I’ve been writing a lot on about the candidate experience over the past several weeks and one question I’ve been getting a good deal is “where should I start?”  I tend to throw out a lot of things you can do to improve about the candidate experience and realize that it would be helpful to focus on a few that I think are some of the most important.

And while I think “closing the loop”should be integral to any candidate experience here are 3 of most important candidate experience improvements you should focus on in rank order:

1.  Apply Process:This is the biggest hurdle in getting candidates to work for your company and where most of the drop-offs occur.  You want to get in as many qualified candidates as you can to complete the process.

Go through your apply process from a candidates point of view.  Make sure about a few things.  It should:

• Last less than 5 minutes (depends on the level of screening you want to do for a specific position but overall the less initial screening the better.)
• Set expectations early.  From how long it will take to apply to what the next steps are in the process.
• Not require a candidate to sign in twice or create two accounts (i.e. Talent Network or Community sign-up should require an additional account.)
• Have ways to interact with candidates that don’t apply today such as a Talent Network.
• Point to content and social profiles at the end of the process.  (You’ve built them, why not use them?)

2. Understand where candidates are coming from: Once your apply process flow is set, it’s time to understand where candidates are coming from and most importantly, where your most qualified candidates are coming from through key recruitment metrics.  This can help you determine what channels (job boards, social networks, SEO, Career Site, niche sites, sourcing, etc.) you should focus on most and enable you to create targeted messaging and make it easy for these targeted groups to find the right jobs.

These are the channels that your candidates most often use to begin interacting with your company and it’s very important to make it easy for these candidates to be able to find the right jobs once they get to your Career Site as many candidates apply for jobs they don’t necessarily come in on.

3. Establish your Information Hub: Determine where you want candidates to get information on your company and careers.  Whether this is your Career Site, social recruiting profiles or through a dedicated email address, determine where you want candidates to be interacting with you and your recruiting team to learn more about the company’s opportunities.  And make sure your process points candidates to these areas and enables easy access.

Your candidate experience is a combination of many factors (some of which are out of your control), however, if you focus on your processes and make it easy to apply & find the right information, you will be a step ahead of many recruitment marketingorganizations.