Why your company needs to care about candidate experience

Not being treated well by a potential employer is a demoralizing experience for candidates which they are likely to share about with others. This could affect the ability of the employer to attract talent. Simple measures and more attention to recruitment process can improve candidate experience.

What is candidate experience?

It’s how job seekers perceive an organisation’s hiring process, and it influences how they feel about you as an employer. One of the most frustrating things in job hunting is putting time and effort into applying for a job, without getting an acknowledgement, not even an automated response. Better still, having aced the interview (so you think) and then never hearing back from the company, either a positive or negative feedback. Your application is greeted with silence and you’re left to wonder if your resume was even seen. Such silence is rude, demoralizing and inconsiderate. Hiring is not only about the employer, it also has to be employee-centric.

Many companies don’t take candidate experience seriously enough in their recruitment process. Why? It could be due to the sheer volume of applications received. Or it could just be the lack of enough attention to how the candidates are treated.

Why employers should care more

According to reports from Career Arc, Nearly 60% of candidates have had a poor candidate experience, while 72% of those candidates have shared their bad experience online or with someone directly. Employers should be more conscious of how they part ways with candidates to protect their employer brand. Letting rejected candidates down gracefully is essential because they will likely tell others about their experience. In fact, 51% of candidates share good hiring experiences on social media and 34 percent share bad hiring experiences, reports Jobvite. Also, with the increase of internet transparency through social media, it makes it easy to amplify negative interview experiences across various channels and can shape your reputation as an employer.

The hiring process is an important part of employer branding — a company’s reputation in a job market as an employer. Candidate experience is now a more realistic representation of brand identity. Recruitment marketing is gradually becoming popular as candidates are seen as customers (or potential customers, or at the very least influencers of potential customers) or external clients. Every year, organisations across the world are unknowingly losing money, as poor candidate experience jeopardizes consumer loyalty.

In today’s hiring environment, a good candidate experience is more important than ever. However, to achieve this, it starts with thinking about the recruitment process from the perspective of the applicant. Walk in the applicant’s shoes. At least we have all been job seekers at some point in our careers.

How to improve candidate experience

Your candidates should be aware when they don’t get the job. Re-design your rejection approach. Keep the rejection mail professional and competency based. Keep good relationships with all candidates and offer a great candidate experience from start to finish, no matter the outcome. Thank them for their interest and time, don’t leave them lost in the air. Add personality and warmth to your recruitment process and applicant communications. Also, keep a talent community and inform them about future job opportunities that will help maintain contact with your organisation. All candidates are important and should be treated in the same manner.

About the author: Sudhanshu Ahuja is the CEO of impress.ai , an AI chatbot software for recruiters.

Our conversational bots interview and shortlist candidates 24/7, to make hiring smarter, engaging, and unbiased.

Here is our difference: optimising candidate and recruiter experience through automation.