Creating a Great Candidate Experience is Good Business
Posted on in Recruiting Strategy
Companies know who their customers are. They understand their buying behavior and solicit their feedback after a purchase or when conceptualizing new products or services.
They have dedicated customer service channels to answer questions and resolve complaints. Companies understand that the interactions and experiences customers have with them leave either a favorable or unfavorable impression, which impacts future buying behavior. And not just one individual’s buying behavior. In the world of Facebook and Twitter, consumers have access to hundreds of friends at their finger tips, and they won’t hesitate to let them know about a good or bad experience.
But this isn’t a post on consumer marketing and behavior or customer experience. We want to talk about the importance of creating the candidate experience.
The candidate experience begins during the attraction phase of the talent continuum. This is when candidates begin to interact with your brand on a more personal level and envision what it would be like to work with you. Once they are ready to formally apply, the opportunity to create a great recruiting experience is yours to lose.
A great candidate experience isn’t something that’s “nice to do” if you have the time, nor is it an activity reserved for huge corporations who have a large staff of people to execute. Quite frankly, the future success of your business could depend on it.
Why?
It may seem obvious, but a negative candidate experience has the potential to impact your revenue, employment brand, and future recruiting efforts. The inverse is also true. A great experience can positively impact all of this and more.
Annual research performed by The Talent Board has found the following:
- On average, 41% of candidates who feel they have had a negative experience will take their alliance, product purchases, and relationship elsewhere. Calculate how this could negatively impact your revenue.
- 64% of candidates say they’ll definitely increase their employer relationships based on positive experiences they’ve had, regardless of whether or not they were hired for the job. Calculate the positive impact this has on your bottom line.
- Candidates share their positive recruiting experiences with their inner circles (friends, family, peers, etc.) more than 81% of the time, and their negative experiences 66% percent of the time. That’s a lot of air time.
- Candidates also share their positive and negative experiences online via social media. 51% of candidates have reviewed their experience on Glassdoor and 34% have on LinkedIn. These are two sources many jobseekers turn to in their research process. Your reviews matters!
The good news is that this is all within your control and you don’t need new technology or other bells and whistles to create a positive experience. The process to creating a great candidate experience begins simply by taking a step back, putting yourself in your candidate’s shoes, and always remembering the Golden Rule.
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