Employer branding is a crucial element for attracting top talent. A strong employer brand not only helps attract candidates but also enhances the company’s reputation and employee retention rates. However, one of the often overlooked aspects of employer branding is the experience that candidates have when applying for a role.
A retailer invests in the in-store experience, as they understand that customers need to have a great experience up to the moment of purchase to secure the sale. It’s the same for candidates.
The difference in experience between many employers’ flashy career sites and their application process is stark and often surprising. Candidates explore a heavily branded, experiential website that showcases the brand, only to be hit with endless pages of forms and faceless CV uploads once they hit apply.
In contrast, investing in a positive candidate experience can significantly impact an organization’s ability to attract and retain the best talent, making it an essential part of any comprehensive employer branding strategy.
Understanding Candidate Experience
Candidate experience refers to the overall perception and feelings a candidate has about an organization throughout the recruitment process. Just as any organisation obsesses over customer experience, so too should the HR function obsess over candidate experience.
Your candidate experience is shaped by various stages, including:
- Awareness: How candidates first learn about your organization and its job openings.
- Consideration: The research and evaluation process candidates go through to determine if they want to apply.
- Application: The process of submitting a job application.
- Assessment / Interview: The experience a candidate has when being assessed and/or interviewed for the role.
- Decision: The outcome of the application, whether it’s a job offer or rejection.
- Onboarding: The initial experience of new hires as they join the organization.
Each stage is critical in shaping a candidate’s overall perception of your brand, which influences their decision to join the organization, and what they share of their experience with others.
The Link Between Candidate Experience and Employer Branding
A candidate’s experience can significantly impact an organization’s employer brand. Here’s how:
- Positive Experiences: Candidates who have positive experiences are more likely to accept job offers, recommend the organization to others, and even become customers. A smooth, transparent, and respectful recruitment process can leave a lasting impression, enhancing your brand’s reputation.
- Negative Experiences: Conversely, negative experiences can harm an organization’s reputation. Candidates who feel undervalued or disrespected during the recruitment process may share their experiences on social media and review sites like Glassdoor and Indeed, deterring other potential candidates from applying. They can also deter the candidate from interacting with you as a consumer. For consumer-facing organisations hiring in high volume, this impacts revenue.
Benefits of a Positive Candidate Experience
Investing in a positive candidate experience can yield several benefits:
- Higher-Quality Applicants: Candidates who have positive experiences are more likely to apply, and likely to share their experiences with others, increasing the quality of the applicant pool.
- Increased Candidate Engagement: Reduced dropoff and leakage due to an engaging experience means more candidates remain through your hiring process, giving you a better chance of finding the candidates who belong with you. On average, candidates who are invited to a chat interview powered by Sapia.ai are 80% likely to complete it.
- Improved Employee Engagement and Retention: New hires who start with a positive experience could be more likely to be engaged and stay with the company longer.
- Enhanced Employer Brand: A positive candidate experience strengthens the employer brand, making the company more attractive to top talent. Brands that have invested in their candidate experience by leveraging Sapia.ai to give everyone a chat interview and personalised insights are elevating their employer brand. 81% of candidates are likely to recommend others to apply for a job with the company, and 82% are more likely to recommend the products and services of the company based on their interview experience.
Key Elements of a Positive Candidate Experience
To create a positive candidate experience, organizations should focus on several key elements:
- Clear and Transparent Communication: Keep candidates informed throughout the recruitment process. Regular updates, clear job descriptions, and honest feedback are crucial.
- User-Friendly Application Process: Ensure the application process is simple and intuitive. Avoid lengthy forms and streamline steps to make it easier for candidates to apply. Using an ATS that integrates with other tools that candidates need to engage with such as assessment providers, will streamline the process and keep it consistent for candidates.
- Respectful, Engaging & Inclusive Assessment & Interview Process: Treat candidates with respect and give them the space to bring their best selves to their assessment. Ensure that up-front assessments are untimed, chat-based, and blind – meaning all candidates can confidently put their best foot forward without fear of bias.
- Leverage Smart Automation To Progess Top Candidates Quickly: If you can’t move quickly, the top candidates will likely get snapped up before you engage with them. Using smart automation with tools like Sapia.ai, to automatically progress the top candidates to the next stage ensures they remain engaged in your process.
- Timely and Constructive Feedback: Providing feedback promptly, whether positive or negative, shows respect for the candidate’s time and effort. Using an assessment like Sapia ensures that every candidate gets positive, non-directional feedback from their initial assessment, automatically.
- Effective Onboarding Practices: Once a candidate is hired, an effective onboarding process can set the tone for their future with the company, helping them feel valued and integrated from day one.
The Case for a Chat-Based Selection Process in Enhancing Candidate Experience
Incorporating an AI chat-based interview into your selection process can significantly enhance the candidate experience. Here’s why:
- Low Pressure: Chat-based AI interviews are untimed and allow candidates to respond at their own pace, reducing the stress and anxiety often associated with traditional interviews.
- Accessibility: Mobile-friendly chat interviews make it easier for candidates to participate from any location, at any time, using their smartphones.
- Inclusivity: Rather than relying on CVs and Cover Letters, this format ensures that everyone gets an interview and feedback, making the process fairer and more inclusive.
- Engagement: Chat-based interviews are engaging and interactive, helping candidates feel more connected to the organization and, through the structured interview, giving candidates a realistic job preview.
- Unbiased: Automated chat interviews help remove unconscious bias from the recruitment process, ensuring a fair evaluation based on responses rather than personal biases.
For a deep dive into the importance of candidate experience & how to deliver a world-leading one, check out our Candidate Experience Playbook.
