How greatly does the candidate experience impact your hiring process?
Answer: substantially.
Poor job descriptions, unclear application processes or an inability to contact a recruiter or hiring manager, can significantly worsen the candidate’s view of an organization. If you want to attract and land great talent it’s important to create a positive candidate experience.
Top Causes of a Negative Experience
Software Advice, a company that reviews HR technology, surveyed 379 candidates who had applied to a full-time job in the previous year. They were asked about what factors in the hiring process would create a negative experience. Their responses were fairly decisive. Here are the top 10 reasons a candidate could have a poor experience:
- Unclear application instructions
- Overly long application process
- Minimal information on the job posting
- No link to the application
- No confirmation email
- Long hiring process
- No notice when position was filled
- No salary information
- Unable to contact a recruiter
- No information about the interview process
Candidates were asked to qualify each reason as either significantly worsening, somewhat worsening or not impacting their experience. As a point of interest, only 5% of candidates said that unclear application instructions did not impact their experience.
How to Improve the Experience
There are a number of ways to improve your hiring process. In the Software Advice survey, 72% of job seekers said that a clear hiring process timeline would be the number one way to improve the experience. Other improvements included notification if they were passed over (28%) and human contact after the application (14%). Interestingly, 64% said that a personalized email would go a long way to improving the experience. In fact, what becomes most obvious from the survey’s results, is that communication plays an integral role in creating a positive candidate experience.
Read “How Better Communication Can Improve Your Hiring Process” for more insight.
Further Recommendations
In a blog titled “These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For – The Finance Hiring Process” we explore how to fine tune the hiring process to ensure that you bring the right talent onboard.
Here are some tips that can greatly improve the candidate experience:
- Write a job description that speaks to the kind of talent you’re trying to recruit
- Outline both responsibilities and requirements, but also include notes on your company’s culture
- Keep the hiring process streamlined – have meetings with key stakeholders in advance to discuss “nice to haves” and “must haves” so that people are on the same page and the hiring process is efficient
- Create a scorecard that reflects your discussions with key stakeholders and ensure that everyone uses it in the interview – again this will create additional efficiency in your hiring process
Key Takeaways
A poor candidate experience impacts an organization’s ability to hire well. Keep application instructions clear and your hiring process efficient. Write thorough job descriptions that speak directly to the talent pool you’re trying to recruit. Communicate as effectively as you can about the hiring process timeline and where the candidate is in the chain. To bring the right talent onboard, it’s imperative that the candidate experience is as positive as possible.
Your Next Step
No one should walk the job search or hiring road alone. At Clarity Recruitment we help others realize their success through a process that marries proprietary technology with unwavering commitment. Contact us today to take control of your career, or to partner with us to hire well.
Clarity Recruitment, connecting exceptional people with remarkable companies.
