Mastering the Art & Science of an Amazing Candidate Experience

Interviewing is a dynamic and stressful experience, even for the most polished and confident of interviewees. You’re presenting all of your achievements and experiences in the hopes of finding the next landing spot for your career. It’s often easy to forget what it’s like to be on the “other side of the table,” which is why the candidate experience is something we take very seriously here at Bluecore.

Just as much as a candidate is trying to put their best foot forward, in the competitive landscape of talent, companies must actively work to ensure an outstanding candidate experience. Everyone’s touch point with a candidate has to leave that prospective employee feeling highly valued, respected, and intrigued about the opportunity in front of them. When job hunting, professionals want to know they are coming into a company that values its’ team members and that the relationship is balanced. This applies not only to current employees, but also prospective employees.

At Bluecore, we have three machines: The Product Machine, the Customer Machine and, critically, the People Machine (without which, the two former machines would not exist). We’ve invested heavily in the quality of our People Machine by not only ensuring a positive experience for our current team members, but also by focusing considerably on Candidate Care during our interview process.

We’ve built a best-in-class candidate experience by focusing on key elements of the interview process. From how our phone screens are conducted, to building diverse and thoughtful interview questions, to how we gather and provide feedback, every stage of the interview process is essential to ensure not only that our organization interviews in the proper manner, but also that each candidate has a rewarding and successful interview process.

For now, here are some of the strategies we are committed to at Bluecore that ensure a high caliber candidate interview experience onsite, which directly links to an increased likelihood to close the hire and successfully onboard the individual.

• Start Simple: Make sure they know how to get to your office and what they do when they get there! Is there a desk where they need to sign in? Will they need a photo ID? Is there a troll guarding the drawbridge? Who should they ask for when they arrive? The only thing worse than being nervous is being nervous and lost even when you get off on the right floor.
• Do a Who’s Who: Provide the candidate with a list of who they’ll be meeting throughout the day. We include contact emails for the interview panel as well in the event there are any follow-up questions from the day or if they’d like to jot a quick thank you. It can also be difficult to juggle all the names that are being thrown at them throughout the day, so a little cheat-sheet can come in handy.
• Remember Friendly is Fundamental: Greet your candidate when they arrive. It’s daunting when they walk into an office for the first time, and having a friendly face who they’ve already spoken to helps calm those early butterflies. You might not be able to greet them right when they step off the elevator, but don’t let them idle for too long before you say hello!
• Make the Pitch: Recruiting is competitive! Never forget there are plenty of good companies out there and one part of recruiting is to sell your company as the best in the business. Along with the itinerary, we include a one-pager highlighting key information about Bluecore such as our mission, values, and details about our unique culture (including our events like Hackathons, Ladies of Bluecore, lunch and learns, and happy hours). This is a great opportunity to showcase parts of your organization that candidates may not have learned about yet. The more they see how amazing your company is beyond the product, the more eager they will be to join!
• Feed the Hunger: Snacks! You know those Snickers’ commercials “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry”? Neither is your candidate! Snacks and water go a long way to keep your candidate at their best and brightest. The second candidates step off the elevator, we ask them what they’d like to drink and if they’re hungry. If it’s lunch time, we even feed them from our community table and often invite them to sit with our population just to get a sense of what a day in the life of a Bluecorian is like. This also gives them the opportunity to get a deep sense of our friendly, outgoing culture.
• Perfect the Prep: Make sure that the interviewers are well prepared with the material they’ll be covering in their interview session. A strong understanding of the job description and the candidate’s resume are super important. Nothing, and we mean NOTHING, is worse for the candidate experience than an unprepared interviewer who hasn’t even taken a moment to read their resume and asks irrelevant questions throughout the discussion. We use the “Divide and Conquer” method when it comes to interviews. Each interviewer is assigned a role so we don’t have four interviewers asking the exact same questions or have someone fumbling through what to ask next.
• Check In So Nobody Checks Out: You never want a candidate to feel like they’ve been orphaned in your office. We ensure that we check in multiple times through every candidate’s visit to make sure they remain connected to the experience. Not to mention, they’ll need food, water, and bio breaks for the longer lineups.
• Download and Debrief: Before you thank candidates for their time and accompany them to the door when the interview is over, take a minute to sit with the candidate and recap the day. See if they have any lingering questions that went unanswered and how they experienced the process and the people they met. Also, let them know when they should hear back from you; there’s nothing worse than twisting in the wind. This is also an opportunity to get a clearer sense of where the candidate stands in other interview processes so that you are prepared to move quickly with next steps.
• Ask for feedback: The best way to improve your candidate experience is learning from your candidates. Ask them what worked for them throughout the process. Find out what can be improved upon, too, so you can course correct the broken piece of the interview puzzle quickly.

Candidate care comes in a variety of forms, but the most important thing is that it must be authentic. A bottle of Fiji water and a granola bar is a nice gesture, but if your candidate doesn’t feel truly welcomed then that’s all it is — a nice gesture. Find what works for your culture and your process; it should be unique and showcase who you are as an organization. There are so many opportunities during the interview process to showcase your culture, values and all the amazing reasons your candidates should want to come on board. If you allow those to shine, your job only gets that much easier.