What is the candidate experience, really, and why should we be so concerned with it?  With the recent improvements in the job market, good candidates have multiple positions to choose from.  As an employer, you need to compete for the best hires.  The way to compete is to make the candidate feel valued and excited from the beginning of the recruiting process.

Is it easy to apply for a job in your organization?  If your application is long and asks for a lot of background information, candidates are going to get frustrated before they finish it.  You really don’t need to know their last 8 employers or 5 home addresses until much later in the process anyway.

What about your availability?  The ever-elusive passive candidates are working in other jobs while you pursue them.  This means they have full schedules.

• Are you available for phone calls after business hours?
• Can you schedule interviews in the evening?  Better yet, can you schedule interviews remotely so they don’t have to take time off from work?

The average time to fill an open position is approaching 27 business days, with much higher averages in certain industries.  Time to fill is typically measured from the day the job is posted to the day the candidate accepts the offer.  That means there is another two weeks (or more) before the candidate starts work.  (However many eons it took to get the job approved before it was posted is not relevant to the candidate.)

Have you ever spent an extra 6-8 weeks in a job you absolutely hated?  Or have you spent 6-8 (more) weeks unemployed?  In the grand scheme of your business, that may not seem that long.  To the candidate who is suffering, it is an eternity.

There are so many things we do in the recruiting process that unnecessarily drag out the timeline.  Which of these things can you eliminate?

• Get manager availability up front so you don’t waste days trying to schedule interviews.
• If multiple people need to interview the candidates, find out about that right away.  Don’t keep bringing the candidate back to talk to “just one more person.”
• When you have a decision, communicate it.  If you are putting the final details together for an offer, let the candidate know you are working on an offer.  Keeping candidates up to date, even without concrete details, makes them feel like they haven’t been forgotten.

When is the last time you applied for a job at your own company?  Take some time to go through the process, or talk to some recent hires to get feedback on how it went.  Putting yourself in the shoes of your candidates may help you see things from an entirely new perspective.

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