How do you align your candidate experience with your employee experience and culture?

Imagine your company as a big puzzle, and each person in it is a piece. Ask yourself a simple question: "Do our team members really get what we told them they would when we asked them to join?" Keep an eye on how things are going with your team. Listen to their stories. This isn't a one-time task. Embrace change, and be open to new ideas.

Launch your EVP internally, first, so your employees are aligned with your message and can be consistent when speaking to potential talent. You can even go a step further and provide employees with social media assets to share on their social channels the week you launch your EVP externally. Finally, don't forget one of your most important brand ambassadors, recruiters. Give them a playbook to support them when they start engaging with external talent with this message.

Designing your EVP is like curating a Michelin-5 star dining experience. Just as a world-class chef meticulously selects ingredients to create a sumptuous meal, your EVP combines the finest elements of your company culture, benefits, and growth opportunities. Each component should harmonize, to create an overarching narrative, with the Winning Aspiration to attract, engage and retain the right talent at the right time.

Let's talk about Agile EVP: Where Dynamics Meet Culture. :) Forget setting your EVP just once. In the ever-evolving landscape, agility is key. Leverage feedback loops like regular employee surveys and exit interviews to keep your EVP fresh and in tune with your company's culture and vision. Picture your EVP as a living entity, evolving with every new insight. This ensures your candidate and employee experience remains not only authentic but also future-proof. Embrace the Agile EVP—it's a game-changer for your talent attraction and retention strategy. -> That doesn't mean to change it weekly (it would loose its "guiding star" ability) - but you always have to take new developments into account!

Invest time in crafting an EVP that mirrors your company culture, using resources like focus groups, internal surveys, alignment sessions with stakeholders, benchmarking and SWOT analysis from both employee and candidate perspectives. Develop an action and communication plan for key milestones in employee and candidate experiences and make the selection process vibe with it. Each selection process step should provide a glimpse into "the life at work," maintaining coherence with channels, style, tone, and people involved and the EVP. Lastly, share the EVP through authentic stories and prioritize a strong Employee Advocacy Program – a game-changer engaging individuals before becoming candidates.

An often overlooked aspect is the follow-up, not just with successful candidates, but crucially with those who don't make it to the next round. Viewing the candidate experience as a continuous journey, extending beyond rejection can transform a negative outcome into a positive relationship. Utilizing feedback sessions as opportunities to build rapport and develop a talent pool for future roles showcases a level of genuine care and appreciation for all candidates. This approach not only enhances the employer brand but also fosters a positive narrative that resonates far beyond a single recruitment cycle. Such thoughtful engagement is key to establishing oneself as an employer of choice, where every interaction and experience is valued

When designing take time to engage with people who are your target audience. Talk to real people who are looking for jobs, your most recent hires. What's most important to them is what should be most important to you.

There’s a lot of good advice out there about things you can operationalise in the candidate experience. But we’ve consistently seen that the most powerful stuff is behavioural and individual. It’s the hiring manager who shows up early and prepared for the interview, or who goes out of their way to make the candidate feel comfortable and valued. It’s the recruiter who chooses to give a little extra time to help a candidate prepare. And it’s the manager or recruiter who doesn’t just palm off a ‘second place’ candidate with a “You were so close!” message. The more someone invests in your process, and the closer they get, the more you should be investing in them, including giving relevant, useful feedback if they’re unsuccessful.

Let's get straight to the point - your interviews should mirror your workplace and give candidates a true sense of the job. Questions about work preferences like hybrid or remote options in your applications help you better understand job-seekers. Providing prompt feedback to all applicants, even those who weren't selected, is essential as it shows respect and leaves the door open for future opportunities. Showing people they matter helps your culture shine through. By creating an inclusive environment and valuing each person's time and input, you cultivate a more robust workforce from the very beginning.

At the very basic, human-centric and inclusive process related to candidate experience and employee experience could be summarize to this one simple sentence, "Treat others the way you want to be treated."

