Employers are always looking for ways to find and attract candidates, and we can’t blame them for that. What we can blame them for is not always understanding that a big part of the hiring process is the candidate experience. A candidate’s experience with you matters, and there’s so much about this exposure employers don’t know about, or don’t want to know. But if you want those better candidates, you’re going to have to learn a few things about how candidates apply to your jobs. 

You’re Oblivious to How Much it Matters

According to a recent study, 82% of employers think a negative candidate experience affects the company little, if at all. However, 58% of candidates who don’t hear back from an employer are less likely to buy products from that company. Even more shocking, 65% of them are likely to do the same if they don’t hear back after an interview. Companies may think they can safely forget about candidates who don’t stand out, but the reality is you’re losing candidates, future job seekers and customers when you give applicants the cold shoulder.

It’s Your Interview to Lose

Many candidates do spray-and-pray job hunting, but if they’re able to get far enough in your job process and they’ve landed an interview, chances are they’ll be more obliged to take a job offer from your company. As the Candidate Experience Awards data shows, 60% of all applicants are predisposed towards the companies to which they apply, believing they already have some sort of relationship with them. This should take a load off your mind — you don’t have to impress candidates as much as you might think. They really do want to work with you!

 Make Applying Easy or Lose Candidates

If a job seeker doesn’t know how to apply for the open position you just posted, you’re on a strong start to a poor candidate experience. In fact, 93% of job seekers cite unclear application instructions as the primary cause of a bad candidate experience. Remember, it’s worth it to overhaul your career site if it’s difficult for candidates to navigate. 

Your Lack of a Mobile Career Site is Costing You

Your website looks nice on a desktop browser but you haven’t checked to see how it runs on a phone… what’s missing here? When 65% of candidates will leave a career site if it’s not made for mobile, but 80% of businesses still don’t have a mobile-friendly site, that’s a problem. This means your old website is costing you candidates;  with a mobile-friendly site, however, you’ll have a leg up on most of the companies without one. 

“Candidate Experience” is an Evolving Process

No matter what you’re doing to improve your candidate experience, know that’s not something you can “fix” once and forget. It’s a process, one that requires feedback from your candidates, identifying the biggest pain points and finding solutions. It’s unfortunate, then, that only 31% of organizations report asking their candidates for feedback. It might hurt to fix things you were proud of the first time around, but it’s all in service of building a better process, so don’t feel too bad about it.

There’s a plethora of employers who could learn about the candidate experience, but if you want to know more, you should probably ask the candidates themselves. Creating a better candidate experience requires that you speak to the candidates themselves, understand their pain points, and try to improve your process using that feedback. Once you have that, the rest (mobile sites, interviewing, ease of use) should come easy.

Bio: Christine Marino

Christine is the Chief Revenue Officer of Click Boarding, LLC, a company that offers employee onboarding software and solutions. She is responsible for the sales, marketing and business development strategies. Leveraging her 18+ years of experience in the Human Capital Management space, Christine drives company growth through strategic partner relationships as well new customer acquisitions across the small to large enterprise markets.