Why Candidate Experience is More Important Now Than Ever

With the increasing competition for talent, attracting and retaining top talent ranks as the foremost concern among CEOs and the rest of the C-Suite, including CHROs and CFOs.

Yet, many organizations are still delivering a poor candidate experience, ignoring the less visible costs to recruiting and overall business performance in the process.

The Downward Spiral

Nearly 60% of job seekers have had a poor candidate experience, according to CareerArc. When candidates have a bad experience, they clearly become jaded about the prospect of applying for another position and they'll tell their friends to keep away.

With highly desired talent often found via referral networks, it diminishes the pool of available candidates, creates delays in filling positions and increases hiring costs. In addition, the company's digital presence will show a pattern of negative feedback and candidates will quickly move on to the next offer.  

Finally, it won't simply impact the talent pool, but also the customer base. Read how Bad Candidate Experience Cost Virgin Media $5M Annually.

Top Talent Is Up To 8 Times More Productive

For companies that don't focus on creating a great candidate experience, there's often pressure to fill positions and hire people who end up being below-average performers.

In highly complex occupations (e.g managers, software developers, enterprise sales reps, etc...), high performers are an astounding 800% more productive.

Let's say your average revenue per employee is $100,000. If underperformers produce 10% below the level of an average employee, then the direct cost of hiring one below-average performer is $10,000. Then, the typical cost to replace an employee is about 20% of their annual salary.

The financial cost is just the tip of the iceberg. According to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, his past bad hires have cost his company “well over $100 million.” and he then started offering new hires $2,000 to leave the company.

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Historically, business leaders didn't think of HR as a strategic partner because they didn't act like one; and they didn't act like one because the company leaders didn't give them the resources (e.g. budget, tools, and software) to be able to.

Many companies still lag in their perception of HR’s value to their bottom line, keeping HR from proactively creating strategies to support long-term business goals and outcomes.

“Companies that don't have HR executives at the C-level will face serious strategic economic and cultural problems. It’s imperative for CEOs to reshape their HR function as well as treat their HR executives as equal partners.” - J?rg Kasten

The CHRO’s ability to design and execute a digital strategy that considers the entire lifecycle from candidate through advocate is a major competitive advantage.

Food For Thought

If you fail candidates, you fail your brand.

Why does a great candidate experience improve ROI? Because of a basic human emotion: HAPPINESS.

Happy Candidates = Happy Employees = Happy Customers

Candidates who have a positive recruitment process are the ones who are most likely to eventually sign up for your positions, become happy employees and ambassadors for your brand. Interestingly, most companies never had second thoughts about their decision of putting the customer experience above the candidate experience.

The same practices and efforts marketers use every day to attract new customers and keep current ones engaged and happy can be applied to attracting top talent to their organizations. 

Anyone have any background with candidate experience and have some thoughts?