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5 Key Ingredients to a First-Class Candidate Experience
Verfasst von Jelena

Verfasst von Jelena

5 Key Ingredients to a First-Class Candidate Experience

Do you feel that hiring top candidates can be challenging? Are you looking to boost your talent acquisition capability? Would you benefit from enhancing your employer brand further? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may need to invest in refining your candidate experience.

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Candidate experience refers to how talent perceives your company while going through your recruitment process. If candidates are interested in working with you, becoming your customers, and referring their friends, it means you already offer a great candidate experience. However, if you feel that sometimes applicants become uninterested along the way, you may have a candidate experience issue. In any case, there are always areas for improvement for employers looking to amaze talent. So, we present you with 5 tips and tricks to outperform your competitors and win your best candidates.

Understand Your Target Audience

Too many employers try to build a candidate experience without taking the time to understand what their candidates really need. Sure, recruitment technology, processes, and culture constantly evolve and every business should keep this in mind. However, we suggest starting by focusing on your employees and candidates, as each audience has different requirements and expectations.

There are several ways to gather valuable intelligence about the needs of your target audience directly or indirectly. While we recommend getting creative and selecting the ones that fit you best, here are some popular examples:

  • Evaluate your sourcing methods to understand what attracts your target audience.
  • Track candidate behaviour using your applicant tracking system and focus on what they seem to enjoy.
  • Ask applicants to provide some feedback using a fast and simple survey.
  • Turn to your superstar employees and discuss with them how you can attract similar talent.

Once you gather the information you need, you are ready to design a dreamy recruitment process and a first-class candidate experience.

5 Key Ingredients to a First-Class Candidate Experience

Don’t Underestimate Job Ads

Job ads are typically treated as a transactional part of the recruitment process. They shouldn’t. A generic, dull, and average job ad can drive candidates away. On the other hand, information-rich, creative, and specific job ads can attract the right audience. Not only does a high-quality job ad make a vacancy more appealing, but also it allows potential applicants to self-screen. In practice, this may mean more and better candidates for your business.

Strategic job ads require some effort but they can offer a fantastic return on investment. If you are looking to up your job ad game, here are some recommendations:

  • Start with a great recruitment software that allows you to customise your job ads and add the required multimedia. If you are looking for one of the best solutions in the market, you may want to consider Jobylon.
  • Then, consider how you can incorporate elements of your brand in your job ads. From the colours and the logo to the tone of voice and the language, you want to make your vacancies look and feel like your business.
  • Sell the role. Instead of just job listing duties, responsibilities, and requirements, use marketing copy to create an effective job advertisement. If you want to attract the best talent, treat candidates like your clients.
  • Ask your employees to participate in the recruitment process by sharing real stories about working in your business. Then, share these stories with potential candidates through your job ads.

Once you refine your job ads, it’s time to think about how to attract your audience.

Meet Talent Where They Hang Out

There are 2 types of employers. The ones who focus on the platforms they prefer and the ones who put the emphasis on the ones where potential candidates hang out. Unsurprisingly, the former isn’t as successful as the latter. Here’s what we mean.

No employer has the resources to lead on every online and offline candidate platform. From career fairs and industry events to social networks and online forums, there are just too many options. So how do you select the right ones to focus on? Understand where your best talent hangs out, we say.

Then, keep in mind the following advice:

  • Focus your efforts on building a presence through consistent content creation and engagement.
  • Adopt a long-term outlook and invest in creating and maintaining trust-based relationships.
  • Track, evaluate, and refine your work as every platform and audience have different requirements.

5 key ingredients to a first class candidate experience

Make Job Applications a Breeze

The days when lengthy, complicated, and clunky application processes were forgiven are long gone. Now, top candidates expect a process that is easy, fast, and fun. Savvy employers have already started using cutting-edge technology and updating their processes to match these expectations. If you feel your process could be more sophisticated, keep reading.

Firstly, we suggest defining your process. Consider the ideal assessment process based on your needs and the expectations of your target audience. Find a balance where you can get the information you need without asking candidates to spend too much time and effort.

Then, design and communicate the process in a clear, concise, and relatable way. Make sure applicants understand what is expected from them, what are the next steps, and how they can provide you with the requested information. Check your process to ensure there are no vague or confusing steps.

Last but not least, get your technology right. While there are countless recruiter software providers, there are significant quality variations between each option. Here’s what to keep in mind when selecting a recruitment tool:

  • Does the software have the functionality you need to accommodate your recruitment process?
  • Does the application look and feel sophisticated? Does it offer a strong UI and UX?
  • Is the tool reliable and trustworthy? Bugs and issues can have a major impact on candidate experience.

Communication Is Key

The worst recruitment mistake is not leveraging ongoing communication opportunities to cultivate a relationship with your potential candidates. We recommend using all available touchpoints to listen to what talent has to say, and share specific, relevant, and relatable information with them. Here are some ways you can optimise candidate communication in practice:

  • Ask potential candidates to share their email with you. Then, send them relevant, informative, and valuable information about their career, your business, and the industry.
  • Utilise technology or manual effort to recommend relevant roles to top talent and encourage them to apply.
  • Combine automated with manual communication to make the assessment process clear, engaging, and fun.
  • Try to provide personalised feedback to your candidates whenever possible.
  • Remember to thank their candidate for their time, effort, and interest.

Guest Post by Jobylon

Jobylon

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