You’ve decided it’s time to look at your candidate experience, but have no idea where to start, or what you could do to improve it. With the rise of social media, it’s more important than ever. Negative experiences can be shared quickly to wide audience, and before long your reputation can take a hit. So what can you do? Take a look at our top 5 tips for creating a great experience for all your candidates.
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Map the candidate journey
One place to start is by mapping the existing journey. Go through the process from a candidate perspective. Test it for ease of use, how simple it is to apply, is it clear what is being asked in questions, do you get an appropriate level of contact from the company?
Once you know how each step impacts your candidate, you can look to make improvements to their journey.
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Keep them informed
One of the easiest and most important things you can do is keep them informed on the process. Acknowledge their application and provide a date they should hear back by. Be sure to state any restrictions for the position at the beginning of the application, such as professional licenses or government clearances. This ensures neither you, nor the candidate, wastes their time. Finally, if they have been successful and only their background check remains, tell the candidate what information they will need to complete the process as quickly and efficiently as possible.
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Use technology and social media
Can your candidates apply by mobile phone? With more and more people using their phones in every aspect of life, having a mobile-friendly application process can make things simpler and quicker for applicants. Is there any way to implement a tool that provides real-time status of their application? Can they save completed application sections and return later to complete the outstanding areas? Technology and social media have numerous benefits that can be implemented to improve the experience, see what is relevant to your business and utilise as appropriate.
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Get the hiring manager involved
Train hiring managers to interact with candidates and provide the best experience they can, defining guidelines for how you expect them to demonstrate your company’s employment brand. Make sure the hiring manager is well versed in all stages of the hiring process so they can explain it to the candidate, including the different elements and timelines of the screening process. An informed candidate is a happy candidate.
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Ask for feedback
Can your candidates give you feedback on the process? It’s something to consider implementing, after all, they are the ones going through the journey and so are best placed to help improve it. Use their experiences to enhance the process for future candidates.
Want more tips on the candidate experience? Download our checklist, or see how LinkedIn do it in our case study.
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HireRight
HireRight is here to help guide you through the biggest screening challenges so you can focus on what’s important to you; attracting top talent. HireRight provides employment background screening services to organisations of any size, in every industry, and nearly anywhere.
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