The candidate experience
Hellooo from the other side…of Europe, my friends! :)
After a brilliant article and debate about the relationship with hiring managers wrote by Paul… I was wondering what should be our next topic/debate about. When we talk about recruitment …oh hell… we have an entire galaxy of topics that can help us be better at our job.
Therefore, after a long debate (with myself) and suggestions from Ana, I have decided to write about the core of our day-to-day recruiter life: the CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE!
I have to mention from the start that this is not an exhaustive article about the candidate experience, just some points to begin our debate and an individual reflection about self-improvement as recruiters.
We all know as recruiters how important is for the candidate to have a great recruitment experience, this will help us build a strong employer brand, create a good reputation and attract the best of the best.
1. Recruitment is more marketing and employer branding! Yes, it is!
We all need to build a strong employer brand and have a great reputation out there if we want people to apply on our job ads, answer our InMails or not to hang up the phone in the first 30 seconds. We would have a harder life as recruiters if we would be hiring for a company with a very bad reputation on the market. So, what is the key differentiator for Axway in your country?
Also, social media and employer branding is all new and very fashion today, but a lot of our candidates still apply on job boards, so this is still an important part of our day to day quality work. About the job adds I think we should always improve / change them and for this step we have a lot of help in the company — hiring managers, technical interviewers, other employees willing to help / give feedback, even the feedback from candidates is important.
We should be more creative on writing the job ads (I definitely have to improve this in 2017), but at the same time be honest about the job, not overselling it or underselling it. Which is the most creative job ad you wrote? Which one is the ONE you are really proud of it? Please share it!
We are selling an opportunity! We are selling maybe the dream job for someone! We are selling a career or the beginning of a career! So let`s START and show exactly this in our job ads. :)
One more thing that we can discuss on the marketing / employer branding side is the great channels and opportunities we have to help us in our recruitment process: Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube etc. I think we should be more present there, because the candidate can have a glimpse of the company culture, values, activities. Maybe you are already doing it, maybe you want to change or improve something on this channels so we can start doing it and sharing it.
Events — one more thing that we can do great in promoting the company and the open positions is at different events: job fairs, campus hiring events, is very important to be present and be prepared!! Is important not to participate only as recruiters, but also with some of our best employees, so they can share their direct experience with the candidate.
2. The application process and all the online/offline test
Have you ever tried to apply for a job at your current company? It is important as a recruiter to go to the same steps as the candidate will, because this is the first feedback you get and you can see if you want to change something in the process of applying for the job.
What about the online tests? Or written tests? Do you have many different tests for candidates? Are those tests really important and relevant for the recruitment process? If not, did you thought to change them, improve them or remove it, if you consider are irrelevant? How is it for you with your current open positions? For a candidate to have the best experience we need to pay attention and not give them irrelevant test or a job application form to bureaucratic that will take 60 minutes to fill in.
Another important part of the application process is for the candidate to have some feedback from us, it would be great if we could communicate to all the applicant that we received their application and if we are taking it in to consideration or not. How are you currently managing this? Would be great to know!
3. Sourcing — first contact
As with the job ads, the sourcing part is also oooo so important, sourcing is the heart of recruitment! This is why is very important to treat each candidate as a very valuable candidate and not just spam 100 candidates hoping 1 or 2 will reply.
To have the best candidate experience we need to read very well their profile and see if he/she might or not might be suitable for the job, we need to do research before approaching him/her and always personalize our message with something relevant we identified. Otherwise, we will just spam them and the candidate will remain with a poor impression of us and the company.
4. The interviews
4.1. Schedule the candidate for interview
Even if it`s an applicant, a referral or a direct search we need to provide the candidate with ALL the necessary information before coming for the face to face interviews. Many candidates are just receiving the date and the address and they would like to received more information, so be very careful to talk to them about the role (offer them a detailed job description), about the company (you can have a pdf to attach to the e-mail with interesting information about the company), explain in details what are the steps in the recruitment process (how many tests, interviews, with whom etc) and how long do you think the process will take.
Is very important to offer them a detailed agenda of it and how long it takes, because being involved in different recruitment processes takes time and energy and they need to plan according, especially if they have a job. In conclusion is very important to communicate very well with the candidates, they will appreciate a lot the effort and even if they don`t get the job or accepted a different offer, you would have provided a great candidate experience by providing all the details.
4.2. Interview like a pro
Always be punctual. Don`t let the candidate waiting, doesn’t matter if is a face to face interview/ Skype/ phone.
Be prepared. Have all the necessary information about the company and the role before starting a recruitment process, so always do your homework. Might be situations where is a new role, you missed some piece of information and the candidate will ask you, my advice in a situation like this is to be honest, tell him/her that you are not sure about the answer, you don`t want to mislead him/ her and that you will speak with the hiring manager and get back with an answer in 1 day or 2.
Can you share a story about a situation where the candidate asked you something about the company or the role and you had no idea about it? How did you reacted?
Be honest. Don’t oversell the job and don`t undersell and tell the candidate the less good points of the specific job, they have to know it and take a decision according to the reality (for example: they will need to do a lot of reports and this maybe get into a routine, whey will have a lot of calls/ day, they will not work with the newest technologies etc)
Ask relevant questions and adapt the structure of the interview for each role and person. Speak with the candidates about their projects, challenges they encountered within their role, but also about their greatest achievements, see what are they passionate about. Is important to know their skills, but also the points where they want to improve. What type of interview structure do you use? To you have a structure? What is it?
