There is no doubt that the job market landscape has become increasingly competitive for employers. Companies need to get creative and offer enticing compensation and benefits to be considered as an employer of choice. But it shouldn’t stop there!
The cornerstone of competition within today’s tight recruitment market is the candidate experience. Now more than ever, those looking for jobs have the power to choose what kind of company they want to work for. This even includes how they want to feel coming into work every day and the environment and people they surround themselves with! Providing this stellar candidate experience is key to ensuring your organization not only attracts the right people but retains them when it matters!
Where do we start when looking to create an awesome candidate experience? We’re here to help! Here are some tips to ensure that your people and prospective candidates are taken care of from the very moment they learn about your organization.
1. Attract the Right Candidates with an Enticing Job Ad
In the past (more often than not), job ads have been used as a tool to ask what a candidate can do for an organization. The only problem here was that many organizations did not emphasize what they could provide for their talent. As we move through this shift in candidate expectation and experience, we need to pivot our approach to ensure we are effectively attracting top talent to come and join us.
This job ad should:
- Directly connected to your values
- Include detailed accounts of what the employee can expect on a daily basis
- Have an enticing opening statement/company outline that will get them excited to come and work with you
- Have a strong focus on both direct and indirect benefits that the employee can expect in their new role (think compensation, office culture, growth opportunities, and support for health and wellness!)
2. Don’t Leave Your Candidates Hanging!
As you move through the screening portion of your recruitment process, it can be tempting to take the easy road of leaving candidates unanswered who don’t quite meet your criteria. However, when looking to build a strong long-term pipeline and candidate experience, this is not the smart move.
By ensuring that we acknowledge and get back to all candidates in a timely manner, we are managing expectations and preserving our reputation/values. This could be as simple as creating a customized automated response for unqualified candidates or providing a timeline for candidates who move further along in the process.
The bottom line: keeping people in the loop is the best way to protect your brand and ensuring that candidates (both successful and unsuccessful) don’t walk away with a bad taste in their mouth. Remember – your last candidate could be your next client!
3. Provide a Best-in-Class Onboarding Experience
Many candidates feel as though they go through a recruitment process which ‘woos’ them to join a new organization but falls short leading up to their first days on the job. As you can imagine, this causes feelings of confusion, anxiety, uncertainty and a general second-guessing of the role they have taken on.
By taking the time to build a comprehensive training and onboarding program with many points of communication, your new hires will feel empowered and excited. They will feel confident in their decision to join you from the moment they walk through the door!
In short, you have the opportunity to take this experience from run-of-the-mill to fantastic!
4. Candidate Experience Doesn’t Stop After the Hire!
By now, you’ve gone through your amazing onboarding process and provided the candidate with an above and beyond experience joining your organization, but the work isn’t over! It’s time to ensure that they have an equally positive experience in their day-to-day work lives.
Some of the best ways to achieve this include:
- Ensuring that small employee requests are followed up on in a timely manner (having robust systems and processes in place helps this immensely!)
- Making sure that regular check-ins are conducted and feedback loops are strong
- Taking time to regularly celebrate and appreciate the efforts of your team
By taking this extra time to analyze your current status quo and make some adjustments, you can massively impact the way prospective candidates connect to your brand. Plus, it will encourage current employees to stay with your organization!
Need some help in getting these concepts off the ground? We’re here to support! Get in touch with us at [email protected] for further information on how we can partner with you to support you in building an amazing candidate and employee experience.
Looking for more resources to guide you in creating the best candidate experience possible? Check out our blogs on 5 Ways to Make Your Hiring Process More Inclusive, 5 Ways to Attract Top Talent, and 5 Ways to Improve Your Candidate Experience!
Additionally, we have an entire page full of FREE downloadable tools that you can use to improve your candidate experience in a competitive talent market – check it out!