Candidate experience should be the forefront for any hiring process and we need to showcase the employee experience and culture to attract them. In my experience, I have seen that when we create awareness within the company, team and employees to participate in sharing testimonials, their interview experience, work culture, success stories, achievements, wins and milestones it develops a positive environment to have a collaborative process. We can include videos of teams/ employees taking about any specific topics like diversity, team collaboration, podcast, new hires testimonials, anything which can provide positive vibe across.

Wichtig ist, dass das Versprechen an die Kandidat:innen zur Unternehmenskultur passt und somit ein Match anstelle eines Gaps gegeben ist. Authentizit?t ist dabei eine zentrale Handlungsmaxime: "Versprochen ist versprochen und wird nicht gebrochen." Sofern die Realit?t im Unternehmen nicht mit dem Arbeitgeberversprechen übereinstimmt, sind die neuen Mitarbeiter:innen schneller wieder weg als einem lieb ist. Daher gilt es zwingend zuzuh?ren und ehrlich zu sein, in dem was man anbietet / anbieten kann.

This is an effective way to allow candidates a window into your companies culture. Especially if you want to provide them a visual during the interviewing process. In a world where interviews are occurring virtually, there is an opportunity to utilize technology to showcase your culture through multiple platforms. One of the most effective methods I have found, has been utilizing your companies YouTube videos. It’s an effective visual to validate what you share verbally. Invite your candidates to visit your YouTube page if they wish to research the company further. However, during your interviews, share parts of your videos as you speak about the companies culture, engagement, training & innovation.

The easiest way is to outline your current candidate experience and pinpoint wow-moments and personalized automations throughout this journey. All those wow-moments need to match with your EVP, to make sure they will wow your best candidates!

The best way to showcase culture is through the lens of employees themselves. Harness the power of employee advocacy and employee generated content (EGC). And I don't mean just getting a quote or testimonial from employees and leaders. Candidates want to know more about how it's like to work there. Based on a few employee research I've conducted in the past, the top things they wish they'd known are: Management style, culture (note that there are sub-cultures within teams) and development opportunities.

Couldn't agree more! Candidates are interviewing employers just as much as the employers are interviewing candidates. My team has an anonymous survey sent to candidates after their interview is completed. This has brought us extremely helpful feedback especially when we transitioned into a remote-first company. Also, make sure to not only collect feedback from your top choice candidates. There's a chance that someone could have been a top choice if their candidate experience had gone differently!

What I've used is "brand awareness" survey before the interview and "interview feedback" after since it helps the company to see how the Employee Cycle and experience in each phase is. This enables continuous improvement in the hiring process and the employee experience.

By actively seeking and valuing candidate feedback, organizations can cultivate a candidate-centric approach, fostering an environment of continuous improvement in the hiring process. Proactive Feedback Requests: Regularly request feedback from candidates at various stages of the hiring process. Anonymous Platforms: Provide anonymous channels for honest feedback, ensuring candidates feel comfortable sharing their experiences. Recognition and Appreciation: Acknowledge and appreciate candidates for their feedback, creating a positive engagement. Transparency in Changes: Communicate changes made based on feedback, showcasing a commitment to candidate-driven improvements.

Ask candidates to tell you what they thought about the company before they interview. Ask them not just about the role they were interested in, but what drew them to the company? What made them apply and think this would be a great place for them? Then, after a process (hired or not) we can ask for an updated insight and use the feedback to act on anything of use.

Implementing the feedback is half the job done; do ensure you also proactively communicate these changes and initiatives you've taken to improve via various channels - intranet, townhalls, internal emails, company events etc. Being transparent and open on the feedback you can act on, and those you are unable to and why - keeps communication open and gives employees the assurance that their voice matters and that they are being heard.

Nurturing & retaining talent, impacts your reputation as well as your ability to recruit & retain top talent. If the interviewing & onboarding experience is not smooth & positive, why would anyone expect the workplace culture to be any better. If anything, it’s probable worse, because a recruiter typically tries to promote the best company image during the interview process. Additionally, if the companies recruitment process, onboarding process & overall culture is positive, your past employees & rejected candidates can help promote your brand when they share their experiences with others. Your current employees can be brand ambassadors & your past employees can be passive brand ambassadors, if you have a strong workplace culture.

