Why The Candidate Experience Is Damaging Your Employer Brand
Amanda Ashworth
Founder of Worldschooling Hub Goa and Alternative Education Advocate | Life & Business Coach | Helping Families Embrace Self-Directed Learning | Podcast Host of 'Finding You Now
Recently I have been considering whether freelance work is for me or if I would be better to have the security of a permanent role and I thought I would share my experiences.
Having now sat both sides of the fence as a recruiter and now as a candidate I have been shocked that many companies are not making any progress when it comes to the candidate experience.
Before applying for a role I will spend time researching a company, making sure that there is a culture fit and that I would be right for the role. I then would spend time adjusting my CV so it is tailored for the role and then writing the all-important cover letter.
All of this happens before I even am faced with normally an awful ATS that requires lots of useless information before letting me submit my CV.
Then nothing …..
Complete silent more often than not I will not even receive an acknowledgement to my application, let alone a rejection email. How do think I feel my candidate experience has been with that brand? And do you think I would apply to them again? Absolutely not! Why would I want to waste any more time on a company that has a one sided recruitment process?
Now there is nothing worse than a bitter jobseeker, trust me I’ve met a few but when are companies going to consider the recruitment process an important part of their employer brand? In this connected world of social media where peer to peer reviews make everything so visible why then would you choose to damage your employer brand?
Millions are spent marketing companies and yet they still fail to realise that a good candidate experience is brilliant marketing for an organisation. Here is my advice for companies considering the candidate experience you give.
- Go through the process yourself what average overall rating would you give?
- A automated reply is better than no reply but try to inject a personal touch
- Ask your candidates for real time feedback about their experience and listen to it.
- Don’t undo all your great marketing by lack of communication.
- Remember the candidate experience lasts from the CV submission through to an new employees first day so have a process in place to make sure that candidate will refer others to your business.
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Amanda Ashworth is a Freelance Social Recruiter and Marketer with over 11 years experience recruiting globally. Most recently she has been working with Digital Agencies and Fast Tech Start-ups on Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing Campaigns. She is passionate about social recruiting and sourcing as a social media/tech geek and avid blogger, blogging for The Undercover Recruiter, Social Media Today and Business2Community. She spoke at both #TruLondon 6/7 and regularly mentors young people enabling them to enter the workplace.
Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter @recsocially
Executive Consultant - C-Suite, Public Companies, Health, NFP, Boards
9 年Unfortunately not responding to an application seems to have become common practice for both corporates and also external recruitment firms the world over with the most common reason for it being they have 100s of applications so how can they respond. Frankly this is quite a lazy approach that forgets recruitment is still about people, managing their expectations, engaging with them, and understanding that every candidate may be a potential customer. What I can never understand is why it is so hard to at least have an automatically generated letter/e-mail acknowledging the application or advising the candidate does not meet the criteria. It used to be a common and polite practice that has disappeared possibly because some of us have become too reliant on having a social media or digital platform tell us what best practice recruitment is about. At the end of the day the small things we do to engage candidates can make a big difference later.
International Recruitment from UK/EU for clients worldwide - VIP Household, Healthcare/Medical, Hospitality, Finance & Education.
10 年Great post Amanda, Many fall into the trap of believing that clients are far more important than candidates. How many clients would they avoid calling back? Probably none. Of course we all make mistakes etc, in the heat of the 'battle', but with no good candidates we have no business.
General Manager at S2M Digital - I'M HIRING!!!
10 年So true, we try to educate our clients on this daily.. hiring is PR, make it work for you.. great post.
Experienced Head of Marketing. Strategy. Planning. Leading and building teams.
10 年Brilliant post Amanda. Very true. Sometimes I don't think business understand an interview is a two way process.
HR Manager at Hovis Ltd | HR Ninja ??
10 年So true Amanda, excellent post.