By Nabih Haidar
The importance of the candidate experience on an employer’s brand image often goes understated. When considering the makings of a positive employer brand, we tend to attribute importance to marketing efforts and communications campaigns, yet what about the candidate experience?
The candidate experience is understood as a candidate’s journey while applying for a job at an organization. Left unchecked and unattended, the candidate experience can quickly shift into the candidate void. This is when candidates find themselves applying to more jobs while hearing back less, which can implode into an array of detrimental effects for both the candidate and the organization.
Keep in mind that candidates are people first, meaning that it should be considered that they may communicate their dissatisfaction with those around them. With that in mind, candidates should also be seen as potential consumers. Remember that “good news travels quick, but bad news travels faster” also applies to candidate experience reviews.
For instance, a whopping 83% of candidates believe that a negative interview experience could change their mind about a role or company that they once liked. A negative experience could then be communicated to the candidate’s circle, leaving a detrimental mark on an organization’s brand.
Nurtured Candidates, Positive Brand
Candidate nurture allows us to maintain positive relationships with our talent communities even when we could not retain them. Communication is at the heart of nurturing practices, as it understands the fundamental principle that candidates are people first.
Before nurturing processes can begin to take place, there should be a fundamental alignment between the company ethos and nurturing principles. The ability to successfully nurture incoming candidates depends on more than the actions taken insofar of that goal, but instead lies within the core ethos and raison d’être of the enterprise itself.
When candidates are nurtured and cared for, positive ripple effects begin to appear. Caring for candidates can help increase the value of your employer brand, while streamlining recruitment processes and making hiring easier.
Don’t Reject Your Candidates, Refer Them
We wonder what the candidates we rejected say about us, but what if we did not reject them to begin with?
When we close a job position, we can elect to refer our candidates to compatible opportunities instead of rejecting them and cutting ties. Referred candidates will have a merited opportunity after not being retained, and the organization will benefit for an increasingly positive brand.
Referring candidates allows us to become positive resources for our talent communities and our organization by allowing us to nurture positive relationships, as well as establish a caring brand. Moreover, you can also make recruitment profitable by using Vela to refer your candidates.
Vela’s peer-to-peer recruitment platform simplifies, automates and monetizes your referrals, so you can get paid for being a positive resource to your talent community. When your referred finalists finds a job on Vela, you’ll receive a commission for helping them find a job.
Interested in how peer-to-peer recruitment works? Talk to us!
