There’s one big problem with the candidate experience today: It’s not about the candidate at all. The employer is still in control. Companies decide what information they want from applicants. Companies decide which candidates they want to follow up with and when. Often times, they don’t even follow up at all; a whopping 52% of companies say they respond to less than half of the candidates that apply (CareerBuilder, 2015).
Ouch.
Instead of leaving candidates in the dark, what if companies solved for them? At HubSpot, we try to look at every part of our business through an inbound lens. In the recruiting world, that means creating a positive candidate experience that people want to tell the world about. We obsess over our candidate feedback on Glassdoor, and use it to drive our efforts in delivering more engaging interactions and experiences. One way we’re hoping to do this is by giving candidates a voice during the recruiting process.
Applying for a job has traditionally been a one-sided conversation when really, it should be a dialogue. Job seekers have tons of questions before, during, and after submitting their resumes. Would I be a better fit for this position or that position? How much flexibility do employees really have in their schedules? When can I expect to hear back about my application? What’s the culture like on the sales team?
Unfortunately, it’s rare they have access to a real person to get real answers. That’s why we launched Careers Hub, a Slack team for candidates and pre-applicants to talk directly to recruiters and employees at HubSpot in real time. We realized there needs to be an interaction between browsing a company’s website and waiting to hear back from a recruiter. Specifically, there has to be a more personal, helpful interaction.
Here are a few reasons we think Slack can help companies make the candidate experience more engaging, valuable, and most importantly, human.
“Always be helping” goes a long way
Instead of the old adage “always be selling”, HubSpot’s sales team follows the mantra “always be helping”. Whether you’re demoing software or writing a job description, the goal should be to make the experience as easy as possible for your audience. By being on Slack, companies make themselves available to candidates. While “being there” might not sound groundbreaking, think about the last time you applied for a job. Chances are, if you tried to follow up or were waiting on next steps, you were met with radio silence. That’s not only unhelpful, it’s disheartening. Being accessible to job seekers sends a strong message that companies genuinely want to help them in their job search. For candidates, that message trumps no message any day.
Transparency works inside out
A core part of our culture at HubSpot is that we are radically transparent. Employees are encouraged to think and act like founders, and have the access to information and ideas to do just that. But to walk the walk on transparency, we need to be transparent with candidates, too. Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes: Should I wear a suit to my interview even though they said the office is casual? What’s a “biggest weakness” that’s negative but still a positive? Did they want me to submit a cover letter even though it’s optional? While the application process should be rigorous, it shouldn’t give you anxiety. Thanks to platforms like Glassdoor, companies can (and should) be more transparent with candidates than ever.
Slack is just one more opportunity to share information, answer questions, and be more transparent about the recruiting process in real time so that candidates can worry more about standing out than messing up. Less stress is a win for everyone.
There’s power in numbers
Whether you’re in Tokyo or Toronto, talking to someone on the other side of the world is just a click away with Slack. That’s why it’s such a valuable platform for empowering global communities. We realized this loud and clear when Careers Hub members (non-HubSpot employees) started answering each other’s questions about HubSpot and wishing each other luck with their interviews and applications. Their candidate experience was suddenly more positive, but because of one another, not HubSpot. At any given time, there are hundreds to thousands of people around the world with one thing in common: They’re all exploring the idea of working at your company one day. By creating a platform for them to connect with one another, you can help foster a supportive and helpful community.
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When companies are themselves, candidates are, too
It’s easy to forget that companies are made up of living, breathing people. People with hobbies, humor (sometimes), and families. Ironically, they’re who make or break how much we love coming into work every day. That’s why companies shouldn’t be afraid to let their guard down and show candidates who they are. We think Slack is a great platform for that because the product is causal, playful, and unintimidating. (Emojis never hurt either.) By having recruiters and employees chat with job seekers informally, candidates are encouraged to be themselves and can feel comfortable regardless of what country they live in, what their first language is, how young or old they are, or what their quirky passion is.
The more you know…
Finally, opening the floor up for question and discussion means you know exactly what job seekers are thinking. We’ve learned a lot already from common questions on Slack about which parts of our application process we can make clearer, how our job descriptions can be more concise, and what resources we should make available that we haven’t yet. Hopefully, we can continue to learn from candidates through the Careers Hub and Glassdoor to create a better, more engaging experience for them every step of the way. We have a lot to discover beyond these five ways we’ve seen Slack working, but I think if companies aren’t trying anything new to engage with job seekers then we’re, well, slacking off.
