UK 
United States
Candidate experience is a hot topic for talent acquisition specialists, recruitment teams and employer brand managers.
We know it's a hot topic as it was cited as the biggest candidate sourcing priority (67%) in the UK Candidate Attraction Report. In this insight, we look at why candidate experience is so important, how careers site content supports an engaging candidate experience, and we share some ideas to assess candidate experience.
Why is candidate experience so important?
Good candidate experience brings a variety of benefits to the employer, such as improved brand reputation, improved quality of candidates and lower rates of candidates dropping off during the application process.
According to a survey carried out by Glassdoor, after a bad candidate experience 72% of job seekers would share their thoughts about it online, which can tarnish a brand's reputation. In turn, that reduces your chances of suitable talent finding you through word of mouth and referrals, which tend to bring in high-quality candidates.
Does your careers site support an engaging candidate experience?
Careers sites are often the first port of call for candidates hoping to apply for a role with you or find out more about you. Peak performing careers sites contain content for all stages of the candidate attraction funnel; Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Application, Evaluation, and Joining. It's not uncommon for careers sites to contain limited additional content over and above job vacancies or content around the company and early stages of attraction and engagement. The real value-add is optimal content - the content used on the best-performing careers sites.
The clear connecting feature of these content types is that they are designed to be valuable and useful for the candidate throughout their evaluation process, from first enticing them to apply right through the application and assessment stages. By testing the various combinations of careers site content, we were able to identify the optimal content for careers sites. Read more about these key insights in our free UK Candidate Attraction Report (pages 27 – 30).
Simple ways to assess and improve your candidate experience.
Audit your candidate touchpoints - from signing up for job alerts to viewing a job description and applying for a role with you.
Review what you are measuring across the candidate touchpoints and the data you have. Are there gaps, do you have key measures in place?
Are job descriptions on point with relevance and inclusiveness?
Make it easy for candidates to apply. Get the basics in place, such as CV parsing to assist in completing application forms or recruitment technology to save partially completed applications.
Undertake candidate experience surveys. Include successful and unsuccessful candidates who can score you on elements of the experience they have received and how likely they would recommend you to a friend.
Are you respecting a candidate's time? This applies to outlining the process upfront, being transparent about the role/salary, and communicating at the key stages.
Free stuff and additional insight.
At Eploy, we work with customers to deliver on candidate experience. We've got the badge and the t-shirt (IHR 2024 Candidate Experience Enabler Gold Winner), but it's our customer success stories that count. SCC redefined their recruitment strategy based on candidate experience. Download the case study here.
The UK Candidate Attraction Report is a free 78-page report that aims to discover how in-house recruiters attract talent and which promotional activities, channels and sources are helping to fill their roles. The report analyses the relevant strengths, weaknesses, and usage of core recruitment sourcing channels and compares the experience of talent acquisition professionals within different industries and company sizes.
