Creating a positive candidate experience is highly spoken about across the recruitment industry, but unfortunately, many companies simply do not achieve it.

One of the biggest battles is knowing what the key ‘drivers’ are that make it a ‘positive or negative’ experience to improve. Only when you look at it from a candidate’s perspective will you truly be able to meet the candidate expectations.

So here are the top five drivers that candidates use to judge whether it was a good or bad experience.

Time

Time has a big impact on the candidate experience. From the time it takes to complete an application process, to the time it takes to find out the successfulness of that said application. Every aspect of the candidate’s journey should be evaluated with time put into consideration. Make sure at every point, the time between the next stage is reasonable. This will not only ruin candidate experience if not done so cautiously but, contribute to your candidate drop off rates as well.

Communication 

Communication is in the top 5 for a reason, candidates’ value it. Again, communication shouldn’t be evaluated just at the end when they await their result it should be evaluated at every stage of the process from the moment they arrive on to your career page or make any sort of interaction with your company. Can they find your organisation in Google Business? Does your careers page provide the company information they require? Does the job description clearly state the required skill set? Are they told when their application is received? Are they told when it is rejected? The list goes on…

Feedback 

Providing feedback will instantly give you a big green tick as many organisations simply ignore it. At a minimum, the candidate should be told whether they were successful or not. Do not leave them in the lurch. Word of mouth carries high value and candidates will be happy to discuss a bad employer with their network, which can highly damage any future reputation of your employment brand.

Clarity 

Make it clear the process throughout and do not confuse them. Do not expect them to have that extra qualification you required if you failed to include it within the job ad. Be clear at every stage from the moment they find you and apply to the expectations should you decide to take them on board. Provide candidates with as much information as possible to secure their time. Show them how valuable they are whether that is, sending them links to information they should read before an interview or being honest about the prospects of the business. And importantly, allow them to ask you questions to cover any areas you have missed that candidate still needs clarification.

Friendly Processes

How seamless and user friendly are your processes? Make it as easy as possible for candidates to apply to your roles. Is your careers page easy to find? Is it mobile compatible? Can they send you the necessary documents easily? Can they efficiently organise an interview with you? Are the instructions in your application process easy to follow? Consider if every stage is correctly optimised to provide the best possible candidate journey.

If you’d like to get our articles sent straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter below!

Recruitive offer End to End Recruitment Solutions and Services from ATS Software, Cloud Based Recruitment Software, Onboarding Software, Media Purchasing & the Design of Careers Websites.