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The way you treat people leaves a lasting impression that can shape how they view you and your organization. This is especially important in talent acquisition. Candidates remember how they were treated throughout the recruitment process and it can have an impact on your hiring outcomes and organizational goals—for better or for worse.
Providing a positive candidate experience is an important part of a modern talent acquisition strategy. Here’s what you need to know to get it right in 2024.
What is candidate experience?
Candidate experience refers to the overall perception and feelings job seekers have about your hiring process, from the moment they first hear about your company until they’re either hired or rejected.
It encompasses every interaction a candidate has with your organization, including the initial job search, application process, communications, and interviews.
The state of the candidate experience in 2024
The candidate experience is deteriorating. While employers know they need to make improvements, most haven’t made any progress.
The good news is there’s a tremendous opportunity for your organization to stand out to candidates.
Why candidate experience matters
A positive candidate experience isn’t just a feel-good nicety. It’s a strategic advantage that can supercharge your talent acquisition efforts and provide tangible business benefits.
Here’s why the candidate experience should matter to your team:
1
Attract skilled talent
Candidates can easily share their experiences on employer review sites, via social media, and within their network. When 54% of candidates research every company before applying, your candidate experience can impact your organization’s ability to attract skilled talent.
A poor candidate experience can damage your company’s reputation, making it more challenging to attract talent. On the other hand, a positive candidate experience can enhance your employer brand and can make your company more appealing to top-tier talent.
2
Boost candidate engagement
Job candidates are evaluating your team and organization as much as you’re evaluating them.
A poor candidate experience may lead your candidates to withdraw from your recruitment process. For example, 47% of workers said an interviewer’s negative attitude or poor behavior would cause them to drop out of the recruitment process.
But a thoughtful candidate experience helps job seekers feel valued and respected, enabling you to build stronger relationships. This can make candidates more excited about the opportunity to join your team and therefore more likely to stay engaged in your recruitment process.
Even if a candidate isn’t selected for a current role, an engaging experience may inspire them to apply again or recommend your company to others.
3
Increase your offer acceptance rate
A positive candidate experience doesn’t just help you attract and engage candidates—it helps you hire them. A standout candidate journey can position your company as an employer of choice and reinforce your top-choice candidate’s decision to join your team.
However, a negative candidate experience may lead your candidates to question how they might be treated as employees, leading them to decline your job offer.
4
Trim your time to hire
Recruiting requires a lot of time and effort—not only from you, but from your entire hiring team. The last thing you want is for your most qualified candidates to withdraw from your interview process or reject your job offers. This can extend your hiring process, as you move on to your next best candidate—or re-start your search entirely.
A well-crafted candidate experience can help you build a more efficient recruitment process that reduces your time to hire. Attracting skilled talent, keeping candidates engaged in your interview process, and increasing your offer acceptance rate enables you to hire qualified talent faster.
5
Strengthen your quality of hire
In-demand candidates often have other opportunities available to them. An engaging candidate experience that improves your offer acceptance rate can help you win more high-quality talent for your team.
6
Improve employee retention
A thoughtful candidate experience fosters a sense of connection, loyalty, and enthusiasm that carries over into the employee experience once your candidate is hired.
This often translates to a happier, more engaged, and more loyal workforce with lower turnover rates. In fact, Aptitude Research found that companies with a positive candidate experience were 3x more likely to improve employee retention.
7
Improve employee performance
A great candidate experience helps you hire skilled talent so you can build a high-quality team. It also helps you build early employee engagement and increase retention so you have motivated team members who stay with your organization long-term. It’s no surprise that companies with a good candidate experience are 2x more likely to improve employee performance.
Creating a positive candidate experience
Building an engaging candidate experience requires an ongoing effort to improve every touchpoint in the candidate journey.
Here are some best practices you can implement to improve your candidate experience and improve your hiring outcomes.
1
Write an engaging job description
A job posting may be the first impression you make on a job seeker. Make sure your job description is clear, concise, and engaging so it accurately represents your role and entices your ideal candidates to apply. For example, you might highlight key responsibilities, required qualifications, and what makes your company a great place to work.
2
Discuss compensation early
Most candidates (63%) agree that compensation is the most important factor in the recruiting process. It’s so important, in fact, that 38% of candidates would stop or abandon a job application if the salary range wasn’t disclosed.
Align on compensation early, ideally sharing a pay range in your job description. This allows candidates to assess whether the compensation for your role aligns with their expectations, saving time for all parties involved.
3
Build an informative careers site
Your careers site is a great way for job seekers to find curated information about your company, with 39% of candidates citing them as the most valuable research channel.
Candidates primarily want to see salary information (74%) and benefits (70%), but they’re also curious to know what it’s like to work at your company, what your interview process looks like, and if they’d feel a sense of inclusion and belonging.
4
Streamline your application process
Half of job seekers (49%) agree that most job application processes are too long and complicated. That can be problematic, as 33% of candidates said they’d abandon an application if it was too clumsy, repetitive, or difficult to fill out.
Simplify your application process by asking only for essential information, enabling candidates to apply using a resume or LinkedIn profile, and ensuring candidates can apply on a mobile device if they choose. Removing as much friction from your process as possible can help improve your conversion rates.
5
Make decisions promptly
Candidates are eager to hear back from you following each stage in the recruitment process. Making timely decisions reduces the anxiety and uncertainty that often accompany prolonged waiting periods, leading to a more positive and respectful experience.
6
Provide frequent, transparency communication
Poor communication is one of the most common complaints from job seekers—and it’s costing you candidates. Nearly half of job seekers (47%) said poor communication, such as not being updated on their application status or their messages not being responded to quickly, would cause them to pull out of the recruitment process.
