The Candidate

Experience Guide:
Leveraging Culture to Land Your Next Great Hire
 Contents

Introduction: The Rise of the Candidate Experience 01

The Evolution of the Candidate Experience 02

First Impressions Are Everything 04

Enhance Your Current Recruiting Process 05

Embracing a Candidate-Driven Market 06

Make it Personal 07

Conclusion 08

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Introduction: The Rise of the
Candidate Experience

Putting the candidate at the center of your recruiting efforts is

essential for the bottom line of your business. Each step of the
candidate journey, from the application process to the final offer
letter, is a reflection of your organization and its culture. A positive
or negative candidate experience could mean the difference between
landing the perfect applicant and facing negative criticism of your
company in a very public way.

While traditional recruitment strategies used to be relatively black and

white, recruiters and human resource teams today have made sweeping
changes to keep up with the evolving job market and the needs of the
candidate. These initiatives have helped to prioritize the candidate’s
holistic interaction with your organization.

Effectively leveraging your company culture can help create an

outstanding candidate experience that will bring in top talent. A reputable employer brand
should be a top priority in your
organization’s strategy.

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The Evolution of the
Candidate Experience

The digital boom has no doubt improved the hiring process in many
regards. For employers, the reach of job postings now go well beyond
print announcements, vastly increasing the potential candidate pool.

Applicants can gather all the information they want to know about
your company in a matter of seconds. Job review sites provide
information on salary, culture and interview process, using data
submitted primarily from past and current employees. A collection of
the top HR statistics put together by Glassdoor revealed that:

• 69 percent of job applicants would turn down a job if the

offering organization had a bad reputation - even if they were
unemployed.

• Candidates typically consider six different reviews of an

organization before crafting an opinion.

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The Evolution of the Candidate
Experience Continued

Technology has brought unequivocal transparency into a company’s

hiring practices, reputation and company culture.

In an age where thoughts, feelings and personal experiences are

regularly broadcasted across a variety of social media platforms, you can
expect that your company’s candidate experience, good or bad, will find
its way there as well. There is simply too much at stake to risk having a
poor candidate experience in today’s digital age. In fact, the candidate
experience should be viewed as a marketing opportunity.

Each year, Talent Board, a non-profit research organization focused on

the candidate experience, sponsors the Candidate Experience Awards.
Consider these results from the 2017 awards, which surveyed more
than 45,000 active job seekers:

• 50 percent of applicants with a positive candidate experience

share that positive experience with others.

• 32 percent of job candidates with a negative candidate Regularly viewing your company’s reviews
experience broadcast that bad news with others. on social and job boards will give you
pointers on where and how to optimize
your candidate experience.

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First Impressions Are Everything

Company culture has steadily climbed to the top of the list in terms
of what job seekers consider most important when deciding on an
organization they want to work for: Just under 80 percent of Millennials
list people and cultural fit as No. 1, even before career potential.

Though many believe that branding begins as soon as the applicant takes
that first step into your building, a candidate’s interpretation of company
culture begins with first touch. Consider the following:

• Is your branding and messaging clear, concise and engaging?

• Is your company website easy to navigate and exciting?

• Do your social media platforms reflect company culture?

Pro Tip - Consistency across

channels is the key to success.

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Enhance Your Current
Recruiting Process

Did you know that job seekers spend an average of 3 to 4 hours on one
application before submitting it to the company? For the time they put
in, candidates expect a simple and engaging process. They don’t want to
use outdated technology or guidelines.

Your recruitment efforts should have consistent messaging across

all channels and application steps should be as simple and concise
as possible.

• Follow the trends - make sure you’re on the right channels

• Be present during every step of the hiring process Submit

• Provide candidates with content that showcases company
culture and growth

• Ensure your hiring teams are prepared for any interviews

• Provide candid feedback at every stage Competition for talent is

fierce – don’t waste precious
time to hire on manual,
outdated processes.

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Embracing a Candidate-
Driven Market

In 2015, results from the MRI Network Recruiter Sentiment Study

2015 2nd Half indicated that 90 percent of recruiters accepted that
they were in a candidate-driven job market. That figure was up from 54
percent just four years prior.

Since the landscape is no longer employer-driven, hiring managers need

to put themselves in their applicants’ shoes. Candidates report that
communication can make or break the experience. Whether you are
interviewing your first potential hire of the day or your twelfth, being
genuine, engaged and excited to learn more about them is essential.

Demonstrate that hiring these individuals is about more than just filling
a quota by showing candidates that both they and their time are valued.
Even just one memorable comment or gesture that makes the applicant
feel comfortable or appreciated can really help you stand out from
your competitors.

Build lasting relationships by valuing

the candidate’s time. If the person
wasn’t the right fit for a certain role,
you’ll still have a solid candidate to
go back to in the future.

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Make it Personal

No matter how much your human resource department relies on

automation throughout the hiring process, ensuring that the personal
element still shines through is crucial to your efforts. No one wants to
think that their cover letters are being read by a machine.

65 percent of applicants of candidates report never or rarely hearing

back from the company on a hiring decision.

Add that human touch by always responding to applicants in a timely

fashion. Follow up with each and every candidate and provide honest
feedback, even if they don’t receive the job offer.

Confirming that each step of the application process includes involves a

personal review can greatly improve your results.

Recruiting is personal, so be sure to

put the time in to get to know your top
candidates. It will help find the best
possible fit for that team’s dynamic.

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Conclusion

A positive candidate experience should be your company’s No. 1 priority.

Efficient, transparent and cohesive candidate experiences that showcase
company culture have been shown to have a direct correlation to positive
business outcomes.

With the right tools and strategy, executing a seamless candidate

experience is easy. As a result, you’ll end up with strong right-fit
candidates both culturally and skill-wise. When the job experience
matches expectations created during the candidate experience, your
company benefits from content employees and reduced turnover.

A stellar candidate experience can help attract and retain top talent,
leading your company to develop a team of employees that are engaged
and happy and thus, productive. When you invest in your candidates,
you’re investing in your company.

Sources:

forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2013/12/08/5-tips-for-a-winning-candidate-experience/#207f789c1ee5

About JazzHR glassdoor.com/employers/popular-topics/hr-stats.htm

mrinetwork.com/media/1036/2015_recruiter_sentiment_study_2nd_half.pdf
JazzHR is a powerful, user-friendly, and affordable recruiting software that is hbr.org/2014/03/how-companies-can-attract-the-best-college-talent
purpose-built to help growing companies exceed their recruiting goals. JazzHR’s blog.shrm.org/blog/the-candidate-experience

best-in-class software replaces time-consuming and manual hiring tasks with careerarc.com/blog/2016/06/candidate-experience-study-infographic/

intuitive software designed to help recruiters and hiring managers recruit, and
hire the right talent, fast. To learn more about JazzHR, visit www.JazzHR.com
or follow us at twitter.com/JazzDotCo.

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