What is a positive candidate experience, and does it matter?

By Predictive Success  |  

5.4 min read

Positive Candidate Experience

These days, candidate experience and the recruiting process are more than hot topics casually talked about among HR professionals. Every day, employers are realizing how a recruiting experience is more than choosing your next employee, but can also reflect on the performance of your business or company.

It seems like employers are just catching up on why the candidate experience is important, not just for their employees, but for their brand as a whole. We understand that the hiring experience is overwhelming on its own, so let’s go over the basics that you must know about recruiting experience meaning and why it should matter to you:

What is the candidate experience?

In simple terms, the candidate experience or the recruiting experience’s meaning is all the steps your candidate goes through during the hiring process. It’s everything related to your company or business that your candidate interacts with during his job application, from A to Z.

The hiring experience is a series of events starting from your job ad to the job acceptance letter your employee will receive, and it actually can go beyond that.

What are the most important parts of the candidate experience?

It’s difficult to give specific parts of the candidate experience larger importance than others, especially when any mistake during the recruiting experience can ruin it as a whole.

However, to really understand the recruiting experience meaning, we can break it down to a couple of points, putting in mind that it’s not actually limited to these points:

  • The job advertisement the candidate sees
  • The job application process
  • The applicant tracking system
  • The interview and its atmosphere
  • The candidate’s rejection or acceptance letter
  • The candidate’s transition to the company

What is a positive candidate experience?

Candidate experience is the candidate’s perception of the recruiting experience your company offers. A positive candidate or recruiting experience leaves your candidate feeling that this was a fair hiring experience with good communication throughout its various steps.

While there are a lot of things that could make a hiring experience go wrong, bad candidate experiences are usually caused by lack of communication, unpleasant interviews, and making the recruiting experience unnecessary and complicated.

What are a candidate experience’s best practices?

1. Being transparent with candidates

This is done by providing a clear and accurate explanation of the job, providing a salary range from the start, and avoiding vague unclear answers during the recruiting experience. Remember, honesty and straightforward answers can drastically improve the candidate’s experience.

2. Regular communication during recruiting

A recruiting experience is no place to practice your ghosting skills. Candidates put a lot of time and effort into their job application and more often than not, the candidate experience can be stressful. Make it a point to send clear signals to your candidates and let them know their status in the recruiting process as soon as you can.

3. Feedback on the candidate’s experience

Providing feedback to your rejected candidates is a good idea to make your candidate experience positive. However, it’s even a better idea to ask candidates for their feedback on the recruiting experience you’ve provided. This can make candidates feel valued, heard, and help you make any necessary tweaks to your hiring experience.

4. Keeping the candidate experience short and simple

In this age, many people are obsessed with the concept of time and with not allowing others to waste it. Candidate experiences are no exception! Most candidates quit the hiring process because of its length and unnecessary complexity.

5. Improving the entire candidate experience

This means, not abandoning your candidates after hiring them. Remember that providing a smooth transition for candidates to your company is part of providing a positive recruitment experience. Make sure your candidates are armored with all the details and resources they need.

Why is candidate experience important?

The candidate’s experience can dramatically alter how a job seeker feels about a potential employer. The series of events that take place during the recruiting experience have an impact on the candidate experience. If things don’t go well, future employees’ perceptions of the company and its members can be tainted all due to an unpleasant hiring experience.

However, can a recruiting experience really affect your company and its business?

What are the benefits of providing a positive candidate experience?

1. Better candidate experience means a higher application completion rate

Following the good practices of a candidate experience can make you reconsider the complexity and length of your recruiting experience. In this era, speed and simplicity are highly valued and if your job application takes too long to complete, this will impact how many candidates reach the finish line and how soon your candidates will drop off.

2. Quality candidate experience attracts quality candidates

Your candidate experience isn’t simply a component of the hiring process; it’s also a sales tool that can aid in luring top talent to your organization. Job candidates have high praise for businesses that offer a fantastic recruiting experience. Making a solid first impression on top talent is another benefit of offering a superior applicant experience, which may boost their desire to work for you.

3. Positive candidate experience saves you time and money

A significant amount of money and effort is invested in job advertising and other recruitment costs, all in the hope of attracting top candidates. However, all of this time and money is considered wasted if your candidate’s experience is bad enough to scare future employees away.

In order to increase your recruiting rate and hire quality as well as to save time and money, it is wise to invest in creating a superior candidate experience.

4. You can find future candidates through your rejection pool

The influence of the candidates who were rejected is an intriguing factor that organizations frequently ignore. There are possibly dozens of candidates you rejected for each one you choose. Providing a good candidate experience means leaving the door open to possibly hiring these candidates when needed.

So bear in mind that not just your candidates will be impacted by your candidate experience. Additionally, it has a big impact on your business’s overall performance and the results of your hiring efforts. This means that if you give candidates a bad experience, it hurts both you and your business. However, if you assess your candidate experience and identify ways to improve it, you can benefit from a variety of advantages that come with offering a pleasant candidate experience.

Related Blogs