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Employee Experience

4 ways to deliver a better candidate experience in 2023

There are currently two job openings for every unemployed person in the US. With so much competition in the labor market, businesses need to do more than ever to stand out. This includes delivering a top-notch candidate experience.

Providing the best possible candidate experience makes it not only more likely that you’ll attract the best talent, but that your chosen candidate will accept the role at the end of the hiring process.

Any unsuccessful candidates will also be more likely to come away with a good feeling about your business. This could lead to them leaving a positive review about the process online. They may even reapply in the future when they could be a better fit for your organization.

So, how do you deliver the best possible candidate experience? Here are four tips:

Be open about your company culture

Your company culture can be one of your biggest selling points. But it can also put people off. In fact, 75% of people wouldn’t take a job with a company that has a bad reputation. This is true even if they’re unemployed.

How your company comes across influences the types of people who apply for roles. You therefore want to make sure that what they see is accurate. The way the rest of the world sees your company should be what it’s actually like to work there.

While we don’t like to believe that people will judge a book by its cover, they definitely do.

As the author of 20 books, and an active member of the publishing community, I should know. It’s hard to overstate the difference a book cover can make to sales.

I’ve seen so many authors experience an increase in sales just because they redesigned their covers. Branding is just as important for businesses as it is for authors.

So, the question is: does your business culture need a cover redesign?

Or does it need a complete rework internally, too?

This is obviously a much more challenging process, but it can pay dividends. Particularly if you improve it for the better, prioritizing employee mental health and wellbeing over a high-stress, high-pressure environment.

Reflect your culture on social media

Social media is one of the best ways to show exactly what your company is like to work for.

The majority of candidates research companies online before applying for a role. So if your content is a ghost town, or your reviews are negative, it’s likely to deter them.

Only 30% of people are actively job-seeking at any one time. This means if you’re not creating content to show off your company culture, passive job seekers are less likely to discover how great working for you could be. That’s a lot of people you risk missing out on.

Some of the things you can share to reflect your culture include:

  • Videos where employees talk about your culture
  • Posts sharing employee knowledge or skills
  • Photos of events employees have attended or organized
  • Employee testimonials

If employees leave testimonials or LinkedIn recommendations for CEOs and HR managers, it says a lot about the type of culture your business has. Assuming they’re positive, this further helps your ability to attract the right types of people.

Ensuring easy access to resources like these can do wonders for your candidate experience.

Communicate clearly and often

It can’t just be me who’s experienced this: you apply for a role, then don’t get an email confirming that the company received your application.

As a result, you forget that you’ve applied. Then, three weeks later, you’re surprised when they invite you to the next stage of the process.

Sure, I should’ve written something down to say what I applied for and when, but it certainly doesn’t hurt your candidate experience to send an automated email confirming you’ve received their application.

Sending email updates to confirm receipt, with details of an upcoming interview, or telling candidates when they’re likely to hear back from you, makes a massive difference to your candidate experience. And it’s one of the simplest things you can do.

It demonstrates that you value communication, which, for some candidates, can be a make-or-break trait.

It’s also a positive reflection of your company culture. It shows that you really do value the candidate experience, and more importantly, them as an applicant.

Train your interviewers

Some interviewers may not be all that comfortable interviewing other people. For them, it may be akin to public speaking, which an estimated 75% are afraid of.

Training them in interview techniques ensures they feel confident and comfortable. It helps you provide the best possible interviews as part of your candidate experience.

A positive interview experience should put candidates at ease, make them feel welcome, and take into account that traditional formats aren’t for everyone.

I’ve definitely seen more of the latter lately. More companies are sending questions in advance and giving candidates a choice between video or phone interviews for remote roles.

Simple things like arriving on time, and leaving time at the end of the interview for candidates to ask their own questions, further improves the candidate experience and helps with your employer brand.

Conclusion 

A great candidate experience is a positive reflection of your business.

The more you develop your candidate experience, the more positive reviews you’ll get across the internet. That way, the greater the impact it will have on your employer brand.

Over time, this will help you attract higher quality candidates, have happier employees who want to stay longer, and therefore make more money.

If you’d like to ensure a great onboarding process, give your interviewers a place to share resources that can improve their interview skills, and even develop a talent pool and/or alumni network, check out Workrowd.

Our all-in-one platform makes it easy to ensure everyone has both the information and the connections they need to thrive. Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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