There's a lot of chatter about candidate experience, and for good reason. But what do candidates really want? According to Sense’s research with Atomik involving 1000+ active job seekers, here’s where candidate priorities are at:
Job seeking today is like navigating a maze filled with long and complicated applications, automated rejections, and scheduling interviews that resemble a prolonged game of phone tag.
Meanwhile, recruiters find themselves caught between the challenges of managing layoffs on one front and grappling with a shortage of talent on the other.
If you want to prioritize candidate experience without adding additional workload for your already busy recruiters, recruiting automation is the way to go!
A poor candidate experience can make a real dent in your talent pipeline, potentially causing significant setbacks and deterring candidates from engaging with your organization.
When candidates have negative experiences during the hiring process, they may choose to ignore further communication or withdraw their application altogether. Candidate ghosting creates difficulties for recruiters and lengthens the hiring process.
Negative candidate experiences can damage a company's employer brand, leading to a decrease in the number of qualified candidates applying for future job openings. Word-of-mouth and online reviews on sites like Glassdoor can significantly impact an organization's reputation as an employer of choice.
If candidates have a negative experience during the recruitment process, they may begin their employment with a less favorable perception of the company. This can lead to lower employee engagement and higher turnover rates.
In a competitive job market, candidates with high-demand skills and qualifications have multiple options available to them. A poor candidate experience may prompt them to accept offers from competing companies, resulting in a loss of top talent.
A negative candidate experience can discourage potential candidates from progressing through the recruitment funnel, leading to a smaller talent pool and lower conversion rates.
To deliver a best-in-class candidate experience, several key elements should be prioritized:
Candidates appreciate tailored experiences that demonstrate an understanding of their skills, qualifications, and career goals. Achieving personalization involves customized communications, relevant job recommendations, and personalized content.
Maintaining open lines of communication with candidates throughout the hiring process is crucial. Regular updates and status notifications are essential to keep the candidate engaged throughout and contribute to a positive candidate experience.
Candidates value timely responses from recruiters, especially during the application and interview stages. Promptly addressing candidate queries reduces time-to-hire significantly and enhances the overall experience.
Having accurate and up-to-date candidate information is essential for effective talent acquisition. You don’t want to reach out to a candidate with job opportunities that are mismatched with their skill set or location. Regularly updating candidate databases ensures that recruiters can access relevant information when needed and provide a seamless experience.
Identifying and removing bottlenecks in the hiring process is vital for a smooth candidate experience. Recruiting automation can help streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and reduce delays, improving efficiency and candidate satisfaction.
Here are some real-world use cases of how forward-thinking businesses leverage automation to enable recruiters to deliver exceptional candidate experiences while saving time and improving efficiency.
Recruiting automation tools simplify the application process by enabling candidates to apply through mobile friendly options such as QR codes scans or text-to-apply. Additionally, pre-fed questionnaires can be used to automatically screen candidates, eliminating the need for manual screening. Recruiting automation also streamlines interview scheduling by eliminating the back-and-forth communication and enabling candidates to self-schedule/reschedule interviews based on availability.
Recruiting automation allows companies to tailor their communication and engagement strategies to individual candidates, creating a more personalized experience. By leveraging candidate data and segmentation, recruiters can send targeted messages, personalized job recommendations, and relevant updates to candidates, fostering a stronger connection.
Leverage various channels for communication and engagement, including automated email campaigns, texting campaigns, and chatbots or virtual assistants. Automated email campaigns enable you to deliver targeted and timely messages to candidates, keeping them informed and engaged throughout the hiring process.
Texting campaigns provide a direct and immediate means of communication, allowing you to quickly share updates or answer candidate queries. Additionally, chatbots or virtual assistants offer interactive and personalized experiences, providing candidates with instant support and guidance while reducing the workload on your recruitment team.
Recruiting automation tools track and analyze candidate interactions, core hiring metrics, and trends, providing valuable data for optimizing recruitment strategies. Gain insights into the effectiveness of your recruitment strategies and can make data-driven decisions to enhance your approach.
Core hiring metrics such as time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, sourcing channel effectiveness, and candidate conversion rates (to name a few) offer visibility into the efficiency of your process and enable you to identify bottlenecks and implement targeted optimizations.
Convinced about the power of recruiting automation, but not sure where to start? Our comprehensive recruiting automation guide is a must-have resource for recruiters, hiring team leaders, and talent practitioners looking to harness the full potential of automation in their workflows.
Whether you're new to automation or have already implemented it in parts of your recruiting funnel, this playbook provides valuable insights, strategies, and best practices to propel your recruitment success. Download our Recruiting Automation Playbook for 2023 now.
