2 definite ways to up your candidate experience game.
A lot has been written about candidate experience. If you believe that candidate experience is absolutely critical, look away from the screen, close your eyes and relax for few seconds. Digital wellness matters and why not integrate that into a post? How about some ‘reader experience’ to start with! ‘See you’ (literally!) soon.
Everyone agrees that candidate experience is important, yet we see so many poorly designed processes. Let’s not delve into the why of it, rather let’s look at 2 critical areas that you can focus on during your talent acquisition system implementation, to elevate the experience for your candidates.
But why only 2, why not 10? After all, candidate experience is a vast process area in itself. Precisely the point. It is very easy to get lost in the labyrinth of candidate experience process design, that it makes practical sense to focus on few interventions that have high impact, especially if this is not a dedicated work area during your implementation.
Candidate Experience is an area where your recruitment business process meets technology. An unfavourable candidate experience can result either from a poorly designed business process or issues caused by the HR technology platform. This is why it is essential to address this effectively during the implementation of your talent acquisition system.
From my experience, if there are two areas you should address first in your candidate experience process, they are: (a) Job application process and (b) Candidate communications.
Job Application Process — The long and short of it.
Let’s face it, candidates HATE going through clumsy application processes and it’s something we can address.
We come across both business process issues as well as technology constraints that pull down the job application experience.
Long and cumbersome application processes, collection of irrelevant data points (emergency contact data during the initial application, anyone?), application process that is not tailored to specific candidate groups, insufficient help/guidance during the application process etc. are some of the common process design issues that dampen the candidate experience.
Even with a well designed process, issues with the Talent Acquisition System or the way it has been implemented can lead to frustrating candidate experiences. Common technological issues include: Outdated user interface, poorly designed layout of application forms, career sites that are not optimised for application on mobile devices, unnecessary validations and constraints on fields, inability to upload large files/portfolio documents etc. and the dreaded issue of slow career sites that time out in the middle of an application.
It is interesting to note that decisions on ‘how’ to configure a talent acquisition system affects the candidate experience more than the talent acquisition system itself. With configurable systems, one might choose to configure an application process that completes in less than 5 minutes or one that takes 30 minutes or more. These decisions taken during the implementation process will determine how friendly your job application process will be.
Candidate Communications — Engage, Inform and Excite.
All of us have heard of the infamous “application black hole” — where candidates wait endlessly to hear from an organisation after a job application. This is indeed an issue and a low hanging fruit that can be effectively addressed leveraging the ability of talent acquisition systems to send targeted and event based correspondences.
But, the power of candidate communications go much beyond sending templatised emails.
At the core, you should be fully leveraging the ability of talent acquisition systems to send out automated messages based on actions taken in the candidate selection workflow.
Note that recruitment systems can give you the option to customise messages based on the job type, location, step in the selection process etc. Understand these capabilities fully to design the core communication framework during the system implementation. But, look beyond the core.
Use candidate communications to inform candidates of what to expect at each step of the selection process, provide tools that help them prepare better, share experience of new hires or employees, collect further candidate data as they progress through the selection process, frame the communication specific to your candidate persona etc. Having specific SLA commitments for responding to candidates is an excellent process initiative to ensure consistent candidate experience as well.
Candidates face significant information asymmetry throughout the recruitment process. Other than the job description, they do not get to know much about the job role or department they have applied to, most do not know about the values and culture of the organisation first hand. This lack of access to information raises questions and insecurity in candidates.
This is where a cleverly crafted communication strategy can help candidates know more about the role and the organisation during the recruitment process itself. This is a critical window of time where candidates form impressions about the organisation and bridging this information gap and showing that you care, can leave a positive impact on the candidate.
This is one area where roping in your internal communications and marketing teams can result in a superior and exciting outcome. Compelling content writing and design of your candidate communications can give you a definite edge in the candidate experience game!
So, there you have it. If you are getting started on optimising your candidate experience, start focusing on delivering a smooth and delightful application process for your candidates and craft candidate communications that are engaging, informative and exciting. This is the “core” of your candidate experience. Building bells and whistles with a weak core will still lead to a poor overall experience.
Candidate experience design is in no way limited to these 2 areas. It is a mini-project in itself where you can map the entire candidate journey and design to optimise each interaction. But, we do not always have the luxury of running a dedicated candidate experience project and might have to choose to work on areas that have the most impact. Isn’t it? Thus, the focus on these 2 areas.
