Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Do You Give A Crap Candidate Experience?
What's the candidate experience like? Are you confident only positive things are said about it?
Technology is enabling us to communicate with candidates faster, in more and better ways than ever before but for some reason communication between many candidates and recruiters is crap. Candidates have so many ways to showcase their skills, IQ and EQ but recruiters are not looking because many don’t know how to. The same with companies, technology, enables companies to show the world what it’s like to work there, to shout from the rooftops why they’re the preferred employer, but are they? The answer is mainly no!
Let’s look at the rubbish experience many candidates are currently having.
Research
59% of active and passive candidates use social media to find out more about the company culture at other organisations; they could spend months researching, plotting and planning their next move. How frustrating for them when they want to do some research on your company, and there isn’t anything, when this happens your company can probably kiss goodbye to converting that person into an employee.
Candidates today want to be able to find out anything and everything about an organisation before they consider adding it to their job journey. Your company should have up to date content about what it’s like to work there, the culture, the job roles, a day in the life of other employees, the company story, it’s vision, mission, values, ethics and more. Candidate research will usually include checking the company careers site, Glassdoor; it’s Twitter account, Facebook page, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat stories and more.
Community
Not all candidates are active; the majority are passive and 85% of employees are open to new job opportunities. What’s frustrating for the candidate though is there isn’t a community for them to engage in, a place where they can go to get to know people before they make any decision on whether to hop or not. Candidates are looking for communities on Jobhop, groups on Facebook and Linkedin, communities on G+, chats on Twitter, groups on Slack, WhatsApp, and more. Being part of a community helps them to bond with other employees, they can find out more about the company, its history, culture and its mission from people who work there.
Application
The candidate may actively be looking, or they may have been recommended to try out for a role, to see if it’s interesting enough to hop for. Three out of five candidates use their mobiles to view jobs, let’s say they saw a job post on Twitter, they click through to it from their mobile, and this is usually where it falls down. They get taken to a wrong page, or they get taken to a page which isn’t responsive or mobile friendly, the other scenario is it’s a page suitable for mobile but created without a mobile user in mind so the application is too long winded. Most would’ve left and gone to a competitor by now, but let’s say you got one candidate who persevered and after filling everything in, they click submit, but there’s no notification to whether it went through or what to expect next. During some job applications, a message pops up at the end which says you still need to send your CV to a forwarding address, WTF! The on-demand, mobile candidate, isn’t going to write an address down, they’ve now had enough by now! They have an online profile to be tapped into, if they’re passive they’re not going to need the hassle, you’re not selling it to them.
You need them more than they need you!
Left Hanging
Sometimes the application will say if you don’t hear from us then your application wasn’t successful, how rude! You don’t even have the courtesy to thank the candidate for spending so much time on their application; the candidate gets left hanging! No-one likes to be left hanging, all it will do is disgruntle the candidate who is also a consumer, who also knows many other consumers. It will damage your employer brand, as well as your external brand.
Interview
The interview can be nerve wrecking, and many companies don’t try to make the experience better. Some companies still like to have an oversized desk between the interviewer and candidate creating a horrible barrier. Wouldn’t it be better for the candidate to find out about the recruitment process before hand and know what type of questions will be answered? Zappos demonstrate their interview process via video; there are many other ways it can be done as well, blog, podcast, webinar, live streaming, even a Pinterest board.
Ghosting
Ghosting usually happens at the application and after an interview. The candidate goes to the trouble of doing everything that is required of them at the application level but then never hears anything ever again! The same with the interview, the candidate goes to so much trouble to get everything right before and during the interview, but then never hears anything from the company ever again. Each time the candidate calls they’re given some BS and the candidate is left feeling humiliated, down and angry about it all. How do you think ghosting affects an employer brand?
Any of the above points contribute to a crap candidate experience which will ruin your employer brand. Make sure your company delivers a better experience, in doing so it will have a competitive advantage.
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Julie Bishop Jobhop.co.uk
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