Improving candidate experience is a must if you want to win in a war for talent. The current job market is candidate driven, which means you don’t pick talent anymore. Talent picks you. That’s why it is absolutely necessary to start improving candidate experience right now.

Read on and learn how to attract and recruit top talent in 10 simple steps!

The recruiting game has changed

Candidate experience is more than just another passing HR trend. The way we recruit has changed. Current job market is candidate driven. That means you don’t pick talent anymore. Talent picks you, and they do it based on their candidate experience.That’s why it is absolutely necessary for your company to ace candidate experience.

Candidate experience definition

“Candidate experience” is current, past and potential future candidates’ overall perception of your company’s recruiting process.

It is the product of candidates’ feelings, behaviours and attitudes they experience during the whole recruiting process, from sourcing and screening to interviewing, hiring and finally onboarding.

Steps to improve candidate experience

1. Write a clear job description

A recent Talent Board report found that job descriptions are the most important job related content. Write a clear and accurate explanation of the job and responsibilities, salary range, perks and benefits and company values.

Pro Tip: Writing a job description that attracts candidates is the very first step in finding the right candidate. To help you save time, we have created free most common job descriptions templates and samples, ready to use and post to multiple job boards with just one click.

2. Be transparent about your recruiting process

Setting expectations about the recruitment process is very important in delivering a positive candidate experience. According to research, 83% of candidates say it would greatly improve
their overall experience if employers could set expectations about the recruiting process.

Pro Tip: It is crucial for you to make clear what exactly your hiring process will look like. Offer resources and tips to help candidates. A great example is Google’s How We Hire,
a transparent and detailed look into their recruiting process.

3. Improve your career site

According to research, 89% of job seekers, your career site is the most visited recruiting asset you have, so ensuring candidates can easily find the information they need is essential to a great experience.

Pro Tip: There are many things you can do to improve and optimize your career site. We prepared a detailed step by step guide to help you get more job applicants from your career site.

4. Enable easy application process

According to research, 60 percent of job seekers quit in the middle of filling out online job applications because of their length or complexity.

Pro Tip: Evaluate your application process and do everything you can to make it shorter in time and more simple. Consider asking only what you really need from people at this first point of contact.

5. Respect candidates’ time

According to LinkedIn’s survey, it generally takes 2 to 3 months for candidates to move from application to hire. This is quite problematic because top talent stays on market only for 10 days.

Pro Tip: What constitutes as a timely response by employers? Most of the candidates say that 3 to 5 business days is an acceptable time frame.

6. Communicate, communicate, communicate

Research shows that the No.1 frustration during the overall job search is the lack of response from employers. 81% of candidates that the one main thing that would greatly improve their overall candidate experience is employers continuously communicating status updates to them.

Pro Tip: Create email campaigns that will keep your candidates interested and engaged. Set up personalized campaigns based on different stages of recruiting and hiring process.  With our TalentLfyt Engage, you can create your own email templates, or use existing ones to save time.

7. Become an interview guru

The interview is a pivotal point in the candidate's’ job search journey. According to LinkedIn research, 83% of talent say a negative interview experience can change their mind about a role or company they once liked.

Pro Tip: Keep your interview period short, offer candidates a chance to learn about the role and your company culture. A great way to that is to show off your workplace. A simple walk around your office after interview will give candidates a glimpse into your culture.

8. Give and ask for feedback

Feedback helps candidates improve as professionals, and they are very well aware of that.  According to LinkedIn hiring statistics, 94% of talent wants to receive interview feedback.

Pro Tip: Make sure to provide feedback for candidates that you didn’t hire. If the feedback you offer to rejected candidates is constructive, they will be 4 times more likely to consider your company for a future opportunity.

9. Maintain candidate relationship

Despite popular belief, a candidate’s experience doesn’t end when you decide not to hire them.
So called silver medalist are candidates that don’t make the cut for this position, but may be a perfect fit for some other future job openings.

Pro Tip: So how can you keep your silver medalists interested and engaged? Connect with them on LinkedIn and your company’s social media profiles. Add them to your recruiting email campaigns. Organize talent networking events and invite candidates from your talent pool.

10. Create a great recruitment content

Inbound recruiting creates a remarkable candidate experience through employer branding content and helps companies build relationships with top talent.

Pro tip: Create appealing employee testimonials and stories, shoot attractive company videos and provide interview and career advancement tips to get potential candidates interested in working at your company.