Candidate experience in Japan

日本語はこちら「採用面接後の候補者が「落ちた理由を知りたい」と言ってきたら？～Candidate Experience（CX）を追う～」

As a hiring manager, you may have come across a typical question from your candidates, “May I know the reason why I am not shortlisted for this role?”. Do you compose your answer as, “ We do not disclose the reason to all candidates or We are proceeding with a candidate with stronger experience”? Which of these do you pick as an answer for your candidates? 

These are typical responses from hiring companies: 

• We will review your application and inform you of the next steps if you are shortlisted for the role
• We will not be able to disclose the reasons if your application is not shortlisted for the next step

Here are some common questions from a candidate:

• May I know the lease and how can I improve to be considered for an opportunity in the future
• When will I know the results of this interview as I am interviewing with other companies too

In this article, I will be highlighting the steps to set up the best practice for your hiring team based on candidate recruitment process and branding strategy. 

Best practice 1: Understand how recruiting activity will impact the corporate image amongst the candidates and create a branded identity for that will resonate with your recruitment targets

Practice 1: Understand how recruiting activity impacts brand image to develop the branding of corporate identity for stronger awareness

In Japan, more than a decade ago, there was a popular term called Saiyo-Kaho, which referred to recruiting marketing. It involved hiring fresh graduates with no industrial-based working experience. The lack of mid-sized hiring companies influenced the concept of Saiyo-Kaho that aided top graduates to be recruited. Since then, many companies started investing in hiring and training top graded graduates as they could be a future client.

The trend of recruiting marketing has seen a change over the last five years. The importance of a candidate’s experience during a recruitment journey is crucial as it determines the acceptance or rejection of an offer letter. This is reflected on online review boards that stress the need for a higher rating of a recruitment company to continue to maintain stronger brand identity and reputation. Here are some of the relevant online boards: Openwork, Tenshoku-Kaigi or Glassdoor. Through these boards, we can collect information about the past candidate’s or employee’s experience of the interview process. This includes the working conditions and the policies of the company. 

It is common for a candidate to review the feedback given by a past candidate’s experience, similar to how a shopper takes on product feedback to finalise the choice of the product. This is highlights the need to create a strong brand identity and recruitment marketing. Comments such as “the interviewer is harsh” and “not a friendly environment” can influence adverse reactions and rejection of the recruitment offer. In such cases, it is essential to audit and train the hiring manager on the interview process to ensure a smooth recruitment process. 

Practice 2: Understand what is candidate experience and standardise recruiting processes for consistent branding strategy

Once a recruiting branding strategy is defined, adhering to the recruitment process is vital to ensure consistency across all recruitments in the company. Hence, hiring teams have to agree to one set of a hiring process to be used across the entire organisation. Candidate experience begins from the first touchpoint of presenting a job opportunity through the first official start date at the hiring company. 

The job application process involves applying for a job, interviewing, reference check, package negotiation, pre-on-boarding and onboarding. Candidate recruitment process throughout these stages will set the benchmark for a candidate to take up or reject the job offer. 

Here is a standard hiring process for your reference. Let’s go through some of the methods in detail:

Recognis the job opportunity

↓

Applying

↓

Interviewing

↓

Reference check

(not common in Japan)

↓

Offering

↓

Pre-onboarding

↓

Join your company

Recognise the job opportunity – Are there sufficient information to the potential job applicant to understand the job opportunity? There are many instances when a candidate attends an interview but leaves with a different impression about the information provided. With strict company policies on information disclosure, the hiring company may have withheld some information such as the total number of the employee or business size to a candidate who is under a recruitment process. However, it is essential to note that if the business is too tight with their information, there is a high chance to lose a top talent who may not be able to acknowledge the opportunity to work with the entity. 

Applying for a job - It is vital to receive the application confirmation from a candidate. This allows for creating more touchpoint throughout the process. And hence, it is paramount for the hiring team to set an auto replying system. At this stage, I recommend the hiring team to inform the candidates of the duration of the hiring process to ensure the candidates are well aware of the waiting period. 

Interviewing – Shortlisted candidates are extended an invitation for an interview. Setting up timely interview dates is essential to prevent the candidate from getting a misconception of the speed and responsiveness of the business. 

For candidates, the dress code is a crucial factor in Japan when attending an interview. There is no strict dress code, and dressing to office depends on the company culture. However, there was a case where the candidate wearing a black suit was not chosen for the next set of the interview process as it did not resonate with the interviewer who was looking for a candidate with casual formal that will blend in with the working environment. The dressing is used as a way to gauge the fit in the company. And hence, formal wear may not be the safest choice at all times. And it is good to read up about the company before attending the interview. 

Job offer – Who, How and When the job is extended to the candidate plays a significant role in influencing candidate’s decision. If the candidate has been given an offer by many companies (which is becoming more common in Japan), the recruiting company needs to provide detailed information that will help finalise the decision to join your company. 

Pre- onboarding to start date – Congratulations! Your candidate has signed the offer letter and confirmed the start date. But what happens if the candidate turns down the acceptance letter just before the start date? This generally occurs if there is a long notice period for the candidate in their previous office. And this includes candidate experience till the official join date. To prevent such instances, recruitment companies need to support the candidate experience with the right tools and information until onboarding.  

Summary

What is your next step to ensure a smooth candidate experience? Job seekers and job vacancies are continually evolving and thus setting up a recruiting branding strategy is vital for the recruitment process. I have also explained the standard hiring process and accompanying examples of candidate experiences. Sometimes it can be tedious to engage a hiring team to concentrate all the efforts for candidate recruitment.

Please contact us for professional advice and support. 

Message me for any questions or ideas for hiring in Japan.

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Yosuke christiansen(THRILL, Inc)

Co-author:Yuko Shimizu @LinkedIn

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