Candidate experience. You’ve heard of it but do you know how important it really is?

We are huge advocates of candidate experience (CX) and the benefits it gives our agency when building candidate relationships. But for those of you just looking into what it is and why you should care, and how to go about if we thought it would be a good idea to lay out the fundamentals of candidate experience for 2022.

What is candidate experience?

Candidate experience by definition is “a candidate’s perception of your company once they experience your hiring process.” Now, if after reading that you aren't completely clear, that's ok. In fact, that's the reason why we are delving into the topic. It’s ambiguous and often the solution is to bring in technology to "improve the experience" but as we will discuss, tech isn't the only thing you need to think about.

Does candidate experience matter?

Attracting and hiring top talent is at a premium these days so turning off candidates with a bad CX can be extremely detrimental to your organizations ability to continue to attract and hire talent, as well as your overall employer brand.

As most recruitment agencies move towards efficiency with automation, digital assessments, screening, and chat bots. This experience puts the candidate through a rigorous test before they often even know what they are applying for, and the experience or lack thereof has a big impact on a candidate’s perception of your organisation.

Make it Personal

Candidates get frustrated with the generic email responses, lack of clarity and ultimately the clinical nature of these highly automated tech enabled recruitment processes. Now we aren’t saying not to use technologies to improve efficiencies, but we are saying that you need to think about it from the candidate’s perspective – Ask yourself, how would they find this experience?, and hell maybe even try out the process yourself.

The impression candidates get early is a lasting one, with 63% of candidates saying the CX would have a negative impact on their decision to take a role.

Designing even a decent candidate experience doesn’t mean you need to reinvent the wheel, it’s about engaging the candidate with things they care about in a way that at least seems genuine.

You can do this by

• Talking to their wants and needs, it’s not about you, it’s about them.
• Giving them the right info up front about the role, opportunity, and company - not a generic job description, but something that truly tells them what they could be in for.
• They want to be challenged, supported and to grow. How will your business genuinely help them do this?

Creating a good CX starts with the simple notion of even giving the candidate clear insights into what the role is, who the manager is, what they will be working on and what's in it for them.

Candidates who receive a great experience that is modern, personalised, and clear can impact your business well beyond just hiring for that role.

• It increases the likelihood of referrals from them or employees
• Their perception of your brand is enhanced (% of buying vs not buying)
• They are more likely to accept a job off from you vs a competitor or a counter offer from their current employer.

Candidate experience takes many different forms. From nice workflows on your website, to SMS feedback, to chatbots to career pages that actually have engaging content. Experience is not one thing. But you can start with one thing!

We focus on CX with all of our clients because we know that it matters to their businesses reputation and ultimately delivers better talent.