Improve the Candidate Experience in Recruitment: Best Practice

In any labour market, Great Performers have options. They’ll likely be interviewing with many companies ready to make competing job offers, and their current employer is probably willing to make a counteroffer.

That’s why I find it quite shocking to read comments on Glassdoor about candidates’ bad recruitment experiences. (There may even be bad reviews about your company!) Instead, your candidate experience could be a competitive differentiator. If nothing else, candidates could become customers, and poor treatment could influence them to stop buying.

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A Good Candidate Experience

It isn’t hard to deliver a good candidate experience. When I’ve been in focus groups with jobseekers, they regularly make similar points, wanting:

• A fast, organised, and well-prepared process.
• To meet clever and friendly people.
• An opportunity to understand whether a job is a good fit for them.
• Questions answered honestly.

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A Bad Candidate Experience

I’ve already touched on jobseekers being put off applying when a salary isn’t shown, a cover letter is required, and especially when application forms mean they have to re-type an entire CV into an often clunky and arbitrary hiring system.

When they’ve made it through shortlisting, candidates dislike it when then:

• There is no reply for weeks.
• The process is slow.
• Many interviews are required over several weeks.
• Psychometric tests are required.
• The company puts the role on hold.
• There is no or poor feedback.

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‍Getting the Right Balance

I am pragmatic and appreciate that hiring managers don’t have much time and can’t be experts at everything. But equally, with such a low bar, it doesn’t take much to delight a candidate and treat them respectfully throughout the selection process.

When thinking about a good candidate experience, consider:

• Candidates have different expectations: For example, jobseekers applying to warehouse jobs are thrilled to have an employer acknowledge their application, whereas an accountant would consider this a common courtesy.
• Set expectations or have them set for you: If you don’t tell a candidate when the next stage is, they will infer one. Therefore, it is much better to set and meet an expectation. Even if you tell a candidate that a decision won’t be reached within 21 days (which is a long time in recruitment), at least you’ve managed their expectations.
• Candidates remember peak events: Kahneman (1993) found people generally prioritise the beginning and end of an event. Therefore, prioritise initial communication that manages candidates’ expectations and the final interaction when declined or hired.
• Automated vs. personalised communication: Applicants are generally happy with well-written automated communication, but they expect it to be personalised if they have invested time in a selection process.
• Candidates want a stress free experience: For many candidates, the most stressful part of recruitment is an interview. Just finding the interview location, parking, signing in, and waiting naturally creates higher levels of anxiety. Candidates greatly appreciate a well-organised interview, especially if they receive a reminder email the day before.
• Candidates want an efficient experience: Don’t fall into the trap of making candidates feel like they’ve earned the job! Some employers make recruitment unnecessarily complicated and long-winded. Candidates conclude that an employer is bureaucratic, can’t make a decision, and has unrealistic expectations. Some processes are outdated (eg. covering letters and application forms), and some assessments can feel irrelevant (eg. psychometric tests). Make efficiency a foundation of recruitment.
• Candidates often want feedback: Generally, no news is bad news and very rude.

Fortunately, I’ve provided solutions to those points in my recruitment book. You’ll find tips, email templates, and scripts. I’ve even received “Thank You” cards from applicants who never got an interview but were respectfully declined!

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Candidate Experience Workshops

With larger companies, I run workshops with a Recruitment Team to ascertain what a good candidate experience would be. Whilst a workshop may not be appropriate for many SMEs, let me provide an overview of the process to stimulate your thinking:

1. Identify the stages of recruitment: List every point from advertising a job advert to employee onboarding.
2. Map out candidate touch points: For each stage, list when and how a candidate would engage. For example, an applicant sees a job advert, applies to the job, and then receives an acknowledgement email, etc.
3. Define success for each touchpoint: From a candidate’s perspective, what would “good” look like? I recommend writing these as user stories. For example, “As a jobseeker I easily find a job advert, it is short enough to scan, but all the vital information is available. The copy is easy to understand and persuasive”.
4. Where are you noticing the most drop-off? If you find applicants rarely taking your calls, not coming in for interviews, or not accepting job offers, this is a strong indication of what to prioritise.
5. Where can you improve? What is the difference between your current and envisioned version?

As you consider what to improve, realise that it doesn’t need to cost you anything; you just need to be thoughtful. Remember to prioritise the beginning and end of a candidate’s journey.

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Additional Resources

• Talent Acquisiton Book; The Secrets of Great Recruitment - How to Recruitment Great Employees.
• Article; An Overview of the Recruitment Selection Process.
• Article; Avoid Discrimination in Recruitment: Ensure Fairness.
• Article; Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment: The Dark Truth.