Improve Your Candidate’s Journey

Find out more on how to improve a candidates recruitment journey. We’ve put together our best suggestions on how and why companies should improve a candidates recruitment journey.
One of the ways to improve a candidate’s recruitment journey is…

Make it easy to apply for the job.

This can include setting up job applications in an accessible format online, whether it be on the company’s website or on job seeker websites such as Indeed.

Applying for jobs online is a much faster and more efficient way of applying for potential candidates, and they can do it all from home.

But companies should also have ways to apply in person as some people may not have sufficient access to apply online.

Companies setting up online applications should make the application short and simple. This allows potential candidates to complete the application quickly and not feel worn down by having to write or type for a long period of time.

Providing services such as CV builders will also help candidates with applications. It can provide a template to help the applicant’s CV look more organised and attractive, help the applicant to spot spelling and grammar mistakes, as well as save them time creating and formatting their CV.

An easier application process will decrease the number of candidate drops-outs and improve the candidate journey.

Write clear job adverts.

When advertising a job, it’s very important that the job description is clear so that candidates know exactly what they are applying for. Any surprises or disappointments later on can damage the candidate journey.

Make sure that you’ve included all of the essential information such as contract type, salary, working pattern and location. You should put yourself in your candidate’s shoes and think about what they will want to know up-front before applying.

Using clear language will help give a better understanding of the vacancy. Write in shorter sentences to make it easy to read, less intimidating to the candidate and easier to find important information.

For a full guide on writing a compelling and informative job advert, click the link below!

How To Write A Fantastic Job Advert In 7 Easy Steps

Communicate throughout.

Communication is essential not only to the company but also to the candidate. Communication is also the key to forming a good relationship with the candidate.
This could be in the form of emails and phone calls, as well as any other preferred contact method such as LinkedIn.

Communication is important for updating candidates on what stage their job application is at, telling the candidate if they have got the job or not, or even updating them on any new jobs that have come up that the candidate might want to apply for.

Communication could even come in the form of surveys at the end of their journey. For example, ask how your company can improve so that future candidates can have a better recruitment journey. This would show that the company does care about and value its candidates, as well as help you improve.

Show that you value the candidate’s time.

Providing accurate, informative and quick to read job adverts will prevent candidate’s from feeling that their time has been wasted. There is little worse that finding out later in the process that a role isn’t suitable, when the reason is something that should have been made clear in the advert.

Having a quicker recruitment process (including interview stages) would also mean you could get the candidate sooner, before they get a competing job offer.

Show the candidate that you value their time by thanking them for their time whether they get the job or not. Make them feel respected and they will feel confident to apply through the company again.

Nobody likes to feel like their time has been wasted.

Form a good relationship with the candidate.

Forming a good relationship with the candidate is important in your candidate’s recruitment journey because, whether the candidate has worked with the company before or is applying with you for the first time, you want the candidate to feel happy and valued.

Respond to any emails or phone calls that they make. It will show how much you value their time.

Always treat the candidate with respect. Listen to any concerns that they may have. Listen to them about their past work life and where they want to be in the future. This helps the candidate feel respected and valued and they will want to apply with you again. It can also lead to them recommending the company to friends and family, and they may even leave a review online. So, not only can you retain a valuable candidate, the Employer Brand will be boosted and shared too.

Provide information on the interview process.

The interview is a very nervous time for a lot of candidates and there are ways to help the candidate feel a bit more relaxed. This can just be information on what style of interview it will be, how many interviewers there will be, as well as the number of interviews there are in the process.

This is all in addition to basic information such as where the interview is taking place and what building (if company has more than one building). Making information easy to find and easy to follow will help to take some of that stress away.

This will all help the candidate as they will be able to get ready for the interview knowing exactly what to expect, where to go and how to get there.

Give the candidate a sense of what the work culture is like.

Having a reputation of a good work culture is an important factor into whether a potential candidate applies for the job or not. The work culture needs to be a positive one to attract the best possible candidates, offering an environment where everyone feels respected, valued and happy to work there.

A good work culture is made of a lot of factors such as company values, behaviour, good attitude, as well as equality and acceptance backed by strong policies.

Candidates would need a clear understanding of the short- and long-term goals of the company, providing a sense of motivation that they can achieve a lot in a long period of time.

Promoting a culture of inclusivity is important as it means everyone can work together no matter their beliefs and differences and will make the employees feel valued, which means the company gets a good reputation.

Good quality candidates will always choose to work in businesses with a positive culture over those without one.

Once you have a good understanding of what your work culture is, think of ways that you can tell potential candidates about it at different points in their recruitment journey.

Update your careers page.

Updating careers pages is important as potential candidates will be looking for the latest and best jobs available online.

It is necessary to take away old job adverts as soon as positions are filled.

Make sure that potential candidates can find your careers page. If people struggle to find it then no one will apply for your jobs through it. The best way to make the career page easy to find is to create a link to it on the company’s main website. This way, those that are already familiar with your business can easily find out what it’s like to work for you and how they can join you.

Think about where else someone might be looking for new employers like yours too. It could be Google, Jobs Boards or Social Media. Make sure that your careers page can be found on these, as well as any other places relevant to your potential candidates.

This is a great place to begin building your Employer Brand. Communicate your values and let potential candidates know what it’s like to work with you. A positive Employer Brand really helps with a positive candidate experience, and the two should be aligned.

Strong Employer Branding.

Being known for being a great employer helps attract the best candidates to your business.

Advertising your strengths as an employer, rather than just your products and services to your customers, across a wide variety of platforms will help you reach a wide variety of people.

Social media is an incredibly popular tool for this, selecting the right platform for your candidates. It’s also a good chance to share content about reviews or stories from existing employees.

With social media, companies can share things such as blogs from their careers page which would increase the traffic coming into the website and results in more views of your current vacancies.

Blogs are a great way of grabbing attention and building your Employer Brand. It can be about news from the industry which the company is linked too, or it could be tips on best ways to get ready for a job interview. Think about what your potential candidates might be interested in and start there.

Give feedback to candidates.

Give the unsuccessful candidates specific and objective feedback on why they did not get the job. It could be about the CV or it could be how they performed in the interview, or even their level of experience in a particular area.

Give them tips on how to get to the required level for that job and, especially if the candidate only just missed out on the job, encourage the candidate to keep in touch in case of any other future job vacancies.

Give the candidate some positives to help them feel confident that they can apply for a job through the company again and make them feel respected.

Avoid making any discriminative comments in the feedback. Keep the feedback specific to the vacancy as advertised, and remain objective. Any discriminative comments could seriously damage your company’s reputation and even lead to a legal dispute.

Onboarding

Onboarding is the process of a new employee being settled into a brand-new workplace. Introduce them to the rest of the team so they can get to know each other and will help them feel welcomed and relaxed.

Provide training to the new employee so they can get to know what tasks that they will be doing. Provide them with information of start times and the times when their shift ends this helps provide the information for them to get into the working routine.

On the first day of their new job to help get them settled in, some companies provide a work buddy who they can work with as well as ask any questions that they may have.

In general, good onboarding helps create good impressions and helps keep hold of good candidates.

Onboarding practices are varied, and this feels like a topic for another good article, so be sure to come back to find out more about how to keep hold of successful candidates and turn them in to flourishing, loyal employees.

Researched and written by Adam Connelly.