Why is Candidate Experience so Important for Talent Attraction?
If you’re in recruitment or HR, you’ll know all about candidate experience. How job seekers are treated during the hiring process influences whether they will choose to work for you over one of your competitors. Effective talent attraction depends on positive candidate experiences – and we’ve got the stats to prove it!
Creating a positive candidate experience involves every stage of hiring – your job adverts, career page or career microsite, submitting an application, candidate communications, interviews, making an offer or rejecting a candidate all influence candidate experience.
Here’s 5 solid reasons why your business will benefit from making candidate experience a priority:
1. Improve the quality of your hires
“Organisations that invest in positive candidate experiences improve their quality of hires by 70%.” (Glassdoor)
Effective talent attraction is all about finding and engaging the best candidates before anyone else – having hundreds of people applying for a job is no good if none of them have the right skills, experience and attitude.
By crafting positive candidate experiences at every candidate touchpoint, you’ll improve your ability to attract top talent that will help your business thrive.
2. Boost your employer brand and reputation
“Nearly 60% of job seekers have had a poor candidate experience – 72% of them shared their experiences online, including leaving reviews on Glassdoor.com.” (LinkedIn)
“80–90% of candidates say their experience during the hiring process can change their minds about a role or company.” (Recruiting Brief)
Negative candidate experiences can destroy your employer brand and reputation. Make your experience a positive, memorable one and you’ll boost your employer brand image, helping you to attract talent in the future.
3. Keep talent engaged and interested in your company
“80% of candidates would not re-apply to a company that didn’t keep them notified of their application progress.” (Lever)
“Talented candidates are 4x more likely to consider re-applying to a company in the future if they are given constructive feedback.” (Lever)
Aim for a situation where even candidates who are unsuccessful in their applications have had such a great experience dealing with your company that they would recommend your business to a friend, or consider re-applying in the future.
4. Reduce candidate drop-off
“60% of candidates have abandoned an application because it was too long or complex.” (Recruiting Brief)
Applying for jobs takes time and effort, so make it easy and hassle-free for candidates to apply – it can be as simple as uploading a CV, cover letter, and a few contact details. Having a straightforward application process that can be done in a few minutes will help you reduce candidate drop-off.
5. Make your entire talent attraction strategy more effective
“Only 46% of employers make regular changes to their recruitment processes to improve candidate experience.” (Career Arc)
“78% of job seekers say they’ve never been asked for feedback on their candidate experience.” (Lever)
You can’t improve your candidate experience unless you know where you’re going wrong – always ask candidates for feedback, whether or not their application was successful. A simple survey will do, with questions along the lines of ‘As a result of your experience with our company, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend?’ and ‘How would you rate the updates and feedback you received during the application process?’.
Candidate experience should be at the forefront of your talent attraction strategy – these 5 benefits of creating a positive candidate experience show why you need to invest the time, effort and resources into making it the best it can be. Treat candidates right and you’ll boost your chances of hiring and retaining the best talent.
