9 Ways To Improve The Candidate Experience

No matter what size company you work for, there’s always room to improve the candidate experience. Jibe.com defines candidate experience as “how job seekers perceive and react to employers’ sourcing, recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding processes.” It’s a pretty big deal and deserves some serious attention.

Lone job candidate sitting alone outside of job interview room

In today’s connected world, the candidate experience is more important than ever before. When a job candidate has a good experience, they are likely to tell their friends, family, and fans about it. On the other hand, if a candidate has a bad experience, they are more likely than ever to share their experience with the online world. This can quickly come back to haunt you.

It’s kind of scary how one little slip up during the hiring, recruiting, and onboarding processes can give your company a bad reputation. A simple mistake during this crucial time can have a negative impact on your employer brand, impact future job candidates, and may even effect your sales. This is why it’s so important to focus on the overall candidate experience.

Take the necessary time to review the candidate experience from start to finish. Look at how you source candidates, revamp your career site, review your application process, overhaul your selection process, tweak your ATS systems, audit your job interview processes, reevaluate your hiring decisions, and streamline your on boarding process. While it may sound a like a lot of work, you’ll quickly see that there is plenty of room for improvement.

Are you ready to improve the candidate experience? Here are a few ways to step up your game:

Know and understand your audience
Share any and all pertinent information (good and bad) about the job
Provide clear directions
Create a user-friendly application process
Communicate openly, honestly, and regularly
Be open to feedback
Treat every job candidate like a human
Ensure that you are always consistent
Treat recruiting like marketing

Even if you believe that your candidate experience is flawless, it’s still challenging to make everyone happy all of the time. Be prepared for any necessary damage control in case things go poorly.

Perhaps the best plan of attack is to make a point to treat every job seeker the way you would want to be treated. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. These candidates have put forth the effort to apply to work for your company. The least you can do is streamline the candidate experience and treat them with the respect that they deserve. The next application that hits your desk might just be your next co-worker.