How to Attract & Recruit Talent by delivering a Great Candidate Experience

A great candidate experience has the power to win talent in this market. There is lots of competition for the best talent. Never forget that great candidates are likely to have several career opportunities to consider alongside yours, including staying with their current employer.

What is the Candidate Experience?

It is the experience of a candidate throughout the recruitment and selection process and is the start of the employee’s journey with an organisation. Get it right and you will turn the candidate you select into an employee; but even unsuccessful candidates can be advocates for your brand. Get it wrong and you could find your preferred candidate rejects your job offer and shares their poor experience with other potential candidates.

What makes a great Candidate Experience?

•             The Job Spec - Ensure you are clear on the job role and challenges before you start the process. If you change this in the middle of the recruitment process, candidates will be concerned the job will change when they join, so they are not sure what is really on offer.

•             Decisive Processes - Be ready to review CVs within 48 hours of receipt and respond with an interview scheduled within the next week.  In a recent survey 54% of candidates revealed they would wait 1 to 7 days to hear back following an application before moving on.

•             Interviewing – Being on time goes without saying, but you would be surprised the number of candidates who felt they were not important as the interviewer was 15 minutes late. Give a warm welcome, read the CV, prepare appropriate questions and listen to the answers. If an interviewer checks their mobile phone in an interview, the message to the candidate is that you’re not worthy of my full attention and time.

•             Communication - Provide prompt feedback, ideally within 48 hours, after interviews, whether positive or negative. Nearly 50% of candidates say the most frustrating part of find a job is the lack of feedback. When someone takes time off work, often using their holiday allowance, the least they expect is to understand why they did or didn’t impress the interviewers.

Building Trust

Changing job is considered to be as stressful as moving house and getting married, both of which are significant life events! So you need to build trust and a good working relationship with candidates. You will hopefully ask one of the candidates to join your team and they need to feel they can trust you. They are trusting that the job you offer them will be the one they actually do, that you will be inspiring to work for,  the company is as great to work for as you’ve told them and their aspirations will be met.

Try putting yourself in the candidate’s shoes. Would you be impressed with your process and communication? Would any of your processes, actions or behaviours put you off accepting a job offer in your team? 

 

 

Posted 14.06.2022

Category: IT market news | For clients