Back
Recruiting
Published:
June 29, 2023

How to organize a good candidate experience

Viktoria

In today’s highly competitive job market, the experience a candidate gains through the hiring process can determine whether they accept your job offer or choose to work elsewhere.

 

So, recruiting as many prospective candidates as you need may be problematic if you do not consider how to improve candidate experience.

 

Speaking about candidate experience in recruitment, it is evident that both positive candidate experience and negative candidate experience can significantly impact the entire quality of recruitment in the company.

 

Thus, let us try to confirm or refute this statement.

What is a candidate experience?

A candidate’s experience is a series of interactions between the candidate and a particular company through the hiring process. Any information the candidate receives about the employer’s brand from the company’s employees, its official site, or software systems is part of the candidate experience.

 

Therefore, the candidate experience includes the following components:

  • any message from the company’s candidate tracking system;
  • the company’s job adverts read by the candidate, quality of company’s job description;
  • online job application;
  • information on the company’s official website;
  • communication with the company’s representatives;
  • interviews;
  • notifications about the candidate’s application status;
  • the job offer;
  • the rejection letter.

What constitutes a positive candidate experience?

A positive candidate experience implies honest, open, and consistent two-way communication. That is, intensive, productive contact with the candidate at every stage of the hiring process significantly increases the candidate’s chances of having a great candidate experience.

 

Among the characteristics of the candidate’s positive experience are the following:

  • simple and convenient for various devices, including mobiles, application processes;
  • open access to all the necessary information about the vacancy and the company;
  • realistic expectations for the job and work environment;
  • realistic career expectations;
  • respectful and attentive attitude towards the candidate at all stages of the recruitment process;
  • positive interview experience;
  • smooth and compliant rejection process;
  • smooth transition of the selected candidate into the workflow.

Guides and eBooks at their best

The useful materials that clarify how to build efficient recruiting & HR processes
Download for free

Benefits of providing a positive candidate experience

A positive candidate experience can significantly improve the results and overall quality of the company’s recruiting. In particular, such experiences can directly contribute to these positive processes in the company:

 

  • Attracting more candidates and increasing choice.

A simple candidate experience survey will quickly confirm that a maximum-optimized application process can attract many more applicants and provide the recruiting team with a broader range of job seekers.

 

  • Attracting the best candidates.

Optimizing and improving the candidate experience will allow your company to attract the best candidates by shortening the recruitment process time and making the best impression on the promising applicant. Moreover, meeting the candidate’s expectations throughout the entire recruitment process will motivate even the most demanding candidates to accept your offer.

 

  • Increasing the company’s brand awareness.

If a company offers exceptional hiring conditions and excellent candidate experience, job seekers and new employees will share their experience with their acquaintances and leave positive feedback on social networks. This process will create positive awareness of the company’s employer brand and attract more candidates and clients.

Summary

Thus, as seen from all of the above, a good candidate experience can bring the best candidates to your company and supply your company with new clients.

 

The excellent reputation of your company, supported by great candidate experience, will let you rely on the fact that only the best employees will always work for you. And your competitors will have little chance of poaching promising candidates from you.