4 Tips to Improve Your Candidate Experience

Having a stellar candidate experience is more than bells and whistles. Much more. It contributes to the quality of your talent pipeline, your reputation, and your bottom line. Conversely,  if you give your candidates a poor experience? The damage to your organization has a ripple effect, continuing indefinitely.

According to a recent PwC survey, 92% of respondents claimed to have a bad candidate experience. Forty-nine percent of those working in in-demand fields, such as technology, turned down a job offer because of a poor candidate experience. And fifty-six percent would discourage others from applying for a job at the same company because of a bad recruiting experience. 

Having a candidate experience is one thing.  Having a top candidate experience, one that helps you attract top talent to your organization while maintaining (or boosting) your image, is another.

Here are four tips to improve your candidate experience.

1. Streamline Your Application Process

In a world used to having to click just once, a lengthy, convoluted application process does not work. Instead, it could frustrate your applicant to the point they abandon the application process altogether.

Offer candidates a seamless, streamlined application process. Remove any unnecessary steps. For example, if you ask candidates to upload a resume, don’t ask them to complete their job history manually.  Doing so breeds frustration. 

Also, take advantage of mobile technology. Allowing applicants to apply from their phone with a few clicks adds ease and convenience to the process, improving your candidate experience.

2. Structure Your Interviews

Review your interview process. Are interviewers using pre-set, standardized questions, or are they winging it? Reigning in your interviewers and training them to use structured inquiries allows you to be consistent and fair across all candidates. 

Job candidates want “positive, direct human interaction,” which becomes more crucial during the interview process. However, don’t discount technology at this point. According to a recent PwC survey, 55 percent of respondents were interested in “gamified, interactive interviews.” The key here is to balance human interaction with technology, giving candidates a fair, unbiased, and transparent interview experience.

3. Let Your Candidates Shine

When being interviewed, candidates want to present their experience, talents, and skills, showing they are qualified for the position. According to a recent LinkedIn survey, almost 74 percent of respondents giving an interview process a 5-star rating were “extremely satisfied” with being able to present themselves accordingly. On the other hand, fifty-three percent who gave an interview process only 1 star said they were “extremely dissatisfied” with their ability to present their talents and experience.

Another way to improve your candidate experience—fairly—is through pre-hire assessments. Doing so shows candidates you are dedicated to fairness and unbiased processes while giving you the ability to narrow down your pool of applicants quickly and objectively. 

4. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

If you only implement one of these four tips to improve your candidate experience, choose this one. Communication is the essential ingredient to creating a top-notch candidate experience. 

Throughout the recruiting process, continually provide candidates with timely feedback while informing them about the next steps. The Talent Board, the sponsor of the Candidate Experience Awards, found that when candidates are given feedback by day’s end, they are 52 percent “more likely to increase their relationship with the employer.” Here, increasing their relationship means that they may apply for another position with that company, refer others to do so, or make a future purchase.  

Providing an excellent candidate experience does not stop at the door of human resources. It should be a strategic approach, company-wide.  If you want to learn more about improving your candidate experience, contact Cangrade about Candidate Reports, a vital way to communicate with candidates throughout the recruiting process.