One more thing we can do — and debate if it`s ok or not, is to take a tour of the company with the candidate, he/she can see the employees, the working space, everything. How about this as an idea? Is it realistic? Should the recruiter do this or should be the hiring manager? Could this help us to offer a better candidate experience?
4.3. Technical interview AND/OR hiring manager interview
We cannot control a lot the technical interviews and the final interviews with the managers, but we can organize very well the process for the candidate and we can always offer our feedback for the interviewers. For example, I heard of cases where candidates rejected the offer because of the hiring manager, they did not felt comfortable at the interview, not to mention working with that hiring manager.
What can we do in such situations? Have you ever had a similar situation? If yes, how did you managed it? I had a similar experience with a manager and I told the candidate that I appreciate his feedback and we can keep in touch for future projects. After a couple of months I contacted him for a different project and he was hired.
4.4. Follow-up after the interview
Of course, after the final interview you will wait impatient the feedback from the manager, but at the same time I think is very useful to call the candidate and ask how was the interview for him, if he still has some unanswered questions, how did he felt about the project & team? Basically, what is his/her overall feedback after the final interview? This will help a lot also in the offer stage, if the feedback is positive and you want to hire the candidate.
5. The feedback
Is very important to give feedback to all the candidates you had in the process, this is a very important part for a good candidate experience. Many candidates are very disappointed in a company when they spend many hours preparing for interviews, scheduling time off from work to attend and at the end of the day they have no answer, is very frustrating. They need to know what went wrong, so is a must for us to always provide feedback, an honest and constructive feedback, either by e-mail or by phone, and in a reasonable amount of time, not after two months after the final interview.
The feedback should be constructive and help the candidate to be better at their next interview, so be honest and give examples (maybe they failed a language test, they are not technical enough etc). How do you give feedback to improve the candidate experience?
Even if a candidate didn`t got the job he will appreciate the answer and in the future you might meet again or he can be a good start to recommend you a friend or colleague for another open position if he had a great candidate experience.
6. Offer Stage
No, the job is not done yet! We have to release the offer and this can also help the candidate experience or be a disadvantage; is important to call the candidate and make the offer over the phone and at the same time send the written offer letter by e-mail.
For this part is crucial to move fast (have all the necessary approvals) and not to keep the candidate waiting 2 weeks since you gave a positive feedback and the time he will received the written offer letter. Communication is the key here as well, because the candidate might have some doubts, might receive a counter offer etc.
For example I had a candidate that received an offer and was willing to accepted, it was a really good financial offer, but she didn`t felt very motivated about the role. The problem was that I still had to schedule the final interview with the hiring manager, take all the approvals and then release also an offer, sometimes this could take days and I had only 24 hours. I had confidence in the candidate and that the role I was offering is a better option for her, so in 24h I have scheduled the interview, received a positive feedback and released the offer. The candidates was hired.
7. Onboarding
The onboarding process in some companies is a task for the TA teams or HR, it depends, but this is also a very important step in offering a complete and amazing candidate experience.
Everything that happens after the offer is released is important for the candidate to know that he took the right decision by joining, so it`s equality important to keep the communication open with the candidate even after the accepted the offer. It depends on each country, but the notice period can be long and the candidate might change their mind, so not to lose the candidate is important to keep him engaged.
How is the onboarding process in your country? Is a TA job or HRBP, is a team effort? Do you have a great onboarding story to share? I think this is something else that will be a challenge for 2017 to improve.
If you have a great onboarding process, your new employees will sure send you more referrals. Don`t forget about it!
8. Build a pipeline by offering a great candidate experience
8.1. Referrals — a gold mine
If an employee makes an effort to referral someone, to convince that person, to pitch the company, then it means we also have to make an effort and screen all the referrals we received and give feedback, to the employee and also the candidate. A thank you e-mail for the employee and an e-mail to the candidate if you don`t have anything available for him at the moment is a great way to keep them engaged, you can use a nice template and just personalized it accordingly, it will only take up 2 minutes.
8.2. Rejected candidates
Keep in touch with the rejected candidates, they are very valuable and we need to be fair and offer them the same attention and commitment , even if there are not suitable for the role; maybe not for this one, but you might have something in the future for them, is important to find the right place for the right person. Also, if they will have a great candidate experience they will be open for future opportunities or even open to referral a friend or colleagues. Keep track of the feedback you receive and see over time if they improved. You will surely have a strong pipeline.
We will discuss more at the webinar about: How do we offer a great candidate experience? :)
Source and inspiration:
http://www.jobcast.net/candidate-experience-what-candidates-want-how-to-give-it-to-them/
http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/recruiters-improve-candidate-experience/
https://blog.beamery.com/war-for-talent/
http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/candidate-experience-2015/
http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/recruiters-become-marketers/
https://blog.beamery.com/cold-email-templates/
https://blog.beamery.com/bad-candidate-experience/
https://www.eremedia.com/ere/20-ideas-for-employee-onboarding/
To be continued …
