We joined Talent Board as they celebrated Candidate Experience Day on January 26, where talent professionals shared how they’re innovating and improving the candidate experience. Recruiters from around the world gathered virtually and shared inspiring stories of wins in talent acquisition (TA) and the best-in-class experiences they’ve created for their candidates.
If you couldn’t tune in for #CandExperienceDay2022, we’ve compiled our top takeaways on how to create the best candidate and recruiter experience this year.
Candidate Experience Trends for 2022
1. Consistency is key for every applicant
Part of creating a great candidate experience is ensuring every job seeker has the same top-quality experience with your company. Candidates should feel like they’re getting personalized communication from recruiters, while knowing that every applicant is going through the same process. The structure of your hiring process should be the same from start to finish — meaning certain candidates don’t get preferential treatment or skip ahead of certain screening steps.
Ensure consistency in your candidate experience by adopting automation and AI into your processes. Today’s strategic recruiter uses automated tools to help attract, screen, engage, and hire candidates — and are finding top talent as a result. By using automation, TA teams not only win back time in the hiring process, but also ensure that all candidates get a consistent, quality experience.
2. Feedback from candidates will shape future experiences
You never really know what a candidate experiences during your recruiting process unless you ask them for their feedback. Recruiters have found the importance of surveying candidates and using feedback to improve key steps in the hiring process. When a candidate is finished with the recruiting process — whether they were selected for a role or not — you should automatically send them a survey to gain valuable insight into their experience.
Candidates will usually be very specific and honest about their experiences with your company. So, use this data to help improve your processes and overall candidate experience.
Here are some examples of questions to ask candidates about their experience:
- What was your experience like during the recruiting process at our company?
- What is something that you’d change about the process?
- Would you refer others to apply for jobs at this company? (Why or why not?)
- Did you feel your recruiter responded to you in a timely manner and answer your questions?
“Transparency continues to pay candidate experience dividends.” – 2021 Talent Board Candidate Experience Research Report
3. Applications should be simple and intuitive
Today’s job seeker is savvy and doesn’t want to spend 45 minutes on one job application, where they are required to manually input every detail from their resume. A mobile-optimized application process is now the standard for providing a positive candidate experience that reflects the consumer-grade experience they have come to expect. Simply, the quicker a job seeker can apply, the more likely they are to do so.
Talent teams are upgrading their processes to allow for easy mobile or text-to-apply applications from candidates who are always on the move. In fact, recruiters who engage candidates through text boast a 98% response rate compared to email and phone calls.
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