5 Steps to Managing the Candidate Experience
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Learn all about managing your candidate experience in this Glassdoor webinar!
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5 Steps to Managing the Candidate Experience
- 1. #Glassdoor 5 Steps to Managing the Candidate Experience
- 2. #Glassdoor Webinar Tips for Attendees • You can connect to audio using your computer’s microphone and speakers. • Or, you may select “Use Telephone” after joining the Webinar. • All lines will be muted to avoid background noise. • You can ask questions at any time by typing them into the Questions Pane.
- 3. #Glassdoor Featured Speakers Susan Underwood Manager, Talent Acquisition at Glassdoor Jason Webster Head of Employer Branding at ONGIG
- 6. #Glassdoor First Impression for a Candidate Tends to be Text-Based From a Friend Board
- 8. #Glassdoor Pro Tip Be Aware of What Candidates See as a First Impression
- 10. #Glassdoor Understand Where Your Candidates Are Most Likely to Land When Doing Research
- 11. #Glassdoor Pro Tip Run Searches for Careers, Specific Jobs and Locations
- 13. #Glassdoor The Application Process Can Be a Roadblock for Top Candidates
- 14. #Glassdoor Pro Tip Complete Your Online Application Process—See How Long It Takes
- 16. #Glassdoor Manage Your Recruiting Content
- 17. #Glassdoor Candidates Like to be Informed During the Hiring Process Rank highest response rates by communication method. Capture info. ACTION: Phone Email Video Chat Text Message Still Works Standard Qualifying Interviews Highest Read Rate
- 18. #Glassdoor Pro Tip Submit an Application to See How Long It Takes to Get a Response
- 20. #Glassdoor Fast Feedback in the Hiring Process Is Crucial to a Candidate Experience Red: The candidate is not a cultural fit, and is likely to never be hired at your company. Send rejection promptly. Yellow: The candidate is not a skills fit today, but aligns with your culture. Send rejection with invitation to talent network. Green: The candidate is a skills and cultural fit. Engage immediately. ?
- 21. #Glassdoor Pro Tip Determine Response Time and Quickly Place Candidates in a Proper Bucket
- 22. #Glassdoor Tips and Tricks to Drive Candidate Experience
- 23. #Glassdoor Tips and Tricks • Pick a consistent theme to be used across channels • Make sure all social channels have consistent addresses • Be visual. Be consistent. Be responsive. • Utilize all of your channels to drive candidates to you • Follow social channels of companies you admire for ideas
Editor's Notes
- Most HR and Talent Acquisition professionals agree that Candidate Experience is a critical to attracting top talent. And it makes sense. Active candidates are savvy, and passive candidates may be a “candidate” and not even recognize it. This is why you must understand the psychology of the candidate experience, so that you can truly manage it. Your candidate experience is more than a set of web pages and processes. It is a series of emotions that the candidate goes through in their journey with your recruiting process. There’s no better way to understand the journey of your candidate’s than by putting yourself in their shoes. In retail circles, they refer to it as “mystery shopping”. It’s a great practice that takes retail leaders from the targeted advertisement to the cash register, and everywhere in between. As a Talent Leader, you should be “mystery shopping” your own candidate experience. And to do this properly, you must open your mind and have empathy. Take out any bias you have about your own process. Do this because, the candidate sees things very differently than you do. Open your mind, and see it through the candidate’s eyes. To illustrate the candidate’s journey, we’ll provide an example of “mystery shopping” and explore the emotions that a candidate may experience. In this case, we’ll “mystery shop” the candidate journey with Paula the Programmer. She’s a software developer who has received an intriguing email from a recruiter. We’ll evaluate her journey, and look a tips for how you can successfully manager your Candidate Experience.
- For today’s webinar we’re going to look at both sides of the Candidate Experience. Jason Webster is the Head of Employer Branding at Ongig, and a proponent of understanding Candidate Experience through the prospect’s eyes. He will take us through Paula the Programmer’s journey and the emotions that come with it. Susan Underwood is a Manager of Talent Acquisition with Glassdoor, and has also recruited for top companies like Salesforce.com. Susan will provide tips from the inside on how your organization can make the journey for candidates like Paula the Programmer a positive one. We’ll truly have the two sides of the Candidate Experience story.
- As you zoom out, open your mind and think about 5 phases that a candidate like Paula the Programmer goes through in your recruiting process: Discovery: Paula begins the Candidate Experience by hearing about a job opportunity with your company. The most common sources of this are: an email from a friend/colleague, an email from a recruiter, a job board posting, or a social share in their news feed. The discovery phase typically promotes a feeling of curiosity. Paula is attracting by the message, and interested in learning more. Research: Now that Paula is curious, she starts doing research to understand more about the opportunity. Paula will turn to somewhere between 10 and 15 websites as she pieces together your employer brand story. From Google to Glassdoor to LinkedIn, and many sites in between Paula will experience excitement as she starts to picture herself in your organization. Decision: Paula is at the greatest point of interest in your company when she clicks the submit button on her application. She’s gone through the process and provided her information for your review. But while it is a time of great interest, Paula also has feelings of doubt. The process is now out of control as she awaits a response. She typically expects the worst at this point. Communication: Paula is expecting the worst after clicking apply. She doesn’t expect to hear much anytime soon. Even if she is a referral, she expects a response from the company to come slowly. With each day that goes by without a response, Paula feels less and less interested. In fact, Paula can start to build a negative impression of the company if weeks go by with no response to her application. And this is only regarding the initial response. The same can be said for every stage of communication in the interview process itself. Resolution: When all is said and done, Paula just wants to know where she stands…even if it is a no. When Paula spends time and emotion on applying for a job and doesn’t get resolution, the negative impression of the company grows. It grows to a point where she will tell friends and maybe even post a tweet or review. This is bad news for your employer brand. The opportunity for a positive experience is high at this stage though. When Paula knows where she stands, she is more likely to respect your company and tell others about her positive experience.
