Exclusive Interaction With Julia Anas, Chief People Officer, Qualtrics
“Every Candidate, Hired Or Not, Is A Potential Brand Ambassador”
Posted on 06-18-2021, Read Time: 8 Min
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“Leaders can start building trust with candidates from day one by understanding what they are thinking and feeling, setting expectations by clearly communicating what the hiring process will be like, and why each step is relevant to the job. Doing so will create clarity and positively influence a candidate’s experience with your brand,” says Julia Anas, Chief People Officer, Qualtrics. In an exclusive interaction with HR.com, Julia touches upon why candidate experience is critical in the entire employee journey, why taking action on employee feedback is as important as seeking feedback from them, and how Covid-19 has impacted employer branding, among others. |
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: What are the top factors that influence a candidate's decision to join a company?
Julia: The decisions we make everyday are often based on our experiences. The decision a candidate makes to join a company is no different. Recent studies show that 49% of job seekers say they’ve turned down an offer because of a bad experience during the recruitment process. In contrast, candidates who’ve had a positive experience are 38% more likely to accept job offers and more than twice as likely to become customers.This means that from the moment they first hear about your brand or organization to the minute you send them an offer decision letter, how they think and feel about the experiences they’ve had along the way will play a major role in whether or not they join your company. Companies who focus on listening to candidates throughout the hiring process and acting on that feedback will be able to provide a positive experience—ensuring candidates remain advocates for your brand, regardless of whether or not they are hired.
Q: What are some of the myths around employer branding? What works and what doesn't when it comes to building an employer brand?
Julia: The biggest myth surrounding employer branding is that candidate experience doesn’t matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every candidate, whether they’re hired or not, is a potential brand ambassador for the company. Leaders can start building trust with candidates from day one by understanding what they are thinking and feeling, setting expectations by clearly communicating what the hiring process will be like, and why each step is relevant to the job. Doing so will create clarity and positively influence a candidate’s experience with your brand.Q: What are the emerging trends in employer branding in the Covid era?
Julia: Continuously listening and acting on candidate and employee feedback is the most significant improvement we’ve seen this past year. Before the pandemic, the most common employee engagement strategy was a yearly pulse. Now, almost every company running an employee experience program is checking in at least quarterly or monthly. The pandemic taught us all that circumstances change too quickly to wait to take action. Employers have to listen, understand, and act on their employees’ thoughts and feelings in real time.Additionally, companies are interested in how candidates are feeling as they engage with the company throughout the hiring process by asking for feedback at different moments that matter along the way.
Q: What are some of the best employer brand techniques that you would like to emulate at your company?
Julia: The candidate experience is one of the most important experiences in the entire employee journey. According to research, there are six critical factors that drive a positive candidate experience:- Technology: For most jobs, the candidate experience involves dozens of interactions with technology — from online applications to new-hire process/documentation. The tech systems candidates use should be seamless.
- Clarity: It’s important that a candidate understand what’s happening during the hiring process and why. Employers shape candidates’ expectations upfront. Clearly communicating what the process will be like and why each step is relevant to the job for which they’re applying is important.
- Fairness: Candidates want to feel like they are given a fair opportunity. Setting candidate expectations from the beginning can also positively influence the candidate’s perception of the fairness of the process.
- Attractiveness: Positive and constructive interactions with others at the organization play a major role in the candidate experience.
- Timeliness: Nobody wants to be left hanging. Prompt follow-ups are critical for a good candidate experience.
- Personalization: A candidate should feel valued throughout the process — even if they don’t receive an offer.
Q: Should CHROs focus on employer brand or employee experience? What is the connection between these two?
Julia: Improving employee experience, in turn, improves employer brand. If companies focus solely on employer branding, they will miss the mark. Many job candidates are initially attracted to an organization based on what they hear and see. Much of this information travels via word-of-mouth, employee referrals, and even their first experiences in engaging with the company. Companies that provide their employees with exceptional experiences create loyal and enthusiastic brand ambassadors that organically and genuinely build an employer’s brand.Q: How do you identify gaps in employee experience? How can you build a positive employee experience?
Julia: The key to creating a positive experience is listening AND acting on employee feedback. A study of almost 12,000 employees around the world illustrates a big gap in employee experience programs with 92% of employees saying feedback is important to them, but only 7% say their organization actually takes action on the feedback they give. That’s a big gap!Employees need to know that you are listening and what actions are taken as a result of their feedback. Positive experiences are created when leaders take the time to understand where employees are coming from and then turn that feedback into actions that help deliver a differentiated experience.
Q: How do you gain executive buy-in for your employer brand?
Julia: Research shows that one of the top drivers of employee engagement is leadership who listen to and act on feedback. Leaders that can access employee insights, take action, then properly communicate why that action was taken as a result of the feedback, are key to keeping employees engaged and involved. Happy and engaged employees help attract and retain both new talent and loyal customers. When executives understand their unique role in driving positive experiences across the company, organizations see greater buy-in from both leaders and employees.Q: How have recruiting and talent acquisition evolved over the past year? What has been your toughest challenge in this regard?
Julia: When the pandemic hit last year, we went from 30 offices to 3,000 “home offices” overnight. In that time, the company continued to grow and we hired more than 1,000 people. Given the virtual nature of interviews and the inability to bring candidates on-site to experience our culture, we had to be creative in bringing our culture to them. How this showed up in interviews and their interactions with the company was important. Our communication with candidates increased, interview loops were coordinated, and expectations were more clearly set. There is no one-size fits all approach, but understanding and acting will be the key to improved experiences.Q: How important a role does technology play in building a good employee brand? How?
Julia: Plain and simple—technology is mission critical. If companies want to keep pace with the speed of workplace changes that are happening today, they need to have a system in place to regularly and frequently understand the hearts and minds of candidates and employees.Q: How do you plan to look at newer means of communicating with candidates, building deeper meaningful engagement internally and showcasing one’s humanitarian efforts at your company in 2021?
Julia: Positive employee experiences do not begin at orientation, but during the hiring process. That’s why last month we released a new candidate experience solution which allows organizations to improve the way they attract, recruit, and hire candidates by asking how they are feeling about the hiring process, and then taking actions to deliver a better experience in real time. This gives companies a consistent way to know what actions they can take to improve the experiences they are delivering to candidates at the moments that matter most.Error: No such template "/CustomCode/topleader/category"!
