This post originally appeared on the Talent Technology blog: http://www.talenttech.com/blog/candidate-engagement-winners-losers-...

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Once upon a time, before I knew anything about the recruiting industry, I found myself laid-off and looking for work. And in the midst of that particularly frustrating and vulnerable time, which coincided with the early, halcyon days of blogging, I lost my effing mind and ranted at the internet about what a horrible, awful process it is.

Since then it seems things have not changed much, except that FINALLY tons of people are now talking about the importance of creating a positive candidate experience.  

If you're one of the HR Pros who is looking for ways to do just that, we had an excellent webinar with Susan Strayer this morning where she outlined six steps you can take, today, to take your company's candidate experience to the next level. Give the whole webinar a watch, then start with walking through your own application process to see what your candidates really experience. I promise you it's eye-opening.

For the 11% of the webinar participants who have already done this and thought their own candidate application processes were great: congrats, and keep on keepin' on. You are winning in the war for talent.

For the 69% who thought it was mildly bad to downright awful: pick three things you're going to improve. Then iterate on it again. And again.

For the 16% who haven't made the time: I hope you can see the writing on the wall, and I'm sure you're making the time now.

And for the 5% who weren't sure why to bother: Still feel that way? If so, maybe you should consider a career change to one that doesn't have such a staggering impact on peoples' lives. Too harsh? That job-seeking me of 5 years ago, and legions of job-seekers today don't think so. The good news is, you probably still have a bit of time to change before the HR leaders you're working for now start to make those decisions for you.