In our fortnightly google+ hangout, this week we were joined by Gerry Crispin with Alan Whitford as host and Louis Welcomme from Colleague Software sorting the technology. Our subject this week was The Importance of the Candidate Experience in Recruitment. Gerry was a great guest and even kicked things off himself when Alan had some technical issues (just proving that these shows do go out live!). You can, and should, watch the video here:
Gerry is one of the founders of the Candidate Experience Awards. Although the CandE Awards is a competition, it exists to enable any company to benchmark and improve their candidate experience. Last year they had 138 companies involved giving information on the way the interact with candidates. Of those, 95 also asked their candidates to rate/rank them against their practices. This data is shared amongst participating companies to learn about how the candidate experience impacts on the recruitment process. You can read some articles on the research and findings on the CandE website. There are whitepapers for both North America and the UK covering what they re learning and measuring that you can request from the site. Also, the UK programme is still open for registration.
Some of the things that Gerry and Alan talked about on the hangout included:
The Best Question to Ask Candidates (to improve their experience of you as hiring company)
Candidates gave feedback in the CandEs that they’d like a “why would you be relevant” type question where they can give more information to support their application. This isn’t just something to add in an on-line application form but also to include in phone screening and face to face interviews. What an excellent and easy question to ask! (Alan is writing a blog about this exact issue so watch this space)
The correlation between a poor (or good!) candidate experience and consumer behaviour
According to research from TotalJobs, as a result of a bad recruiting experience 64% of candidates are less likely to buy that company’s products/services and 82% are less likely to recommend the company to a friend. A study of more than 3,900 US workers was conducted online by Harris Interactive at the end of 2012 to find out the impact that bad candidate experience has on enterprises – the figures were different but the message was the same; candidate experience matters.
Annoying Recruitment Processes
We also covered the problem of how being put into a “candidate funnel” doesn’t feel like a great experience (ie, why do I have to jump through ATS hoops – why can’t I just call Line and get an interview?). Check out Is your website deterring candidates? and Is Your Job Application Process Making Candidates Disgruntled?
Communication
It is key to communicate honestly with the candidate about the process, actually acknowledge the application and be able to give some “reject” feedback. Part of the problem that Gerry touched on is that in-house departments aren’t trained to give feedback but it’s something that agency recruiters do better. You can also read How to Create a Positive Candidate Experience which talks about communication and feedback.
Role of Agency Recruiters
There are two aspects here.
Firstly a consultative agency recruiter can help to work with clients, with whom they have a partnership relationship, to improve upon their candidate experience. Use the examples you see within your client base to improve the experience offered by all clients. Gerry also suggested that surely recruiters have some responsibility not to hire candidates for clients who have appalling candidate experiences.
We then got asked the question “Is the contingency model usually at the heart of bad candidate management?” In a growth market the contingency market grows (low point of entry, no real regulation, etc) and these “bums on seats” recruiters are creating a lot of activity but not satisfying the needs of people in the “supply chain”. THIS type of agency recruitment is bound to lead to poor candidate experience.
We covered a lot of other topics including:
- The use of candidate communities – does this increase/decrease the candidate experience? This is touched on in an article here: Recruit and Engage Active and Passive Candidates.
- Zappos’s ‘No Job Postings’ Recruiting Approach and its potential impact on candidate experience.
- Why social media isnt’ to blame for poor candidate experience. The best candidates will always be hunted down and contacted by recruiters. Pre internet they’d be getting phone calls every day rather than LinkedIn mails!
- The issue of appropriate pre-screening.
- The power of employee referrals. Read 10 Compelling Numbers That Reveal the Power of Employee Referrals.
Gerry finished off by sharing two top tips:
1. In your application stage and at interview train recruiters, each and every time, to provide an opportunity for the candidate to share what they feel, from their skills/knowledge/experience, means they are right for the job.
2. Set out the process (eg, tell candidates the application form takes 15 minutes to complete and/or you’ll be back in touch within 4 weeks) AND deliver upon them. This point rather nicely ties with my incredibly brief blog on the subject some years back: It’s not rocket science – the candidate experience.
Big thanks to Gerry for taking time to join us today. I really enjoyed the hangout.
We are back on the 16th July with Adrian Treacy and Roy Ripper – both who are speaking at our event tomorrow – talking Boom After Bust.
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