What I wish everyone knew about candidate experience during the recruitment process. Technology has completely changed the hiring landscape, for both job seekers and recruiters. These technical advances mean that employers can more easily find candidates that perfectly fit their current vacancies, and candidates can search for more jobs than ever before.

 

Often you find that companies will put candidates through a rigorous assessment process, without ever making an emotional connection with the potential employee (and then wonder why they don’t accept their job offers at the end of this process!)

 

Due to the increased online access to information, the best candidates can often have a choice of what job to go for and will quite often consider multiple roles before deciding which one to take.

 

This means that engaging with candidates is crucial and a great experience should be created from the get-go – you don’t want to lose a prospective candidate due to an outdated hiring process!

 

This is why the first contact is so important – it should be a two-way conversation between the interviewer and interviewee to explain the opportunity to them and to gain buy-in (as well as to assess).

 

Other things that you may want to reconsider within your own recruitment process include:

 

• The format and style of the interview. It isn’t always necessary to do a ‘proper’ interview at this initial stage, you can do a full assessment after the candidate is brought in (they will be more open to jumping through hoops when they actually want the role)

 

• Getting the line manager involved early in the process, even if only for a coffee. Most people work for their boss rather than the company so doing this can be a pivotal factor in the candidate’s final decision.

 

• You want the candidate to get a real feel for the company culture. Introducing the candidate to multiple people within the company will ensure they get a rounded view of what its ‘really like’.

 

 

Think about it, wouldn’t you be more likely to accept a job offer if the hiring process was more enriching and you felt like you already had a feel for the company culture?

To discuss further, you can email me on James@refind.co.uk.

You can view more about James Cumming our change and business transformation specialist here.