Improving the Candidate Experience

Having cold feet can make our entire body feel chilly. In order to alleviate this, we put on socks or boots to warm up. Our feet are the base, the foundation to our body, our entire motion of walking is based on them. If we have an injury, we limp along, not meeting our full potential. This can be compared to how you structure your candidate experience and can affect the rest of your interactions with them.

How this applies to your workflow.

It’s important that you have a targeted, refined experience for your candidates. Depending on your style of recruiting, often times the first interaction a candidate will have with you is through reading your job posting. The description and details provided in the posting will be the deciding factor if a candidate is going to apply or not. This sets the foundation for the rest of your interactions with the candidate and it should be solid.

Sure, the unemployment rate is higher now than it was three years ago but if you want to attract the qualified candidates it is crucial that the job details are accurate, planned, and your career portal looks professional.

Tips to prepare your job posting to be effective.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself while you’re editing your job posting.
Is the job description clear and targeted at the main qualities I am seeking in a candidate? Having this can result in a positive major impact at finding the right one for the job and can greatly reduce the time of the entire process.

Does the description contain information about the company I’m recruiting for? It is just as important to sell the company to the candidate as it is for the candidate to sell himself or herself to the company. Think of the job posting as an advertisement rather than just a job posting. It’s easy to overlook important details of a company or job if you’re familiar with it.

Is the application easy to understand and fill out? No one wants to fill out a 200 question application form. Reduce the application to just the crucial questions. That you will be able to weed out unqualified applicants from your consideration pool even quicker.

So you have the job posting ready to go, what about your career portal?

One of the services we offer to our customers is having a customized career portal to match their existing company website. This creates a cohesive and professional experience for the candidate and increases the likelihood they will become an applicant. Having a boring or ugly looking career portal can be a negative to potential applicants and is hurting you from getting the good ones you’re looking for.

Tips?

Making sure your postings are clear to your potential candidates and your career portal is clean and professional can make a big difference at collecting more applicants and finding the right applicant. While this process can take more time than not doing it, the results can be well worth it.