What Is Candidate Experience And How To Create Amazing One [In-depth guide]

Candidate experience is an integral part of the hiring process, and it has a massive impact on your employer brand. Having bad reviews on websites such as Glassdoor or negative feedback from candidates can adversely affect your brand value.

For this reason, we have decided to create a comprehensive guide on candidate experience, in which we have included the following points:

What is candidate experience?
How to create a fantastic candidate experience?
How can technology help you better the candidate experience?
Benefits of a great candidate experience.
How to effectively measure candidate experience?
Expert’s opinion on candidate experience.

What is candidate experience?

Candidate experience is the reaction or feedback that a job seeker/applicant has about the organization’s job application process.

“Candidate experience” has become a high priority for HR managers these days. A well-designed recruitment process provides candidates with a fast, smooth, and pleasant candidate journey.

How to create a fantastic candidate experience?

Having candidates feel empowered and confident throughout the hiring process is a tremendous competitive advantage for every company. Creating a positive experience, even if you reject the candidate is a skill that can be mastered.

In the following sections, we have discussed all the factors that play into creating amazing candidate experience, such as:

Frictionless mobile-first application processes
Writing a clear job description
Providing the accurate information
Effective communication
Interviews
Onboarding

Frictionless mobile-first application processes

Certain factors act as a turn-off for candidates, such as complicated job applications, counterintuitive career sites, and requests for multiple onsite interviews.

Again, it’s time to go with the flow, i.e., make your complete recruitment drive painless by powering it with the smartphone. Give the candidates an opportunity to apply, interview, and engage via smartphone with your organization.

This is no surprise because 94% of job seekers have used their phones to browse for jobs online. 87% of them have used their smartphones to call the potential employer, and 74% have emailed about the job they are applying for via smartphone.

Further data discloses that 50% of job seekers fill job applications on their smartphones, and 23% even create a resume or cover letter.

Now, how do you feel about losing literally half of your potential candidates just because your smartphone UX isn’t optimized? It is a terrible feeling, we know.

And not only do you lose them, but you also create loads of friction and negative candidate experience from the very start of the recruitment process.

When talking about smartphones, mentioning speed and complexity is important too. 60% of candidates quit filling out the job applications since they are too complex or lengthy. Ensure that your forms are sweet and short.

Using chatbots on the application and career pages has also been shown to be effective. Companies that have used chatbots were three times more likely to create a positive candidate experience.

Information

Providing relevant information on your career page, LinkedIn company page, and different social media channels is an essential part of the candidate experience.

The most important page for a candidate is the company career page.

The career page should:

Have brief details about the company history.
Explain the company benefits clearly.
Show employee pictures with testimonials or videos of employees describing why you are a great company to work for.

This will form a very positive impression of the company for the applicant.

Write clear job descriptions

A job description should be crisp and clear. It can also be fun and exciting.

The job description should communicate the following details:

A brief company history.
A link to the company career page.
Describe the essential parts of the job.
Specify the job duties.
Education requirements.
Skills requirement.
Detail any relevant experience required.

If you want more detailed information on this matter, take a peek at tips from experts on how to write amazing job descriptions.

Effective communication

Communication is a crucial aspect of providing a great candidate experience. Candidates love when they are in the loop throughout the recruitment process.

When we say that communication is essential, here is what we mean by that:

Giving precise information in job descriptions.
Setting the right expectations about the whole recruitment process and the job.
Giving candidates feedback.

The last one is essential. 75% of candidates never hear back from the employers. This is a terrible practice since you come across as unprofessional and provoke negative emotions in candidates.

You don’t want them to feel hopeless, unimportant, and rejected. Instead, give them feedback constantly:

Let them know that you have received their job application. A simple “Thank you” email is enough.
If they have gone through the interview but didn’t pass, let them know why. Give them honest, constructive feedback. It can serve as a great learning process for candidates, and they might feel as if they have still gained something from the whole experience. Simply put, create a positive experience from a negative situation.
Once you have hired the candidate, don’t leave them hanging. Make sure to reach out and see how they are doing in their new job position.
At the very end, remember to ask for feedback on the whole hiring process. Ask candidates what was good and what wasn’t. Here are some questions you can ask.

If you want to make the most out of this part, check out our guide on effective communication with candidates.