With a positive candidate experience, you strengthen your employer brand and keep potential candidates in the application process. Read here how you can ensure positive applicant experiences.
With a positive candidate experience, you strengthen your employer brand and keep potential candidates in the application process. Read here how you can ensure positive applicant experiences.
Many applicants find the job search and application processes nerve-wracking. Companies counteract this by offering an appealing candidate experience.
What’s more, in the “war for talent,” applicant experience can determine whether you convince a candidate or lose them to the competition.
Below, we'll show you what's important about the candidate experience and how you can improve it - with examples, tips and a checklist to download.
By definition, candidate experience is the sum of the perceptions and experiences that a candidate gains with a company during the application phase.
The path taken when the candidate applies to the company is called the Candidate Journey and includes the journey from the first contact to the Onboarding.
Candidate Experience and Candidate Journey cannot be viewed separately: On his journey (Candidate Journey), the applicant gains various experiences (Candidate Experience) with the company.
Talent Board's EMEA Candidate Experience Research Report 2019 analyses candidates' behaviour and expectations regarding the application process at a company. The study is based on information from over 13,000 job seekers.
We have summarized 3 key findings from the report that show why positive candidate experiences are so important:
The report contains many more insights into what candidates expect from the application process. You can download the complete Download study here.
Candidate Experience Management ensures that candidates have positive experiences with the company at as many touchpoints as possible.
Whether in writing, on the phone or in a personal face-to-face conversation - it is about keeping the candidate in the application process and building and maintaining a positive company image. This means that the applicant will have positive memories of the organization even if they are not hired.
In the war for talent, a positive candidate experience can also give you a decisive advantage: By dealing with applicants in a particularly professional, appreciative and friendly manner, companies can set themselves apart from their competitors in their role as employers.
A positive candidate experience differs from a negative candidate experience primarily through these characteristics:
While a convincing candidate experience creates positive associations with the company for the candidate, bad experiences create a negative image.
The negative experiences can cause enormous damage to the employer brand in view of the above-mentioned result of the Talent Board study. Candidates who feel they have been treated unfairly during the application process could share their negative experiences with other people and vent their frustration on employer rating portals such as Kununu and Co.
The employer brand that candidates experience can be divided into 6 phases. A (potential) applicant can go through the following process and encounter various points of contact with the company.
1. Attraction
The first contact between potential applicant and company usually occurs during job search or career orientation. The candidate becomes aware of the company, for example, at a job fair, as part of an advertising campaign on social media or through a recommendation from friends.
The experience should inspire the candidate so much that he or she wants to find out “more” about the as yet unknown potential employer.
2. Obtain information
In this phase, the candidate gathers further information about the company - for example on its (career) website, social media channels or Kununu profile. The web presence, the information and job advertisements found there should be professionally prepared and confirm the positive first impression.
3. Application
The candidate begins the application process. The web forms, upload options, profile creation options, etc. provided for this purpose should function smoothly and be self-explanatory. E-mail applications should be followed by friendly confirmation emails that also state when the candidate can expect further feedback.
4. Selection
If the applicant receives an invitation to an interview, he or she can be prepared in advance for the application process, for example through information videos and help texts. interview prepare. The conversation with the personal contact should be objective, appreciative and fair. In the selection phase, the candidate gains his first real experience with the company or with one or more of its representatives.
5. Onboarding
If the applicant has successfully completed the selection process, he or she will be hired. Now the company has to confirm and reinforce the positive impression it has made on the candidate. Through a well-organized Onboarding process the new colleague can be properly trained and receive support at all times.
6. Corporate loyalty
The last phase is about retaining the applicant, who now experiences everyday company life as an employee. It is therefore about ensuring that the positive candidate experience turns into a positive employee experience. Especially in the initial phase, the new employee may not feel sufficiently integrated and leave the company early. Accordingly, it should be checked whether the Onboarding phase was successfully completed.
As already mentioned, there are various points of contact between the candidate and the company before, during and after the application process. We have put together an overview of possible touchpoints.
Before the application phase:
During the application phase:
After the application phase:
Each application phase has its own special touchpoints. Ideally, the candidate “travels” from one positive contact point to the next on their candidate journey – until the final phase.
Of course, there is no “one” right way to optimize your candidate experience. Every company has to approach the improvement of certain touchpoints in the application process differently.
However, there are a few basic tips that can serve as a guide to improving the candidate experience:
Transparency: Provide authentic insights (e.g. on the careers page) into your company and the advertised position and thus create trust.
Simplicity: Allow your candidates to apply easily and with just a few clicks. One option is for them to provide a LinkedIn profile, for example, and save themselves the trouble of typing in various information.
Speed: Respond to applications promptly. Nothing is more frustrating than not receiving a response after two months.
Return message: Even if you have to turn down a candidate, you should of course respond promptly (!). Despite the negative news, you can score points with the right tone and individuality - even rejections can be an opportunity for HR marketing.
Contact until onboarding: Weeks or even months can pass between an offer and the first day of work. During this time, maintain regular contact with your new employee.
It becomes clear that there are numerous opportunities, but also challenges, for companies to positively influence the candidate experience.
Of course, there are factors that cannot be influenced. For example, identification with the company's products and services. A convinced vegan is unlikely to apply for a job with a supplier to the meat industry.
But: For suitable, potential applicants, organized candidate experience management with targeted measures can ensure a positive perception. From individual communication at eye level to timely reactions to honest feedback in the event of a rejection and supportive onboarding measures in the event of an acceptance.
Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions about the topic of candidate experience.
The term is often used with Applicant experience or Applicant experience translated. In German-speaking countries, however, the English word is used much more frequently.
It involves the precise planning of measures that can be used to optimise the candidate experience. Various scenarios are played through and tested. In addition, there is ongoing optimisation - successful measures are expanded, less successful ones are improved or thrown overboard.
There are various methods for measuring the applicant experience, from which decisions for optimization can be derived. A well-known and simple method is the Net Promoter Score: The applicant rates on a scale of 0 (= definitely not) to 10 (= very likely) how likely he would be to recommend the company to his friends.
Further Candidate Experience KPIs can be achieved with the Customer Effort Score It can be used at various touchpoints along the candidate journey: These are questions that determine the effort a candidate has to put in to solve a specific problem. For example, at the touchpoint website -> How much effort is needed to Career Page to find?
Various well-known companies focus on optimizing the candidate experience. For example, McDonalds Germany: With a Job Day, the fast food giant held a recruiting event that focused on positioning itself as a good employer through personal experiences in the participating restaurants.
Another example is the “Zappos Community” of the US mail order company Zappos. Since the bounce rate on the Career Page of the company was enormously high, it changed its recruiting strategy?It abolished the careers page and replaced it with a social network for applicants that enables exchange between recruiters and candidates. Even if there is currently no suitable position available, members can get to know each other there and at a later date, when a vacancy arises, they can go straight to the interview be invited.
At the Employer
Branding It is about presenting a company as an attractive employer. In this respect, this measure is directly linked to the candidate experience: by designing the application process in an applicant-friendly way, the attractiveness of the company as an employer is increased.
The candidate experience can vary depending on the generation you want to reach. For example: For the Baby Boomer generation, you need to set up options for telephone and email contact on the careers page, as this generation often prefers these communication channels. If, on the other hand, you want to reach Generation Y, i.e. digital natives, you should also set up contact options via social media or video chat.
Do you have any further questions about Candidate Experience? Please feel free to Contact to us or ask your question in the comments field.
(Cover image source: fizkes – Shutterstock.com)
