What is candidate experience and how can companies benefit from it? Before applying for a job, the company is usually a new acquittance for the candidate. There are multiple encounters during the hiring process, when the companies have a huge opportunity to influence the candidate’s experience of brand image even revenue. So, what is the importance of candidate experience to the companies? This is a question we have been thinking at Operaria:
“A smooth experience is beneficial to both candidate and the employer.”
Markus Fabricius, CEO of Operaria
All of us can call ourselves experts by experience. Me myself have been involved in numerous recruitment processes. I have taken part in Operaria’s recruitments before I even worked here. I was approached in a very empathic way and with willingness to discuss with, listen to and inform me. I got motivated and felt included as a candidate, because I was engaging with the company. We describe our candidate experiences as excellent, good, moderate or awful, but what do they mean actually?
Candidate Experience Tells the Tale of Recruitment Process
In the core of creating a great candidate experience are the company’s communication, recruitment and HR processes. In the best-case scenario, the processes appear as equal, empathic, smooth and efficient recruiting. The factors that create a great candidate experience are timelining, assigning responsibilities, determining the needs, creating and distributing the job ad, developing the employer image, communications, interviews and assessment.
What Does the Candidate Experience Consist of and Why Is It Important to Companies?
Candidate experience is the perception of the employer, recruitment process and the interactions during it.
Job advertisement
The job advertisement is a crucial part of a successful recruiting and candidate experience. When defining the job description, the needs, goals and limitations. Also, honest and deep-level conversations must be held among the team members to ensure that everybody’s view on the future role and its responsibilities are aligned. The team should discuss beforehand what kind of persona is needed for the job.
A well-devised job ad helps to contain the expectations of both the employer and the candidate. The competition for the right talents is harsh. How can you appeal to a sufficient number of candidates to choose from? Think about it – which is more important for the candidates: the fact that there’s a pool table at the office or that there’s a chance to work remotely? When it comes to the appeal of the job, employer image plays a big part in it. Especially in Helsinki area, the optimization of candidate experience holds a significant possibility to transform those who came in second in the recruitment process into future candidates, followers, recommendation givers or even clients.
To make sure that the text in the job ad is inclusive, please avoid words that imply nationality, gender or age. Focus on skills and traits needed. As a final step, distribute the ad to the right target group, on the right channel, at the right time. A tip by Operaria: When you want to target a specific group, try channels such as Twitter and Reddit, where targeting is easier thanks to community and topic sections.
Job application
Time is money. Make applying for the job as easy as possible for the candidate. Do not ask them to fill out information that is already included in the CV. The modern recruitment softwares can rank the candidates in terms of experience or education or filter them based on more specific questions. These questions are especially handy, when the company or position is extremely attractive.
A tip by Operaria: Chatbot is an excellent solution, if you are anticipating a great number of applicants. Give them more information with the help of chatbot, but don’t leave them hanging. Make sure, that even if the chatbot is used, the last conversation with a promising candidate is always held in person.
Communicating during the process
The first meeting between the candidate and recruiter is always either about asking for more information or a notification that the application is received. Even an automated message can make the candidate feel more at ease. When the encounters with the candidate are punctual, friendly and professional, you are already halfway to success. By ensuring that the candidate receives all the information needed during the recruitment process, you also ensure that the candidate is still committed to getting the job. We at Operaria cherish smooth and clear communication and invest in candidate experience through one-on-one communication. The communication runs through one and the same consultant through the whole process.
A tip by Operaria: Why not send a video message to your candidates? It’s as fast as writing a message but it’s more personal. Technology gives great conditions for it.
The Interview
The preparation for the interview is done by getting to know the candidate’s profile and comparing it to the qualifications of the job. By using the same set of questions, you ensure that the interview is equal for everyone. When mapping out the candidate’s aptitude for the work culture, it’s without a question that asking about the candidate’s political views, religion or sexual orientation is strictly forbidden. It’s much better to map out the candidate’s aptitude by asking about how they react to certain situations or people. You can ask the candidate to describe their experiences with real life situations and examples. A conversational style of interviewing can be helpful, if there is a sense of nervousness.
A tip by Operaria: When conducting a video interview, be present! Ensure the lightning, a good connection, calm environment and having your face close enough to the camera. The facial expressions and eye contact become much more important when there is no hand shaking or other greetings requiring body language.
Deciding and informing about the decision
The second best is a great achievement, that may not feel like it. When another candidate gets chosen, it’s best to contact the other applicant personally. The candidate may feel unclear, why they were not chosen. You can give a pleasant impression of yourself if you give the candidates involved in the interviewing process a chance to receive feedback. At this point the candidate has already invested hours in the process, so rebounding might feel hard. Individual feedback can bring clarity and help the candidate to develop themselves.
A tip by Operaria: Send the candidates a link to your calendar, where they can book a 15-minute appointment to receive feedback.
Great Candidate Experience Is the Key to Success in the Helsinki Area
The value of a good candidate experience is highlighted among companies in the Helsinki area, because usually the first encounter with the company is the recruitment process.
“Pleasant candidate experience makes you follow the company in the future. Whether it’s about looking for a job or a possible clientship.”
Anonymous candidate, Operaria
It is clear that a firm that is already well-known generates more applications. People want to work in a company that has already painted a good image and that can appeal to candidates with innovation, new technology et cetera. A company in the Helsinki area might pursue a status as an appealing employer, even when the products and services are still unknown to the crowd and the marketing or PR tactics haven’t yet built a strong image. In these types of cases the candidate gets to know the company headfirst through its processes, communications and work culture, which then creates an image of the employer for years to follow.
We recently asked in a LinkedIn post: is the candidate experience as important for the companies as it is for the candidates? 79 % thought that candidate experience is very important, 11 % thought the opposite. These results paint a picture of what’s important for the companies, especially when 75 % of the voters worked at management level. The candidate experience has come to stay. It gives the company a significant competitive edge, when it comes to attracting the best talents. On the other hand, a clearly bad candidate experience comes with a price. Read from the article how Virgin Records lost 5 million euros per year due to an unflattering candidate experience.
Summary
The importance of the candidate experience for Helsinki-area companies is huge. In the heart of the recruitment process is smooth communication. Before starting the recruitment process, ensure that everybody involved knows who does what, when, where, how and why. Try to remember your own experiences when applying for a job, then pick out the best parts to incorporate into your own process. Succeeding in recruiting now and in the future strongly depends on how much the company is willing to invest in the candidate experience. For the candidate the most important investment is the time you give to them. We at Operaria always invest in optimizing the candidate experience in our processes. You can ask us for help with the optimization of the candidate experience. We have personally experienced how it can come into fruition even years later. Please contact us! We’d love to help.
The writer of this article, Anu Susi, is the newest addition to Operaria as a recruitment and digital marketing expert. Her passion is to bring out the story of the company in a captivating way and attract new focus groups to apply for open positions.
