The candidate experience is arguably one of the most critical aspects of the recruitment process. The quality of your candidate experience can make or break whether a candidate will apply for a job, accept an offer, and even influence how they speak of the company.
Every company has its unique hiring challenges, but here are six common mistakes that can affect your candidate experience for the worse.
What is the candidate’s experience?
The candidate experience comes down to how job seekers view your company as a prospective employer. This experience encompasses each stage of the job-hunting journey, including but not limited to:
- Company website
- Job listings
- Application process
- Interaction with recruiters and hiring team
- Screening and interviews
- Communication about applicant status
- Onboarding and training
6 mistakes costing your candidate experience
- Your career site is challenging to navigate
- Technology overload
- Going radio silent after candidate signs their offer
- Ghosting rejected candidates
- Inefficient interview processes
- Misunderstanding candidates’ interests
- Career site is challenging to navigate
Your career site is a candidate’s one-stop-shop for understanding your company culture, getting the scoop on vacant positions and submitting applications for said positions. Candidates should quickly find the answers to frequently asked questions they may have when applying.
If your career site is confusing or difficult to navigate, candidates may become discouraged or frustrated and abandon their applications.
Solution
To avoid mass drop-off:
- Review your current career site.
- Ensure your site is enticing and accurately includes any information a candidate would deem necessary.
- Check for and simplify any awkward navigation to create a seamless experience for candidates to search and apply for roles.
- Technology overload
Technology can be a great asset to your recruiting process. Nowadays, tons of tools are designed to help fulfill each step of the hiring process. Whether it’s for sourcing candidates, screening resumes or booking interviews, it can all be done by the helpful hand of technology. Sounds fantastic, right? It is, but it can also be too much of a good thing.
Constantly switching between spreadsheets, different conferencing platforms, and various single-purpose tools can be more inefficient than doing everything by hand. Juggling between too many tools can waste time and even open up opportunities for mistakes.
Solution
Moving away from single-use platforms will create a more efficient recruitment process and, ultimately, a better experience for your candidates. Focus on using integrated technology to complete hiring tasks in one single interface.
- Going radio silent after the offer is accepted
Your candidate accepted their offer; now what? At this point, you can be sure the candidate’s experience isn’t over yet. Just because an offer has been accepted doesn’t mean the candidate will make it to the first day. Many candidates might still be interviewing or are receiving counteroffers from their current employers. If you suddenly go radio silent, that sends mixed signals and can cause candidates to regret their decision.
Solution
Maintain communication, even after an offer has been signed. Keep your candidate engaged between signing and their first few weeks of work to ensure things go smoothly. During this time, be sure to warmly welcome your candidate and address any concerns or questions they may have.
- Ghosting rejected candidates
Whether after a phone screening or the second round of interviews, all candidates deserve to know why they weren’t selected. While sharing this information can be tough, providing feedback is imperative, so don’t ghost your candidates, even those you reject.
Ghosting candidates brings all sorts of consequences that affect your organization and others as well. Candidates might begin to mistrust recruiters due to feeling invisible or unqualified without ever knowing why. Plus, being turned down without any feedback just isn’t a good feeling.
Providing feedback will help candidates improve and grow as professionals. That same candidate you rejected might come back stronger and better with some sound advice and encouragement.
Closing the loop with all rejected candidates ensures they feel respected and valued regardless of whether they landed the job. Don’t give candidates a reason to bad-mouth you. Keep in mind word can spread fast.
Solution
Create a spreadsheet to track each candidate throughout the hiring process and review this weekly to ensure all loose ends have been tied. If feasible, technology like applicant tracking systems (ATS) can also come in handy to track candidate progress, keep notes and notify you when it’s time to follow up. When sending feedback, be efficient, don’t leave candidates hanging too long and always encourage them to reach out with questions or concerns.
- Lengthy interview process
Hiring is expensive, and you want to be sure you’re making the best choice possible. Trust us; we get it! But if you find you’re having seven separate meetings with a candidate over a month, you better grab a lifejacket because you’re going overboard.
An unnecessarily long interview process is taxing on candidates and recruiters, but it can also cause candidates to lose interest and drop out altogether. You’re probably not the only company they’re interviewing for, so ensure you can send out offers promptly, or your talent will get scooped up before you even have a fighting chance.
Solution
Review your interview process and look for any steps that need revision. You want to ensure that each step of the interview process has value. To cut down on hiring time, try to combine stages. Analyzing your interview process with a critical eye will allow you to develop a quick, easy and efficient recruitment process to ensure a positive candidate experience.
- Misunderstanding candidates’ priorities and interests
Don’t let yourself get carried away by the position opening. Sometimes recruiters can become hyper-focused on filling the role, forgetting the candidate and their interests. Consequentially, candidates can find themselves in roles that fit their professional needs but don’t align with their personal wants. Happiness and fulfillment inside and outside the job are essential to retaining talent.
Solution
During interviews, be sure to discuss the candidate’s priorities both in their professional and personal life. What kind of benefits are they looking for? Are they money-driven, or do they emphasize work-life balance? These questions can also be included in the application and help you determine if a candidate is the right fit.
The Best IT Recruitment Agency in Toronto | About Live Assets | IT Staffing Solutions
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We are a small, but productive team that works closely together and has had a 96% success rate for the past number of years!
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