Quick Tips for Enhancing the Candidate Experience

The candidate experience refers to an applicant’s view of your organization’s hiring procedures. The adventure begins during their first interaction with your business, continues through the application process, and culminates in the pre-boarding and onboarding phases after they’re hired.

A CareerArc survey found that nearly 60% of job seekers have had a poor candidate experience during the application process. Negative incidents sour applicants’ views of certain organizations and decreases the desire to work for those companies. That’s why building a solid candidate experience will help draw top talent to your open positions.

Here are six best practices, recommended by companies with good candidate interactions, that your organization can implement.

1. Invest in a great “Careers” page. Your job pages should highlight your company culture and open positions. Top-notch Career pages outline performance benchmarks and describe how you reward employees (financial compensation, etc.) for reaching defined goals. And it doesn’t hurt to mention perks like work-life balance, professional development opportunities, and the sense of purpose employees derive from their work (this is a great place to include written or video testimonials from current staff).

2. Have clear expectations. Hiring transparency translates into happy job seekers and happy new workers. Write easy-to-understand job descriptions, specifying the actual salary or salary range corresponding to each position. Respond promptly to candidate questions during the process. The more candidates learn about the company and job vacancy during this phase, the more likely they’ll retain the position longer if hired.

3. Shorten the application. You’ve seen it—the job application that goes on for pages and pages. A short initial application form ensures you’re not turning away potential candidates. According to Appcast data, 92% of applicants start but don’t complete online job applications. Consider replacing resumes and application forms with pre-employment testing so job seekers can demonstrate their skills.

4. Humanize the experience. Treat your applicants as fellow human beings. Be considerate. Be flexible. Stay in touch with them throughout the process. Help them prepare for interviews by outlining the goals of the discussion ahead of time. Develop a respectful way of saying “no” to applicants. If you’re able, provide constructive feedback about why they weren’t chosen for the particular role, and what they can improve upon in the future. Remember, you might want to hire them later for a different position.

5. Structure your interviews. Come up with a list of ordered questions ahead of time. Then, match your questions to the key competencies of the role. This practice improves the candidate experience and makes your job easier when comparing interviewees. In addition, a structured interview gives the applicant a better chance to shine.

6. Seek feedback from all applicants. Use a short survey to measure your candidates’ experiences. This simple step will provide valuable data on how and when applicants drop out, their perceptions of the hiring process, their overall impression of the company, and whether they would apply for a different job with your company in the future.

Tailoring your hiring process to enhance the candidate experience will pay dividends in the quality of applicants you attract to fill current and future vacancies.