Ensuring Quality Candidate Experience

A disjointed career site, poor feedback mechanism, an ad-filled application site and skimpy application details. These amongst others are “throw-ins” to a poor job candidate experience. It is important for recruiters to provide a quality application environment for their prospective employees, the quality of the candidate experience will definitely be consequential. Job applicants or candidates get influenced either positively or adversely by what they experience during the process of applying. If the recruiters don’t deliver, applicants may quit in frustration and negative news may evolve about such agencies. After effects of a poor candidate experience may include the following:

• Loss of Interest: A mediocre candidate experience may result in applicants losing interest in work for such organizations.
• Spread of Negative News: News is like seeds, once sowed, it tends to grow and spread widely. A negative candidate experience will spread like wildfire, once a candidate talks about his/her experience, sooner rather than later a lot of people will know about it.
• A decline in Brand Reputation: The reputation of the recruiting organization may take a serious hit if news of its poor candidate experience should spread.
• Loss of Qualified Candidates: The experience of one candidate may result in the discouragement of other candidates, even the most qualified ones.

No two ways about it, unhappy candidates don’t spell good news for the recruiting organization, so how can candidate’s experience be improved in a recruitment process. Let’s take a look at some tips that could improve candidate’s experience:

• Great Online Presence: An organization with a shallow online presence may be difficult to locate. As a matter of fact, an organization with a great online presence portrays credibility and brand resonance. The portability and accessibility of the recruiting organization’s website are pivotal in ensuring a quality candidate experience. A website with an extensive domain name may prove difficult to locate, recruiting organizations must be wary of their websites’ accessibility. The extension of the websites’ domain name is important also. The most easily recognized extension is .com; others that are associated with organizations are .org and .co.
• Mobile-Optimized Website: Even with a good website domain extension, a website that is not mobile-optimized doesn’t reflect well on the recruiting organization. Candidates who access the recruiting organization’s website must have an experience that is user-friendly and fit into place to ensure maximum user satisfaction.
• Video-Optimization: It is no new trend; recruiters use videos for the recruitment process. These aids even candidates who are in distant locations and it helps in more interactivity between the recruiter and the candidates.
• Extensive Details: Job seekers must be provided with sufficient details on the application process. Skimpy details on job postings are one of the most common contributors to negative candidate experience. Details on salary package, job requirements and qualifications must be adequately provided.
• Quality Feedback Mechanism: Feedbacks improve us. No wonder Ken Blanchard said, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions”. Adroit recruit organizations recognize the importance of feedback in a recruitment process. It is unprofessional on the part of a recruiting organization not to give feedback to candidates, especially to the unsuccessful candidates. Candidates who are not provided with feedbacks are usually in a limbo as to their situation.

FINAL THOUGHTS                                                                                              

A good candidate experience sets your company apart from others who don’t. As a matter of fact, it demonstrates the professionalism of your organization; it also shows the candidate how their treatment and work environment will be like if they’re successful.