Frequent, personalized, and transparent communication can help you foster a sense of connection and respect with candidates. Regular updates, even about delays, keep candidates engaged in your hiring process and informed about their status.
7
Train your interviewers
Interviewing isn’t intuitive to everyone, and the interview experience is too important to get wrong.
Well-trained interviewers can be instrumental in building a more respectful, informative, and positive candidate experience. Train your interview team in areas like how to conduct an effective interview, use hiring technology, and make objective assessments.
8
Use structured interviews
Irrelevant, off-topic, or repeated interview questions can frustrate candidates and lead to unfair hiring outcomes.
Structured interviews use standardized questions to help ensure that every job candidate is evaluated on the same criteria. This gives each candidate an equal opportunity to demonstrate their skills.
9
Prepare your candidates for interviews
When candidates know what to expect, they can engage in more meaningful and insightful discussions that showcase their skills and qualifications.
Send candidates materials to help them prepare for your interviews, such as where to go, who they’ll be meeting, and what format their interview will use. Some organizations are even sharing interview questions ahead of time to ease anxiety and allow candidates to perform their best.
10
Limit the number of stages in your recruitment process
Over half of employers make candidates go through four or more interviews, and have a process that lasts four to six weeks.
Limiting the number of steps in your hiring process is less burdensome for your candidates—and for your team. Fewer stages can reduce the time it takes to get from application to offer, reducing fatigue, frustration, and opportunities for candidate churn.
11
Create a welcoming interview environment
A welcoming environment fosters open communication and helps candidates perform their best.
Greet candidates warmly, introduce your interviewers, and outline the interview process. This hospitality shows respect and reduces anxiety, putting candidates at ease.
12
Encourage candidates to ask questions
Your team members and your candidates are each trying to determine if the other is the right fit. Make sure your interviewers leave time for candidates to ask questions so they can clarify doubts, understand your role and company culture better, and assess mutual fit.
13
Compensate candidates for work assessments
Assessments are a valuable tool for evaluating a candidate’s skills—but they can require a significant time investment. Compensating candidates for skill assessments acknowledges this effort and helps candidates feel appreciated for their time and expertise.
14
Provide feedback to rejected candidates
Most of your candidates won’t be hired for your open role—that’s just the nature of hiring.
You can still provide a good candidate experience, even with a rejection. Most candidates (70%) said that receiving a clear reason for why they weren’t selected would leave them with a positive impression of the company.
15
Request candidate feedback
Asking candidates for feedback demonstrates that you respect their perspectives and are committed to continuous improvement.
Candidates appreciate being heard, which can foster a positive perception of your organization—even if they aren’t selected for your role. Plus, implementing candidate suggestions can improve the candidate experience for future job seekers.
16
Personalize your job offers
An enthusiastic job offer can set a positive tone for your candidate’s future with your company.
Maintain the momentum and engagement from your candidate journey by personalizing your job offer, showing genuine excitement about your candidate’s potential contribution. Provide comprehensive details about the role, benefits, and growth opportunities. Offer support, such as a point of contact for questions and guidance through any pre-employment steps. And share next steps around offer acceptance, start date, and onboarding.
Building a better candidate experience with JobScore
Investing in the right strategies and tools can help your organization stand out as an employer of choice so you can win top-tier talent for your team.
Here’s how JobScore’s applicant tracking system can help.
Showcase your employer brand
JobScore enables you to create a branded, mobile-optimized careers site to showcase your employer brand and encourage candidates to apply.
JobScore job descriptions can help you elevate your employer brand with videos to showcase your company, images that help job seekers visualize themselves in the job, and profiles to introduce the people on your team.
Streamline your application process
JobScore helps you streamline your application process to provide a better experience and convert qualified applicants. For example, you can customize your application form and allow candidates to apply using a resume or LinkedIn profile.
Conduct an engaging interview process
Conducting interviews can become more organized, efficient, and effective with JobScore features like interview self-scheduling, interview templates, and automated feedback reminders.
Provide clear, consistent communication
JobScore can help you provide clear, consistent communication so you can foster a sense of connection and respect with candidates. For example, you can send automated emails to acknowledge receipt of job applications and notify candidates when they’re no longer being considered for the role. Personalized email templates keep messages consistent and on-brand so you can communicate with ease.
Simplify offers and ensure smooth onboarding
The JobScore DocuSign integration allows candidates to receive, sign, and return offers electronically, reducing friction for offer acceptance.
In addition, JobScore integrates with leading HRIS and Onboarding platforms, eliminating data entry redundancies and creating a seamless hiring experience. This integration ensures that once a candidate is hired, their information flows smoothly into your onboarding system so you can begin their transition to a new hire right away.
Optimize your recruitment process
JobScore’s recruiting analytics give you deep insights into your recruitment efforts so you can refine strategies, improve efficiency, and enhance your overall candidate experience.
For example, you can see how long candidates spend in each stage of your recruitment process and understand why candidates withdraw. This data can be instrumental in identifying and addressing issues that impact your candidate experience.
Final thoughts on optimizing your candidate experience
Crafting a standout candidate experience is an ongoing process that requires thoughtful effort, but it’s well worth the investment. Treating candidates with respect, transparency, and professionalism throughout the recruitment process helps create a positive impression, which can ultimately lead to better hiring outcomes.
By building a strong team through a positive recruitment journey, you set the foundation for reaching organizational goals and driving long-term success.
Want to learn how JobScore can help you elevate your candidate experience?
