Why a poor recruitment experience could cost your company more than you think!

Employer branding is a hot topic and is this is set to continue into 2017. As businesses we can now engage with our stakeholders through multiple channels. If your organisation is one of the many companies who are investing in creating a positive employer brand, it’s worth considering that a poor candidate experience has the potential to damage your reputation and could even lead to the loss of that person as a customer as well as a prospective employee.

Are you losing customers through poor candidate experience?

A recent report from employer branding agency Ph.Attraction found that one in four British jobseekers have either entirely stopped purchasing or purchased less from a brand because of a negative candidate experience. The same study of 1,200 British workers showed that nearly a third would consider becoming a customer of a brand if they had a good encounter, highlighting the importance of creating a positive candidate experience.

As employers, it’s important to put initiatives and processes into place to improve the experience of our candidates from start to finish, leaving them with a positive impression of our brand regardless of whether they then go on to become an employee.

Deliver your promises

It’s important to manage the expectations of your applicants by having a fair and transparent process, setting out a timeline of what will happen and when. When is the closing date for applications? When can they expect to find out whether they have made the short-list for interview? What happens next? It’s important to stick to the timelines you set out and communicate with candidates through each step of the process and give them a clear understanding of what to expect.

Attract stars of the future

Research from LinkedIn has shown that company values matter to employees (junior employees in particular) and in many cases influences their decision to take a job. By making sure that your company values are reflected across all of your communication platforms including your recruitment process, you’ll be more likely to retain your candidates as customers.

Building an ongoing brand can help your business build a pipeline of talent who already have an interest in your business and are more likely to want to work for your company in the future. It’s therefore important (where relevant) to have a presence across the various social media channels where your prospective customers and employees hang out, giving them the opportunity to engage with you across their chosen platforms and buy-in to your company.

The Ph.Attraction survey found that 75% of respondents aged 16-24 had applied for jobs at companies where they were already a customer, highlighting the need to look after our applicants or risk missing out on their business as well as losing the potential to hire them as employees.

Recruitment is a two way street

It’s important to remember that the recruitment process works both ways. It’s an opportunity for the candidate to see whether they want to work for your company and not just about whether you want to hire them. By creating the right impression, you’re much more likely to get that all-important yes when you offer your prospective employee a job.

Investing into your employer branding takes does take effort but it is playing an increasingly important part in our digital world. By treating our candidates like customers and aiming to deliver an excellent candidate experience from start to finish, your company will be in a strong position to grow its customer-base as well as attracting talent for the future.

Nick Peacock is the owner and Managing Director of Ascendant Recruitment, a leading recruitment agency in Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire. www.ascendantrecruitment.co.uk

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At Ascendant Recruitment, we are always looking to recruit talented, hardworking, passionate consultants to join our teams in Milton Keynes and Northampton and our soon-to-open office in Oxford. If this sounds like you and you’d like to know more, please click here or contact Nick Peacock for a confidential discussion.