4 Reasons to Improve Your Candidate Experience

Today’s labor market is competitive, and employees everywhere are using this to their advantage. Just as they’ve found their current opportunity, they are sure to seek out another once their employer is no longer meeting expectations. This same truth can also be said for job seekers going through the hiring process. If their initial experience with an organization (interview, onboarding, etc.), didn’t leave a good taste in their mouth, it’s unlikely the candidate will accept an offer. A negative experience can inadvertently contribute to your company’s rate of low-quality hires, high turnover rate, and reputation.

The hiring landscape is changing.

According to surveys, up to 90% of recruiters worldwide believe that today’s hiring stage is now almost fully candidate-driven. As a result, employers have begun to re-evaluate their approach. The significance of a positive candidate experience is paramount in achieving successful hiring results.

What is a candidate experience?

To understand how candidate experiences can positively or negatively impact your brand, let’s further explain what the term means.

Candidate experience is the impression a company’s employer brand leaves on potential candidates throughout the application, interview, and hiring process. While the concept may seem straightforward, many features can influence a person’s experience when applying for a job. The candidate experience can consist of obvious elements like your company’s career site, job posts, or the online job application process.

A candidate’s application status is also an important element that most job seekers appreciate. When a job is posted, there are typically many applicants that will apply for one position. While you may only be looking for that one perfect hire, it’s important to note that your brand will leave an impression on all those who’ve entered the process.

Hiring tactics are becoming more aggressive. Is time to adapt? Take a look at these 4 reasons why you should aim to improve your candidate experience:

1. You can retain interviewers as potential customers or advocates for your brand

An interview can result in 1 of 2 ways; a hire or rejection. How your company handles rejections contributes to the overall candidate experience, especially for those who didn’t make the cut. If handled poorly, you could find that those candidates may be so turned off, that they never apply to your company again. Those who don’t hear back may not only stay away from future openings, (even if they are a good fit the next time around) but may be inclined to share their disappointment with friends and family. This can have a rippling effect, potentially hurting your reputation to both consumers and possible future candidates.

2. It can affect your bottom line

You’ll want to keep in mind that some of your applicants or those connected to applicants may also be customers. Poor candidate experiences have the potential to turn off individuals from applying again. This may even deter them from purchasing goods or services in the future. So, as a representative of your brand and lead of the hiring process, it’s important to take a candidate/consumer-first approach. You’ll want to think about how user-friendly your application process is, how responsive communication should be, and how to handle rejections with delicacy.

3. It improves the quality of hires

Providing a pleasant candidate experience does a few things for your organization. To start, it allows you to make a great first impression on those top-tier candidates, which can help win over those desirable job seekers before your competitors do. Job seekers prefer a timely process, including rejections. By giving job seekers what they want and need throughout the hiring process, you can encourage top talent to accept your job offer rather than go elsewhere. Remember that the application process speaks to your employer’s brand, which can be a determining factor for someone having to decide between multiple job offers.

4. It increases job acceptance rates

Just because you’re ready to make an offer, it doesn’t mean the candidate is ready to accept. Leaving one role for another is a big deal, and the candidate will likely take many factors into consideration. If candidates found themselves reaching out to the hiring manager for updates vs the other way around, they may assume as an employee they’ll have a similar experience. We suggest you keep in mind their perception, seek feedback, and adjust as needed when dealing with candidates. But also keep in mind the larger impact candidate experience has on your hiring efforts as a whole. In that, it could be the piece that makes or breaks the deal.

In a candidate-driven market, the choice is simple. Job seekers who face tedious applications, uncomfortable interviews, or poor communication will quickly move on to their next prospect. Making an effort to create a positive experience helps to attract higher-quality applicants who can then be turned into employees. This satisfies both your hiring initiatives and leaves your brand in good standing with interviewers.

To learn how Glades Talent can help further develop and support your hiring process, chat with an expert member of our recruitment team by clicking here.