cities employer, no matter what your industry, you may feel like you’ve spent the past decade trying to adapt (and re-adapt) your hiring efforts to an endless series of labor market and economic challenges (not to mention the fallout from a pandemic). Everything, it seems, from flexible workdays and hybrid office hours to more family-friendly benefits and creative career pathing, has been revisited, redesigned, and rolled out. That’s a good thing.

Yet one of the most consequential - and frankly, easy to control – tools in the hiring manager's toolkit continues to go under leveraged: delivering an excellent candidate experience.

Your talent pool is buzzing with candidate chatter

What are they saying about you? A word of caution as you ponder the answer to that question: your company’s candidate experience may appear to be a good one… from your point of view. But savvy candidates are often reluctant to share any negative observations (not to mention their sharpest criticisms) directly with an employer, for fear of burning bridges. To really know how you're doing, take a close look at every step in the candidate journey, from the wording in your job postings and descriptions to the very last written and verbal communications they receive.

“No complaints” does not equal “no issues”

According to this year’s ERE Media study, overall candidate experience has "declined sharply while candidate resentment” while “very negative experience” has increased. Today, fewer than one-third of North American job candidates would rate their experience as great.

The study also puts a spotlight on candidates’ most often cited reasons for removing themselves from the employer's process. The top three: "my time was disrespected during the recruiting process; "salary did not meet expectations;" and "the recruiting process took too long."

These issues are obvious and relatively simple to fix and prevent: make the hiring process faster, more decisive, more transparent, and more consistently branded with the language of respect and consideration.

But in reality, changing old habits and behaviors is rarely as easy as it looks on paper. Re-engineering long-standing process and procedures can be even tougher.

The elements of a positive candidate experience

My own daily interactions with top notch candidates validate the ERE Media findings. Candidates form positive impressions of employers who communicate openly, respectfully, consistently, and with rapid responsiveness. For hiring managers, the implications of this can be weighty. It’s not enough to lead a stellar interview. If your candidate feels disrespected at other steps in the process, it can leave them cold.

If you’re ready to change your candidate experience, here are three rules that can help guide the process.

Be transparent

Candidates value transparency at every stage. Do you disclose the salary range in the job description? Withholding that information while other employers share it puts you at a disadvantage. Do you answer each candidate's question thoughtfully and accurately? Do you provide an honest picture of the challenges faced by the open position? Or do you oversell hard-to-fill roles, hyper-focusing on the perks and opportunities while underplaying issues? Do you offer promises to “consider” certain accommodations like hybrid hours, even when you know there is no chance your employer can make those accommodations? Simply put, candidates don’t want to waste their time chasing a job that isn’t financially viable or aligned with their values or the demands of their family lives. And they resent it deeply when they feel like an employer has wasted their time, which leads us to the next rule.

Respect their time

Filling an open role is difficult. You may think you can get the right person on board within twelve weeks, only to encounter roadblocks. It happens, and it’s probably not your fault. But candidates deserve to know what you’re aiming to achieve – and to get updates from you when your timeline changes. To echo the transparency rule, do everything in your power to avoid wasting a candidate’s time and energy – and to convey that respect to every candidate.

Keep it human

Ironically, one of the greatest tools for treating a candidate with humanity is through the smart use of I.T., especially AI-driven technology. Great tech, used appropriately, can reduce friction in the candidate journey, especially at the top of the funnel. Applicant Tracking Systems keep things moving swiftly. Chatbots give candidates access to quick answers to easy questions. But they aren’t a replacement for human, personal connections. And when things don’t go well, it rarely helps to blame the system. For example, we all expect candidates to send a personal post-interview thank you that includes references to what was discussed. How do you respond to these notes? There is a way to keep the channels of communication warm and friendly – even for candidates may not end up being a great fit for a specific role. Enlist the assistance of your HR specialists to get some guidance.

It's worth it

Improving the candidate experience is not just about adopting new technologies or streamlining processes; it’s about fostering a culture of respect, transparency, and personal engagement throughout the recruitment process. I’ve been doing this for a long time now. Companies that are successful in delivering a superior candidate experience are the companies that stand out in a competitive talent market and sustain a strong employer brand.

Remember that not all of these stand-out employers have invested mega dollars into their I.T. Still, they all do one thing better than the also-rans: they create hiring manager expectations aligned with candidate needs and company values. Then, they train and coach those managers to meet those expectations.

At SkyWater Search Partners, we match today’s top candidates with great employers. If you would like to know how we can help you meet your recruiting goals, please reach out. We would love to talk!