The impact of candidate experience

When do you think you make the first impression on any future employee? For me, it’s when the candidate starts the recruitment process (and I mean from their first thoughts of joining or contact with the business). How a candidate feels about your company once they experience your hiring process is very telling. A good candidate experience will leave a lasting impression. A bad one can make candidates lose respect for you, both as an employer and as a brand.  

A frustrating lack of communication is the most common complaint candidates have about their job application experience with either companies ghosting them or auto-replying after an interview. This can have serious implications on revenue especially if you provide a service or sell a product.

A report published by employer branding agency Ph.Attraction revealed how poor candidate experience cost Virgin Media an estimated ￡4.4m in revenue in 2014: more than 130,000 candidates applied for jobs that year, of which 18% were existing Virgin Media customers. Due to a poor recruitment experience more than 7,500 cancelled their subscriptions and switched to a competitor, resulting in millions of pounds in lost revenue. So you see, it’s not just a candidate under scrutiny in a job application or interview, but the brand too. 

At the pace technology is moving (which I have previously talked about in my article The future is bright the future is hybrid), shortly you’ll be able to change service providers simply by asking Alexa to do it (other smart speakers are available!). With it being that easy, can you afford to take the chance?  

Ensuring an applicant’s experience is a positive one, whether they are successful or not, doesn’t have to cost the earth. In fact, as the saying goes, good manners cost nothing. On another level, putting high calibre candidates through long, arduous or archaic processes, or taking too long to get back to them can also prove risky. Will they wait around or will they go somewhere more dynamic and forthcoming? Those kinds of candidates won’t hang on… 

Geoff Smith, Executive Director of Capita Resourcing, said, “Candidates and employees now expect the same level of experience and service as they would get when dealing with a global, consumer-facing brand outside of work. That means a simple, seamless user journey, real-time responsiveness, compelling information and content across channels, and engaging communications at every stage.” 

Research recently carried out by Capita Resourcing reveals two-thirds (65%) of recruitment and HR leaders expect candidate experience to become a key differentiator within business over the next five years. Indeed, 69% believe that candidates will come to expect the same personalised service that they get from consumer brands such as Amazon. As a result, 70% plan to accelerate the digitisation of recruitment in their organisation to compete effectively and this is where companies should be investing in. 

We’ve established that communication is key in ensuring candidates remain engaged and with talent engagement tools such as CandidateID and talent platforms like Adepto at our fingertips, we can nurture, educate and sustain a valuable future workforce. This is why consistent and effective communication is key but also putting a strategic roadmapping process into place, sticking to a timeline and having a real sense of immediacy throughout the hiring process. Applicants are keen to receive constructive feedback and while someone may not be right for a particular role today or just came a close second to your preferred choice (the classic ‘silver medallist’ accolade), they could very well be perfect for a future opportunity or refer colleagues or friends to apply to work for your company.  

Let’s not forget that we are seeing a rise in skills-based hiring in the UK in favour of developing a more diverse and better talent workforce. Ernst & Young no longer include a requirement to have a degree in its hiring criteria, citing a lack of evidence that university success correlates with job performance. I mentioned this in a previous post that when I’m hiring, I care more about the types of skills and experience a candidate can bring to the table.  

There’s no time to rest on your laurels once you’ve offered someone a job, the next hurdle is how you onboard them – that’s both screening and making them a welcome member of the team. How do you get this right? Let’s talk about what when a new starter arrives on their first day – is there a desk ready? Do you have a slick and tech-enabled process that runs smoothly and effortlessly? It’s not conducive to be filling out three forms with the same information when it could all be pre populated and automate.  

Do your newbies know what facilities are available onsite beforehand? Perhaps your work place has a football team or a running club (we have a weekly one). Can they bring a packed lunch? Have they even met the manager on day one? More worryingly, have you had someone turn up and found there isn’t a laptop and phone for them? I think we can all hang our heads in shame on that one if we are being honest but it’s these simple things that make all the difference and it comes back to creating a positive candidate experience by leaving a lasting impression.  

At Capita we are currently developing an innovative digital onboarding platform which will transform the way in which the onboarding process is managed. It will provide a digitised end-to-end workflow management, align all HR functions and seamlessly integrate with any existing infrastructure – highly crucial if you work in volume hiring for example. By improving candidate expectations with a simple and personalised digital onboarding experience this will inevitably lead to better engagement and better talent outcomes.  

And it doesn’t mean the buck stops there. Once a candidate is on board, it’s important to make them feel part of the team, to make them feel valued and to help them understand how their contribution – no matter how small – has a positive impact both on them and on the company as well. If you promote it at the start and allow learning pathways to be generated, you are already preparing your workers for tomorrow and driving engagement via investment in them.