The tenets of recruitment are changing, placing the candidate at the center of the hiring process. Not only are recruiters looking at efficiency and costs, they are using the candidate experience as a benchmark for high recruiter performance.
There lies a logic in this. A candidate is a close and ongoing touchpoint for an employer, and how he or she experiences the prospective employer says a lot about the employer value proposition. The candidate experience can make or break the employer brand. A candidate who has had a bad experience will talk about it to peers, colleagues, friends—all potential candidates. Negative word spreads fast and before you know it, your company will have lesser applicants in an already cut-throat war for talent.
In fact, CareerBuilder’s 2017 Candidate Experience Survey interviewed people at both ends of the spectrum, i.e. 4,512 workers aged 18 and above, and 1,500 hiring decision makers to know what leads to inadequate candidate experiences.
Here is an overview of what is best avoided to become an employer of choice:
Source: HR Technologist
There lies a logic in this. A candidate is a close and ongoing touchpoint for an employer, and how he or she experiences the prospective employer says a lot about the employer value proposition. The candidate experience can make or break the employer brand. A candidate who has had a bad experience will talk about it to peers, colleagues, friends—all potential candidates. Negative word spreads fast and before you know it, your company will have lesser applicants in an already cut-throat war for talent.
In fact, CareerBuilder’s 2017 Candidate Experience Survey interviewed people at both ends of the spectrum, i.e. 4,512 workers aged 18 and above, and 1,500 hiring decision makers to know what leads to inadequate candidate experiences.
Here is an overview of what is best avoided to become an employer of choice:
- Lack of a fast application process: Some of the dissatisfaction cited was about application processes taking too long (28%), needing to customize documents for each job (34%), and” “uploading a resume into a system but still having to manually fill out fields” (29%). In today’s age where everyone wants everything fast and quick, this may be a huge demotivator and result in strong candidates dropping out at the application stage itself.
- No trained hiring managers: Hiring managers are often not trained or prepped by talent acquisition specialists, on how to hire the right way. Only 40% of hiring managers are actually trained, and amongst these, only 40% are trained specifically on the topic of relevance for the job and candidate. This leaves candidates with a bad feeling about the company, often dissuading them from proceeding.
- Lack of a good career site: According to the survey, 89% of job seekers feel that an employer career website is important to get key information. 24% said that the employer site, even if present, did not convey how it is like to work for the organization. Only 45% of companies actually portray the right work environment and give candidates a realistic feel of the employee experience.
- No tailored communication: The survey highlights the shift in communication preferences, with millennials significantly preferring email communications (57%) and Gen Xers preferring both email and phone communication equally (47%). Recruiters must up their communication means and reach out to people in the way they prefer. This means adopting new means such as text messaging, social media messaging, and video calling as an intrinsic part of the recruitment and selection process.
- No relationship with the candidate: A candidate interaction is not just for filling a current vacancy, but also potential talent pool for the future. Recruiters are enmeshed in the day to day tasks of recruitment, often subjected to the high pressure and time-bound commitments. They do not take out time for the things that truly matter, like frequently and effectively communicating with your talent pool at large. 35% of employers said that they did not work towards this.
- No use of technology: Applicant tracking systems and other recruiting technologies like background check have been around for some time now, yet recruiters are still sticking to manual methods. It is important to tap into the wealth of cloud and artificial intelligence and reap the efficiencies and accuracy that tech tools provide us. For example, the survey says that recruiters who currently use an ATS are 25% more likely to have a standardized process to help deliver a consistent candidate experience.
Source: HR Technologist