Candidate Experience Ensure The Hiring Process Is A Positive One

What is the Candidate Experience? Candidate experience is a broad term about how candidates feel as they go through the process of applying for a job with your organization. Companies — including yours – want their potential employees to have positive interactions when auditioning for a role on their teams. This includes the complete experience, from visiting the career website through to the application and interview processes.

Does Candidate Experience Really Matter? Every individual who interacts with your company is not just a candidate, but potentially a new employee, a referrer of potential hires and maybe even a customer. Treat a candidate well and that creates a positive vibe that emanates out over time. Treat candidates poorly, and you can be sure they’ll be talking about it for years.

The candidate experience begins when a candidate first researches your company online.
 

• Is the website engaging? Does it align with the kind of place they’d like to work? Is it easy for them to find their way around?
• When they hit the career page, does it have the information a candidate wants? Can they navigate to the information they need?
• When they go to apply, is the process simple or cumbersome? Does it take too much time? Does it require them to re-type information that is already in their resume?

It’s HR’s job to make sure that the start of the experience goes smoothly for the candidate. It’s not a bad idea for you as a manager to try out the process to see what the candidates you want to hire have to go through to get as far as applying. If it’s the kind of experience that will turn off qualified candidates, then talk to HR and support them when they say they need the resources to upgrade the experience.

What about first impressions? Well, imagine the candidate who could be a great worker for you. Imagine the cheery smile they bring to the office. Imagine how productive they are. Imagine how your boss gets up at the annual corporate meeting and interrupts the Chairman of the Board to point out that you are just ‘the most fabulous manager ever’ because of the excellent hire you made…ah we can dream, can’t we? Now imagine the first impression that candidate gets when they walk in for the interview and begin sizing up the company.
 

• Are they greeting politely?
• Did the receptionist acknowledge that they were expected?
• Were they offered a drink? Is the reception area attractive?
• Is it cool?

Now consider the first impression they have of you.
 

• Are you friendly?
• Punctual?
• Well-organized?

In this meeting, it’s not just you assessing them; it’s them assessing you.

First impressions are something you have a lot of control over, and it’s your responsibility to make sure you don’t blow it—or, to put it more kindly, that you have an opportunity to land a
candidate who otherwise would have gone elsewhere - by making a great first impression.
This is an opportunity for you to partner with HR. Tell them what you think about the first impression that is being created. Get their thoughts on it. Work together to make things better.

What about interviews? The main point of an interview is for you to assess the candidate’s fit for the job. However, the whole idea of candidate experience is that we should look at things, not just from our own perspective, but from the candidate’s perspective as well.

Here are some things to check:
 

• Are there times where the candidates may feel your questions are unfair?
• Are there times when they may think your comments are discouraging or inappropriate?
• Do you take the time to acknowledge their previous accomplishments, and recognize them for the experiences they can add to your team? Remember, we all appreciate praise (even you — come on, admit it)!
• Do you thank them for coming in? Do you thank them for their time at the end of the interview?
• Do you let them know (realistically) when they’ll hear back?

When we begin the hiring process, we normally see it through the lens of our own needs. What do we want? What’s convenient for us? The concept of candidate experience reminds us that we should pay attention to how the process feels for the candidate.