July 20, 2021 – ATC Events & Media

2024 Innovation Lab: Talent Tech Pitch Off

Candidate experience is a key focus for the TA sector. Whether it’s trying to provide candidates with feedback in a speedy manner, ensuring candidates are well informed of the hiring steps they will need to go through, or just making sure that candidates are engaged in the overall recruitment process, candidate experiences is a topic that’s dominating key conversations about how we can do things better in the talent community.

Recently on LinkedIn, Liz Ryan, Founder and CEO of Human Workplace, posed the question what’s one thing staffing managers could do to improve their recruiting process?

And boy, did she get some good responses coming through.

One respondent listed a number of ways hiring managers can improve process, from removing unnecessary requirements for entry level jobs, to making sure the job ad is specific to the role in question and not just recycled from a previous position. Here’s what they said:

Use industry jargon instead of company-specific jargon and acronyms
Stop recycling job posts and make the job requirements specific to the position being advertised
Remove unnecessary requirements for entry-level jobs
Communicate with the HR representative “must have” items instead of handing them a two page job post full of acronyms
Stop asking for salary expectations if you’re unwilling to state the compensation range
Stop looking for the perfect candidate if you’re unwilling to pay the perfect salary7. If the candidate does not fit a particular profile, but fits another, ask them if they would like to interview for a different position instead of rejecting the application

Another respondent felt that hiring managers needed to be more considerate of candidates time and expectations throughout the process. Here’s what they said:

STATE THE SALARY
Stop using software that requires the candidate to upload their resume on step 2, and later copy/paste pieces from said resume on step 3.
Stop ghosting candidates. This is work, not Tinder.
STOP POSTING THE JOB PUBLICLY IF YOU ALREADY PLAN TO HIRE AN INTERNAL CANDIDATE.
Stop with lengthy interview processes. There is no reason any interview should require 4 or 5 interviews, a personality assessment, and a project/assignment. You either like the person and what they bring to the table after the second interview, or you don’t.

Many respondents felt that feedback was often overlooked in the recruitment process and was a key area that staffing managers needed to improve.

“Transparent feedback. It’s frustrating to get no reply at all when following through. Then to not get effective feedback about what went well, or not so well, leaves you exposed to the same on the next interview. We are all grown-ups and should be almost entitled transparent feedback,” said one commenter.

“You’d be surprised at how many people don’t know how to give effective and constructive feedback. It’s either a generic response or a candy-coated answer which you can’t use to improve upon,” said another commenter.

“Communicate! Let people know where they’re at in the review process (application received, being reviewed, trying to schedule an interview, etc.) and let them know WHY when they haven’t been selected for the position,” said one.

Whereas one final respondent had a thing or two to say about some of the, ahem, “experts” we often try to recruit for:

1. Don’t make your process so complicated
2. This is the 21st century, CV’s exist so don’t then ask for what is essentially a retranscribe into your system
3. Remember you become the face of the company, what you do reflects on you and the company you represent. Be professional
4. Stop looking for unicorns
5. Rock Stars wreck hotel rooms
6. Ninjas prefer to be invisible

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions on how to improve the candidate experience? What are the barriers you see that stop us from making this a reality?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or take a look at the full conversation thread on LinkedIn.

Header image source: Shutterstock