A good job hiring
How and why we value candidate experience — from our very first Candidate Experience Coordinator, Maria Guillen
Every week, we post exciting new vacancies on Accurx’s careers page, the roles spanning everything from software engineers to behavioural scientists. But last month, our Talent team were particularly thrilled to fill a job vacancy for our second Candidate Experience Coordinator.
We’ve decided to double our Candidate Experience team (from one person to two!) for a simple reason — because we value candidate experience. We really value it. And as Accurx scales up over the coming year, we’re determined to make the experience of every job candidate the best it can be.
But why does candidate experience matter so much to us? And what are we doing to back this up? Find out below!
Why we value candidate experience
Searching for your next job role can be a daunting process. Disappointments at interview stage and carefully crafted applications met with radio silence can all add up to a disheartening and stressful experience. At Accurx, we don’t just aim to ease those pain points but to make the hiring process enjoyable and rewarding for candidates — whether their application is ultimately successful or not.
We do this:
- To give candidates a brilliant introduction to Accurx, from our collaborative culture and the amazing people who work here to our unique offer as an employer, as we improve communication across healthcare.
- To set candidates up for success in their role later on. We know how important candidate experience can be to whether or not someone accepts a job role from us.
- To help candidates work out if they’d be a good fit in the role and aid their personal development.
‘From my application and interviews, I gained a real insight into life at Accurx. Straightaway, it was clear the company really prizes its people and work culture. As a result, I actually turned down another job offer to join — and really glad I did!’ — Max, Writer
‘Before joining Accurx, I’d been off sick for a year so knew I needed to work somewhere that’d allow me to manage my health condition. After a frank conversation with my future manager, I became confident that Accurx understands people’s individual circumstances and would make reasonable adjustments to support me.’ — Helena, Customer Success Account Manager
6 ways we support candidates through the hiring process
But what are we actually doing about candidate experience? Here are six steps Accurx takes to support candidates through the hiring process. These reflect our current practices and are likely to evolve further in early 2022 as our second Candidate Experience Coordinator begins.
1.Offer prep calls
Before the final interview stage, we give candidates the chance to have a call with a member of our Talent team like Rachel to answer any questions. We also give useful tips to help them prepare for the interview and clarify the interview format so they know what to expect. This helps candidates feel confident and equipped with all the information they need to give a great interview.
2. Share our Employee Handbook, checklist and hiring process
Hiring for a role should be a mutual experience i.e. we not only want to learn more about candidates but help them learn about us. For that reason, we give candidates access to some of our informative internal resources such as our Employee Handbook. This helps them to build a more detailed picture of what it’s like to work at Accurx and understand us from the inside out.
To prevent candidates being overwhelmed by the Handbook, we also share a candidate success checklist with them. This breaks down the standout things for them to prepare and any research we’d advise them to do before their interview(s).
To complement this, we give candidates an overview of each stage of our general hiring process. This process applies to most of our roles and, for those that are slightly different (e.g. engineering and product roles), we’re really happy to provide more personalised hiring processes.
3. Feedback properly and promptly: While we’d love everyone who interviews with us to be successful, unfortunately that can’t be the case. But by writing honest, practical and constructive feedback to candidates, we can give them back a little of the time they’ve put into interviewing with us and help them improve for their next job opportunity.
We’re always giving each other feedback across the Accurx team, either ad hoc or through structured formats such as 360 feedback and performance reviews. It’s how we support one another and keep improving as a team — and the same applies to candidates!
We try to let candidates know our feedback as soon as possible. Sometimes it takes us longer than we’d like, but when this happens we always explain why and apologise for the wait.
Any feedback on our hiring process is keenly welcomed by our teams. We take time to reflect on feedback and action any changes we think are necessary, as it’s only by doing this that we can improve the candidate experience in the future.
4. Introduce plenty of accuFolk: It’s really important that, by the time a candidate finishes the hiring process, they’ve spoken to lots of different people at Accurx. That’s why we involve lots of different people in the hiring process to give candidates a range of perspectives on the company, our ways of working and our culture.
5. Provide flexibility: We understand that everyone has time commitments. Because of this, we give candidates the flexibility to interview remotely or in the office. We love having the chance to meet people in-person and show them what life at Accurx is like, but understand that’s not always possible.
6. Be transparent: Since we always ask candidates to be open and honest during our hiring process, it’s only right and fair that we do the same. So our team always keep candidates informed of everything that’s going on if there’s any changes to the hiring process. Plus, we’re always on the other end of the phone (or an email) to answer any questions!
We look forward to building on these six steps in the future, with feedback from future candidates in early 2022!
Interested in applying for a role at Accurx? Head to our careers page. Accurx brings together everyone involved in a patient’s care. Help us shape the future of healthcare communication.