In recent years, we have seen an emerging trend of HR embracing design thinking to develop memorable employee experiences. Recognising that employee experience has a significant impact on business success, Cisco applied the same philosophy of creating memorable customer experiences to keep their own employees engaged and happy. Using design thinking approaches, they hosted a global HR hackathon inviting its workforce of 71,000 people to create innovative HR solutions to deliver a memorable employee experience. The result: In a span of 24 hours, the Cisco Global Breakathon gave birth to 105 new HR solutions covering talent acquisition, new hire on-boarding, learning and development, team development, and leadership.

The sub-header mentions 'talent' which seems to include a hired employee but body text relates to talent who hasn't been hired. I want to clarify on this context as I agree on this point but also wish to expand on it to include hired talent - the employee. Talent marketing teams need to look at the process holistically and apply employee lifecycle marketing (ELM) to the process - from awareness to exit. That means nurturing even candidates who may not be relevant for that role but may be relevant for future or other roles. And that supports what the article here is alluding to - that we should be looking at experience as part of a longer-term relationship. ELM also gives you better control over the total experience.

Cultivating and retaining talent involves creating an environment where employees feel valued, challenged, and supported in their professional and personal development. Invest in continuous training and development programs that help employees enhance their skills and achieve their career goals. Foster a culture of recognition and rewards that celebrates achievements and exceptional performance. Offer opportunities for internal growth and maintain transparent communication about the path to promotions and raises. Additionally, create an inclusive and healthy work environment that encourages work-life balance, demonstrating that the company cares about the well-being of its employees.

In my experience, I have always seen that developing and nurturing talents goes a long way. We need to make it to a practice to have regular connects with our candidates also when they become as employee. Having open discussions as how they have felt during the interview process till onboarding or if rejected, sharing the open feedback and understanding their views have helped a lot of ways to streamline, improve even added a value when they mention we have helped them for the smooth process/ during interview preparation. Its all about what experience we are sharing with them. Even after they join, understanding from them on a regular basis as how is it going, any help they need if they are stuck, sharing information makes a lot of connect.

These strategies align candidate experience with employee experience and culture: - Consistent Branding: Align job postings with company values. - Transparent Process: Communicate hiring steps clearly. - Personalized Communication: Send tailored thank-you notes. - Inclusive Culture: Highlight diversity in employee stories. - Realistic Previews: Provide video tours of the workplace. - Feedback Loop: Gather candidate feedback post-interview. - Engagement Pre-Hire: Invite candidates to virtual events. - Cultural Introduction: Host informal meet-and-greets. - Smooth Onboarding: Use checklists matching the hiring process. - Growth Opportunities: Share career advancement success stories.

Invest on the candidate/employee experience in the same way you're doing it for Customer Experience. Why? Because by doing so, you will create advocates which will be your brand's voices, your ambassadors to potential new candidates. How? Shape and Connect the Candidate journey from the moment someone find information about your organization or a potential job ad, to the application process, to their hiring process, to the onboarding experience and the employee journey following that. If you manage to connect the dots effectively, then you'll be able to design an experience that people would love to be part of and willing to share with their networks.

Be sure to continuously evaluate or assess how well you are aligning candidate and employee experiences with your culture. Ask yourself this question, "Are employees experiencing what they were promised during the hiring process?" This will also allow you to adapt and evolve as your gather more feedback. You have to be willing to adapt and evolve your processes and culture as needed. The needs and expectations of employees and candidates will change over time.

I feel a detailed, thought through and spread out onboaring process will be a good intervention to align new joiner experience with employee experience. Leaving onboarding in the hands of manager is being too dependent on people and their commitment and interest. If it is left with manager, there needs to be checks driven by systems and technology. Important EVP pointers should have touch points in the onboarding journey. For instance, if the organization is big on collaboration, speak about what collaboration means to the organization and how it is brought to life in an employee's journey.