Create The Ultimate Experience For The Candidate

Blog by Josie Cozins

It is being said that we are currently in the most competitive recruitment environment to date, John Vlastelica comments that he has seen job acceptance rates at some organisations decrease from 90% a few years back to just 40% today.

A great candidate will know that they have options, especially in the current climate, to turn down an opportunity that possibly a few years ago would have been their ideal next step.

In order to win over the candidate, recruiters must create an experience rather than just working through the process of filling the role. 
Candidates want to feel valued from the very start of the process, the quality and method of the experience will make a difference as to whether the candidate accepts the offer or not. 

Follow the below suggestions in order to help improve the candidate experience:

Pace matters

The longer it takes to make an offer to the ideal candidate the more time the candidate has to move through other processes and accept an offer elsewhere and potentially with a competitor.
If the interview process is too lengthy the candidate will eventually lose interest. Afterall, time kills all deals.

What’s going on?

Don’t keep the candidate in the dark, update them even if there are no updates. 
A Robert Half survey has said 62% of candidates will lose interest if they don’t receive an update within 2 weeks of initial discussions.
Be honest and realistic when giving the candidate time frames.

Represent your diversity

42% of candidates would turn down a job offer if the company doesn’t have clear diversity goals according to Jobvite.
Ensure you have a diverse mix of team members involved in the interview process so the candidate can see these values matter.

Keep it real

Don’t oversell the role as the candidate may then get the sense that the opportunity is “too good to be true” this could then in turn lead to doubts.
When it gets down to the nitty gritty be upfront and honest, if you have to convey something that you feel may be a negative then follow it up with a positive.

Show that you really know the role and the company

Don’t just rely on the job description, go further than that. 
Learn the role inside out, what will be expected of the candidate, what assignments will they work on, name member of the team, use the correct lingo and tell them what the team culture is like.  This information will be received well and make the candidate confidence in what you are saying.

Salary expectations

Ensure this conversation happens at the front end of your process to avoid confusion and to give the candidate the opportunity to pull out of the process, it allows you to make sure that you are both on the same page about salary expectations – and you won’t waste anyone’s time.

A day in the life

Nowadays candidates want to know the honest truth about working for a company on a day to day bases before they will consider an offer. They will want to have an understanding about the company culture, compensations and benefits way in advance of making a decision on an offer. 
Ensure this is covered off in the interview process by the interviewers or share information on these topics in advance.

Following all or some of the above will help to create the experience for the candidate and in turn make them more inclined to sign that offer letter!