Improve Your Candidate Experience to Win Top Talent

Posted on 02/01 by Erin Helms

A good, positive candidate experience builds relationships and good word-of-mouth advertising and recruitment tools for your future; a poor one can end up costing you talented candidates before a single resume is reviewed. Here are a few ways to improve your candidate experience, even if yours is overall positive today, and help you attract and land top talent.

Review your company's online brand

A positive, trustworthy, and friendly brand is something many managers might not think about, but it can be critically important to a candidate who is looking to join an upstanding, respected company in their next position. If there are some dings or concerns raised online about your company, don't sweep them under the rug; have a discussion at the highest level of your company about what can be done to address concerns, no matter how small, to improve your brand.

Make it easy for people to learn about your company culture

Job candidates want to know what it's like to work there, what their everyday activities might entail, and how employees are supported. Is there flexibility in working at home, remotely, or in a hybrid arrangement? Does your company regularly offer time off for volunteering? Do you have a structure in place for supporting mental health and wellness? Candidates aren't just looking for a job and paycheck anymore; they want to know how they'll be supported as a whole person if they join your company. Make that information easily accessible on your website and talk about it on your social media profiles, too.

Make your career portal your best first impression

If you were a potential new hire, what kind of impression would you get about the company from the website where jobs are posted? Does it look appealing? Can you find the information you need about open positions? Is there a contact listed for candidates to get more details about the job before they apply? If your careers page needs to be updated, clearer or looks stale, or if the job descriptions themselves feel dated or need to provide more concrete, detailed information, you might drive candidates away. This page should be easy to navigate, with clear details about the position, the requirements for successful candidates and an easy way to apply without making a candidate jump through too many hoops.

Streamline your application process

If you ask candidates to upload a resume, don't require them to input the same information, line by line, in a form on the next page. This is a waste of time and a source of frustration for candidates. One or the other should suffice! Or, if you allow quick applications from external sites, like LinkedIn or other portals, make that a one-step application process. It's also a good idea to automate a response when an application is submitted.

Communication is key

Candidates are likely applying to several jobs in the same industry, possibly on the same day. Someone newly out of a job might feel stress and pressure to find something quickly, but failing to get an acknowledgment their resume was received can increase their stress and anxiety. Candidates who feel in the dark about their chance of landing a job will turn to other companies instead of waiting to hear back from a job. There should be several points of contact in the application process: An automated email confirming their submission has been received; notification when the application window has closed; notification if they've been selected for an interview; updates through the process to let them know where they stand and, ultimately, if they are not selected for the job, they should be told that as soon as it's clear they will not be moving on. People talk about the companies where they've applied, and if they feel ignored or like the company needs to do a better job communicating with them through the process, they will tell their friends. That can really hurt your company's ability to attract talented candidates.

Ask for feedback

Improvements can always be made, even in great candidate experiences. Talk to your current employees about their interview process, especially if they're a more recent hire (in the past six months to a year), and see what they remember about it. What did they like or dislike? What changes would they like to see? What would've made it easier for them? Then ask people currently interviewing for jobs with your company what's worked for them or where you've fallen short. Use all this feedback to improve your process from the top down: Make changes to your job descriptions to include pertinent information and inclusive language; add points of contact; provide better instructions on the application and interview process; do what you can to make the whole candidate experience a smooth and positive one.

Need help hiring talent, quickly?

If you'd like some help with your application and interview process, call LaborMAX. As a nationwide staffing company, we want to help you find great candidates and bring them into your team as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Tagged: #CandidateExperience #StrategicStaffing #StaffingInKent #CinncinnatiStaffingFirms