We all realize that a company can only be as good as their employees. If you want to hire the best talent out there, you need to provide an amazing candidate experience. Right from having them fill out their applications to conducting the final interview, it needs to be a smooth process.

Businesses don’t just fight for revenue and sales, but also for the best candidates. If you want an edge over your competitors, you need to attract top-quality talent. If you don’t provide a good candidate experience in recruitment, you might end up lowering your brand’svalue. Here are some reasons why you need to pay attention to the candidate experience you provide.

1. You Might Lose Out on Great Candidates

Job seekers often complain about how tedious the job application process is. On top of the countless hours they put in perfecting their resume, it’s frustrating and annoying to spend more time filling out long, boring application forms. Complex job application forms that seem like online interrogations can be a huge turn-off for potential job applicants.

A complex, tedious job application process can make even the most patient candidates lose interest in the job. If the candidate experience isn’t optimal, they may leave the application process mid-way. Job application forms that are full of jargon or too lengthy can frustrate candidates.

Good candidates are aware that it isn’t too difficult for them to land jobs. They know that there are a lot of job opportunities waiting for them out there. They value their time and aren’t always willing to make the effort of going through a tedious application process.

If you ask them to enter information like education and previous work experience that is already available on their resume, you’re giving them one more reason to leave. Instead, provide them an option to import their resumes or LinkedIn profiles from which your system can pre-populate certain fields.

Organizations need to have a proper system in place to consolidate and organize candidate information. A good candidate experience in recruitment is actually indicative of a smoothly functioning Human Resources department.

2. It Affects Your Employer Brand

A potential candidate may interact with your company for the very first time during the recruitment process. Just as your company tries to assess and evaluate their skills at this time, they try to assess your company as well. Candidates view the application and interview process as the first steps to getting to know more about a company.

Most companies spend tons of money and resources on building their employer brand. Why? Because that’s what differentiates them from their competition and helps them attract top talent. However, all of it can go to waste with a poor candidate experience.

Your online visibility, promptness of responses, and ease of application are some of the factors that can make or break your first impression. You may or may not hire every candidate who applies for a particular job. However, based on their experience, they will form an opinion about your organization, which in turn, will affect your employer brand.

3. Candidates Share Their Experiences

We live in the digital age. And we share even the most mundane and dullest details of our lives on social media and on the web. Websites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn have made it really easy to get a sense of a company’s culture. So, you need to be extra careful about the candidate experience you provide.

Treat candidates the way you would treat your customers. If you provide a negative candidate experience, they are likely to vent about it in some way or the other. Negative online reviews can be particularly damaging for any company’s reputation.

According to a survey by Glassdoor, most job seekers read at least six reviews before forming an opinion about a company. Other candidates who are looking to work at your organization might be put off by any negative reviews. So you need to try your best to minimize every candidate’s dissatisfaction, even if they aren’t suitable for the role they’ve applied for.

Most companies don’t even bother to respond to the candidates who aren’t selected for the next step in the process. This can provide a negative impression about your organization. The only way to avoid this is to deliver the message in a professional manner.

If you fail to close the communication loop, you’ll hurt your own chances of engaging with them in the future. Candidates remember their past negative experiences. 80% of job seekers are likely to get discouraged and not consider other job openings with an organization that didn’t inform them of their application status.

If you think following up and sharing updates with candidates is too time-consuming, you can automate the process. There are is candidate recruitment software that can handle it for you. It’ll make your job a lot more efficient and easier.

Are You Ready to Provide a Great Candidate Experience?

As discussed earlier, if you want to attract the best candidates, you need to make sure that you provide them with a good candidate experience. The experience that candidates have during your recruitment process can affect your company’s overall employer brand.

Do you have any other thoughts to share about why it’s necessary to provide a good candidate experience in recruitment? Please share them in the comments section below.

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