Regular feedback for better candidate experience

Research shows that 75% of candidates never hear back after they apply for a job with a company, and 60% of candidates who have attended interviews never receive any feedback. Bad candidate experience leads to candidates losing interest and respect for companies both as a brand and as an employer.

There are several factors impacting candidate experience but today we will see its relation with sharing regular feedback.

A candidate spends about 60 minutes applying for a job, designing a compelling cv as per the job description, tailoring the cover letter, filling out the details of education and experience as part of the application process, upload cv, etc. Depending on experience candidates may apply for a lesser number of roles. For college graduates the number of jobs they apply for ranges from 100 to 300 and end up spending 300hrs applying for roles to get some interviews at least. If one spends 6 hrs. in a day only for application, then they spend 50 days only applying for jobs. Hence, it becomes an utmost important job to give feedback to candidates for their job applications. It is disrespectful to someone if we look away when someone is talking to us. Similarly, a candidate puts in days behind applying for a job, and not even receiving an acknowledgment is disrespect to the candidate.

Let us see why is it difficult across organizations to give proper and on-time feedback to candidates.

·???????Applications per posting are very high – The number of applications per posting is as high as 200, hence reaching out to each candidate is almost impossible and before a recruiter screens all candidates possibly he/she would get good 4-5 matching candidates and because he/she has more positions and operations work, he/she’ll not screen the remaining applications.

·???????Fear of having an unpleasant conversation with unsuccessful candidates – Every individual candidate is different and would take negative feedback differently. Our natural tendency to not tell anyone ‘No’ and fear of saying NO is also one of the key reasons.

·???????Non Intelligent tools – As the number of profiles to be screened is very high the system needs to discard applications that are not matched at all and send them a proper communication with the reason mentioned in an email. A global retail giant sends email feedback that it is not their policy to share feedback with external candidates. Such replies lead to dissatisfaction among candidates during the application process.

·???????Improper capacity planning – There is always pressure on organizations to cut costs to maximize profit and one of the cost-cutting measures used in most organizations is to cut budgets of support functions. Recruitment is one of the support functions organizations have. Pressure to do more with fewer sources can be always heard as a key mantra to cost reduction. Hence there is burnout and as a result, less important tasks are sidelined.

·???????Absence of laws to protect candidates – European countries have laws to protect candidates’ interests in terms of the employers’ hiring process being fair and impartial. Many countries do not have any such laws which bind employers to give right and on-time feedback to applicants because of this there is no attention from the majority of employers to share feedback with candidates.

·???????Late redressal system – Because of the delay in the judicial process, the normal tendency of people is to avoid complaining about unfair recruitment practices, and people prefer to move on than complain about unfair treatment, in this case not receiving feedback.

These issues can be solved by taking some concrete measures to improve the existing systems. Below are some possible ways to solve the above-discussed issues.

·???????The applicant tracking systems need to be intelligent enough to paper screen candidates’ applications and narrow the talent pool who has applied for a job. This would need the usage of some modern-day cutting-edge technologies like AI & ML. Some companies have built some products around this idea but it is not widely accepted and used across the world. Employers should consider testing new-age solutions to have the applications screened automatically which can give a good experience to candidates as well as the recruiters.

·???????The recruiters must be trained to give constructive feedback to candidates who have attended the interviews and this can be achieved only if the organization strictly follows a standard process of interviewing which includes checking if there was any discrimination, mandatorily capturing interview notes, giving candidates access to interview notes if they demand it, explaining the structure of the interview to candidates beforehand, detailed feedback of interviews must be shared with a recruiter within 48hrs of interviews conducted.

·???????A realistic assessment of capacity utilization by using technical assistance should find a place in the future capacity assessment of recruiters. The job responsibilities of recruiters across companies are varied, some involve operations, business partnership, research, etc, and hence a standard term to say one can work on ‘x’ number of open cases at any given point in time. Defining the capacity of recruiters accurately is a tough task as it is very fluid, dealing with stakeholders, chasing for feedback, managing the tools, and responding to queries consume a portion of time but these are often not factored in capacity calculation and accordingly a realistic work allotment should be done.

·???????Countries that do not have a law to protect the interests of candidates applying for roles should ponder and come up with comprehensive laws post consultation of involved parties - candidates, and employers.

My postings reflect my own views and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer, Accenture.

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