Having top talent gives your company a hard to beat competitive edge. Because of this, it seems companies these days have to compete almost as much as employees in the labor market.
This has brought dramatic changes in the job search process.
It’s no longer enough to post a description somewhere and wait for the right candidate. And even online job boards are insufficient.
So with people constantly looking for new jobs, you need to be consistent and vigilant in your recruitment efforts.
To successfully expand and improve your team, you need to understand and actively work to improve your candidate experience - and therefore your employer brand from first contact in the recruitment process all the way to on-boarding.
Paying special attention to candidate experience brings in better candidates, and it can have a direct impact on your bottom line.
To make candidate experience work for you, look out for these signs it might need improving:
1. Trouble finding serious candidates
Struggling to bring in quality candidates should be the first red flag your candidate experience needs work.
The issue could be any number of things. For example, perhaps you’re posting in the wrong areas. Or maybe your website is out-of-date, lacks visual appeal or is difficult to navigate.
All of this can impact the way job seekers perceive you.
You need to make sure you’re communicating your employer brand at every touch-point.
- What’s it like to work for your company?
- What do people gain from coming to work for you?
- What’s to be expected of them?
Every time you come into contact with a job seeker, you need to make sure you’re answering these questions.
This way, when people begin actively searching, you’ll be more relevant to top-tier talent.
2. Lots of irrelevant applications
To deliver a good candidate experience, you want to be as clear as possible what you’re looking for. No one likes to send emails out into the void.
And by doing this, you’re missing a chance to make a positive impression on future recruits.
If you’re not making it clear what people are applying for, or if you’re so vague most employees don’t even know if they qualify, you’re going to get lots of applicants who simply don’t fit your image of an ideal candidate.
More qualified candidates usually have a better idea of what they want. And they ignore postings leaving them unclear if they’ll get it.
Your inbox will soon fill with resumes and cover letters for people with “related but distant experience.”
This is a waste of everyone’s time. And it diminishes the candidate experience you can provide.
3. No social media presence
When people first started posting jobs on Facebook, not many took it seriously—social media was for “non-work” things.
But oh, how things have changed.
Today, many job seekers now consider a company’s Facebook page more important than its website.
So, it’s no longer enough to simply have a Facebook page or Instagram account.
You now need to use it to actively engage with people and draw them towards you. And not doing so damages your candidate experience.
If someone is unimpressed by your social media presence, they may view you as out-of-date, or old-fashioned. And it will most likely cause them to keep looking.
But it’s important to match your social media efforts with the tendencies of your target market. Not everyone uses Facebook to search for jobs, nor does everyone use LinkedIn.
The first thing you’ll want to do is to conduct some research of the group you’re going after.
What do they use social media for? How do they find jobs?
From there, take a look at your social media presences.
Ask yourself if they reflect your employer brand. How would you react if you were looking for a job and saw them?
An out-of-date or underused social media strategy is a key sign you need to review your candidate experience.
4. Uninspiring interviews
The best interviews are a dialogue. While you’re reviewing the candidate’s qualification and intangibles, they’re deciding if they really want to work for you.
Leaving them with doubts is going to negatively affect your candidate experience, and your chance of hiring competitive applicants.
One of the ways candidates help to make interviews more stimulating and beneficial is to come prepared. Researching a company and its mission, values, accomplishments, etc. is now common.
Yet you need to help people out. Your website and social media profiles need to be complete with detailed and relevant information.
Put yourself in the shoes of a job seeker. What would you want to know about the company before you got there?
Be sure you include:
- Mission or vision statement
- Core values
- Some notes about company culture
- Fast facts about the company: size, locations, etc.
- Information about leaders and team members.
Making sure you provide enough information to people considering coming to work for your is essential.
It helps improve the candidate experience from first exposure all the way to the interview.
If you’re not having great interviews, consider looking at how you’re communicating who you are to people first finding out about you.
5. Too many follow-ups
Spending time filling out an application only to hear nothing back is one of the worst feelings. We’ve all felt it at some point in our lives. And typically, when this happens, we form a negative association with the company who ignored us.
How many times have you applied for another job after getting nothing back from your first try?
Probably not many.
And do you consider not buying from that company because of how they treated you?
You wouldn’t be alone.
If you’re getting lots of “checking on the status of my application” emails, it means you’re leaving lots of people in the dark. This hurts both your employer brand and customer experience.
Either your process for reviewing applications in a timely manner needs improvement, or you’re miscommunicating the position and receiving tons of unqualified applicants.
And it’s okay if you can’t get back to everyone. But it certainly goes a long way when you do. Even just an automated email notifying applicants of their status can help a lot. Inform more personally those you’ve met or spoken to as soon as they fall out of the running.
How you treat people impacts your customer experience, so make sure you’re taking the time to treat them right, even when it’s not a good fit.
Take a look at your experience today
If any of these things sound familiar to you, it’s time to look at your candidate experience and consider making some changes.
And don’t wait another minute.
Improving how you appeal to job seekers will bring in better talent and make recruiting more efficient, helping you focus on the growth and development of your business.
Thanks Raj!
We really appreciate these tips, they're definitely all things that upon improvement, will create a great candidate experience.
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