Sara Pollock | January 2019 | Every interaction a candidate has with your company affects their opinion of your organization. In fact, 78 percent of candidates see the candidate experience as “an indicator of how a company values its people,” according to CareerBuilder.
Candidates approach every touchpoint — including social media posts, promotional emails, and conversations with past and present employees — as a chance to learn more about your company. Given that every interaction has so much power, the way your company portrays itself really matters. During the candidate experience, applicants hope to validate their perceptions of your company. They want the recruiting process to be a glimpse into the day-to-day life of the organization they may soon join.
With that in mind, you need to be sure your candidate experience is meeting job seekers’ needs. Ask yourself these questions to determine whether or not your candidate experience is up to par:
1. Are Your Job Descriptions Accurate?
Job seekers peruse the open job listings on your website to see where they could fit in. Do your candidates see generic posts that any person on the street could fill, or do they see position-specific requirements, clear goals pertaining to the job, and comprehensive lists of the responsibilities they would be expected to fulfill?
Your job descriptions are one of your first chances to make a good impression on a new candidate, so you want to make sure they accurately represent the open positions at your organization. Go above and beyond by including in your job descriptions the information candidates are really curious about, such as company mission, organizational culture, and benefits packages.
2. Does Your Candidate Experience Fit Your Company Culture?
During the recruiting process, candidates should get a taste of what the culture is like inside your organization. The same values that drive your internal culture should drive your candidate experience.
Does your company value personal growth? Ask candidate where they’d like to be within your company in the next five years, and tell them about your career development programs and related benefits. Is your company collaborative? Invite the candidate to meet with multiple team members to demonstrate how you emphasize team work.
3. Is Your Recruiting Process Mobile-Friendly?
Everyone is on their phone — why isn’t your recruiting process? Forty-three percent of traffic to career pages comes from mobile devices, according to CareerBuilder. Start your candidates off with convenience: Give them a mobile-friendly career site.
4. Do You Follow Up With Your Candidates?
Nobody likes to be the bearer of bad news, but you owe it to your candidates — and your company’s reputation — to properly inform them of their status in the recruiting process. If you have promising candidates who will not be receiving job offers, assure them the right position will come along soon. Encourage all candidates to keep watching your careers page. Inform declined applicants why they will not be receiving the position and what they could do better next time. By simply keeping candidates updated, you make them 3.5 times more likely to apply to your company again in the future.
5. Have You Asked for Feedback?
Your employees are one of your best assets when it comes to improving the candidate experience. Ask new hires for their feedback on the recruiting process and how you could make it even better. Questions like “Now that you have been here for a month, do you feel the job description accurately represented the position you are now in?” and “Were there any parts of your candidate experience that you wish were more streamlined?” can help you uncover extremely valuable insights you couldn’t get on your own.
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If you plan to invest in revamping your candidate experience in 2019 but aren’t sure how to, start with these five questions. Also, be sure to look at your recruiting process from the candidate’s perspective. What works best for the company may not be best for the candidate.
A version of this article originally appeared on the ClearCompany blog.
Sara Pollock is head of the marketing department at ClearCompany.