3 Tips to Improve Your Candidate Experience and Secure Talent

Tip 1: Build Candidate Experience to Reflect Company Culture

It is crucial that external recruiters, internal hiring managers, and anyone else involved in the recruitment process be fully aligned with the company culture in order to better focus search efforts.

According to the 2022 Hiring Insight Reports from Goodtime, 90% of companies say they design their process to reflect their company culture but only 53% successfully communicate that culture to candidates through the recruitment process. Creating an interview process that reflects your mission, vision and values - including your commitment to DEI - at all touchpoints is a powerful way to build a genuine connection with candidates and signal to them whether they'll be a good fit for your role.

Here are a few areas your company can emphasize about your culture to stand out and attract top talent:

1. Work-Life Balance

2. Career Advancement Opportunities

3. Strong Leadership

4. Sense of Purpose

5. Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

“For example, I had one client telling me they wanted someone who was more of a laid back and go-with-the-flow personality because the organization was still young, and they needed people who could be comfortable with having things change quickly and be able to adapt to those changes with ease. Then another client was looking for someone to do the same type of job, but on a more established team and at a much larger company; so, they wanted someone who could hold their own among several other strong personalities and would be more outgoing and ‘add to the vibrant culture’ they already had on the team.” – Stefanie Campos

Tip #2: Optimize Scheduling Process for Speed and Flexibility

Scheduling interviews is often the trickiest part of the hiring process. With so many moving parts and changing schedules on your hiring team it can be complicated to find the right time to schedule an interview. However, scheduling the interview in a timely fashion is essential to keep candidates engaged and feeling positive about their experience. Employ Inc.’s 2022 Job Seeker Nation Report found that an easy interview scheduling process was the top factor that makes a candidate experience positive.

Employers should automate as much of the interview scheduling process as possible in order to create a more streamlined experience for candidates and a more flexible schedule for their hiring team/recruiters. Scheduling an interview quickly and easily can be the difference between getting the candidate you want or seeing them take a role elsewhere.

“The candidate had already had their HR and hiring manager screen and we were just waiting on the schedule for their final round. During this time there were some internal changes with the client that slowed the hiring process down a bit, but that wasn’t communicated to our side. So we’re trying to follow up and get the final booked and letting them know the candidate was in the final stages elsewhere, then we’re telling them the candidate has another offer, and still nothing back. So the candidate accepted an offer from the other company and our client had to increase their offer to win the candidate back. The client could have avoided a lot of drama if they had been more transparent and communicated effectively.” – Stefanie Campos

Tip #3: Communicate Transparently with Candidates

Offering prompt feedback is one of the most important aspects of the candidate experience, and it can be make or break for your recruitment strategy. According to a recent report from Criteria, 53% of candidates have abandoned a recruitment process because of poor communication from the employer/recruiter. 

If there are issues causing delays in deliberations or scheduling of next steps, candidates generally appreciate being made aware of those issues so that they can adjust their expectations appropriately. In fact, CareerBuilder found that 81% of job hunters say that employers communicating "continuous status updates" would greatly improve their overall candidate experience. With the recruiting landscape being extremely competitive, good communication can help your company to maintain positive relationships with candidates and work as a competitive advantage for you in talent acquisition, saving you time and money.

Offering candidates the option to communicate with your team via text message may be a good way to offer updates. 56% of candidates who have received a text from a recruiter to schedule an interview preferred texting to email/phone call.