Top 5 Tips for Providing Candidates with a Great Recruitment Experience.

Providing a first class recruitment experience for your candidates is vital, as we explored in our last blog (read here). Brand reputation and future recruitment opportunities can be severely affected by a poor process, and the damage can be irreversible.

For our roles as Research Consultants in the recruitment industry, we talk to candidates every day and we hear their positive and negative experiences. We’ve pulled this information together to give you our 5 top tips to help ensure that all your candidates have a positive experience during your recruitment processes.

1. Keep in touch

This one sounds simple and obvious, and it is, but when you have a hundred pressing matters to deal with it can be too easy to put it off until tomorrow. We all know the predictable saying, tomorrow never comes. Thought needs to be given to what stages of your processes would be appropriate for touch points. For example, it would be impossible to keep contact with every individual that has applied or expressed an interest in the post. A quick phone call to the five people you have interviews arranged with, a couple of days beforehand to check they have all the information needed, etc. isn’t a difficult task and shows candidates that they are valued by you. That leads us to our second point.

2. Make them feel valued

With targets to reach, demanding hiring managers and deadlines looming, it can be very easy to focus solely on the business needs. It’s all too easy to put aside the thoughts of the candidates spending hours researching your company, pulling together presentations and taking time out from their jobs, friends or families to prepare for your recruitment process. Candidates need to be made to feel valued and appreciated. Provide an experience that leaves all candidates, successful or not, feeling that it was a positive experience and worth their time and effort.

3. Walk in the candidate’s shoes

To understand how candidates feel as they move through your recruitment experience, you have to walk in their shoes. Apply for a job through your organisation and work through the process. This will give you excellent insights, and you’ll be able to experience any parts that cause negativity, issues or highlight areas to improve. Of course, this can be challenging, as you can feel precious about your processes but it’s important to leave all biased opinions at the door and look through the eyes of your candidates.

4. Ask candidates for feedback

I’m sure many of you have read or seen the argument in the press for feedback from employers to become law. We visited this in our last blog and discussed why feedback is vital for both parties. However, feedback can and should be a two-way process. Ask the candidates their feedback on your organisation and recruitment process. This is an excellent opportunity to gain valuable insights and gather the candidate’s perceptions. Grouped together and evaluated, this can be extremely useful.

5. Be time critical

This is a bugbear for many candidates, and we see this often too. We understand that in business, things can change. Priorities can shift, and roles become on the back burner. Understandably, this can be hugely frustrating for a candidate, especially when they’ve been told that they’ll receive a phone call or contact within a specified period. It’s important to manage the candidate’s expectations and advise them what will happen next, and when. If this changes, let them know. Keep them in the loop, not in the dark.

Providing an exceptional recruitment process can be tricky at times. It needs to be standardised so that it is fair to all, yet each candidate is an individual and may view things differently from their peers. It is also true that the process may have been seamless, but if a person was expecting to get a job and was pipped to the post, they may still feel negative about the journey. The best we can do is to try to provide a recruitment experience that will leave the majority of candidates feeling satisfied, valued and appreciated.

As Research Consultants we are often key in ensuring candidates receive an excellent recruitment experience, on behalf of our clients. For a confidential discussion as to how we can assist you with this, call 0800 085 6618.