- In the case of Paula the Programmer, we’ll use the passive candidate example. After all, Paula is a developer and we know how difficult this skill can be to source. In the case of a passive candidate, the majority of people will be emailed a job by a friend or recruiter. Some may see it shared in a news feed on a social site. Either way, it’s going to be Paula’s first impression as she discovers a job relevant to her is open with your company.
- >50% of candidates will discover your jobs on a mobile device. As mentioned, the most likely way a passive candidate will discover your job opportunity is by email (or maybe InMail). Thus, Paula the Programmer is likely receiving an email like this to her Gmail account. The email is likely coming from a friend, colleague, or recruiter who are providing links to one of two things: 1) the job description, and 2) the hiring manager’s LinkedIn profile. And remember, Paula is likely viewing this on her mobile device. Will Paula gain enthusiasm with what she sees? [Susan…how does your team conduct candidate outreach, message referrals, and stand apart with top prospects via email?]
- So if Paula does indeed open your email on a device, she’s likely to click a link in the message if she’s interested. How would you feel about it being your job description on a mobile device? You may have this nailed, and if so, nice work. If not, don’t fret. Understanding what the experience is like is the first step to making it better. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to get the candidate super excited about working for your company.
- There are several options to creating a positive experience, but you need to know what your own looks like first before you can take action. [Susan…any real-life tips or stories on how this has worked for you in the past?]
- a typical candidate will look through 10+ websites to learn more about your jobs. Now that Paula is more excited about your job opportunity, she’s going to start researching the specifics of the role and opportunity. In reality, what they are doing is piecing together your employer brand story. It’s a key phase as Paula could become very interested and excited by the opportunity…or she may lose interest altogether.
- One of the first steps Paula will take will be to search Google. Search terms typically have the company name and either a job title or location (sometimes both). Candidates like Paula are interested in finding the most relevant information possible, and that’s what Google is best at. When running these searches, there are 5 places Paula will likely arrive at first: the front page of your careers site, Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and random job boards. These are the venues where Paula is going to start her decision-making process as to whether she should pursue the job or not. She’s going to make this decision by digging into the people who work at your company, the types of projects she might be working on, the impact those projects have on people’s lives, and whether it’s a place that will allow her to reach her personal and professional goals. Paula will look at your careers site and quickly be able to see how much care you take in communicating your culture with candidates. She will then look at LinkedIn to see who her closest connections are at the company, and what do they think of working there. She will turn to Glassdoor to see what employees past and present have to say, and to see pictures of the work environment. All of these are channels Paula will use to conduct her research and form her opinion on the opportunity. What will candidate’s like Paula see when they search your company and opportunities on Google? [Susan…what steps have your recruiting teams taken to understand where candidates may be searching, and to curate that experience by managing online channels?]
- Run searches, and get a good idea of the likely channels where candidates like Paula will end up. Take a look at several of your hiring manager’s LinkedIn profiles. Check out your Glassdoor page by reading the reviews and looking at the images,. Take any pre-conceptions you may have away, and and see it as a candidate would. Then you’ll have a better idea of which part of your presence to polish up for the future. And that is where you take control of your employer brand story, and drive your Candidate Experience
- Good news. Paula has decided to take action. She takes action by applying for the job, or by asking for an introduction to the company from one of her connections. Bad news. Most companies have an 80% drop-off rate during their application process according to iMomentous. This is an interesting time for Paula. She’s excited about the prospect of the new position, and a new start with your company. However, that excitement is tempered by limited expectations. Not to mention the application process itself, which can be a major point of friction. Candidates have come to expect a tough application process followed by no feedback. This is the conundrum Paula faces as she makes the decision to apply for the job.
- Now that Paula has made her decision, she heads to your application process. Being a top candidate, Paula has a limited amount of time to complete her application. She’s gainfully employed, and cannot afford to spend large chunks of time on applying for jobs. In Paula’s case, she may want the flexibility to apply on her mobile device during the evening train commute. Or perhaps she’s okay with desktop, but just needs an efficient process to get the application completed. The challenge is that most application processes are not geared for passive candidates. Many applications ask to set up a login, write a specific cover letter, or attach a myriad of documents. If you’ve got 5 or more steps (and pages) in your application process, rest assured that you’ll have at least 50% candidate drop-off. Candidates like Paula will only complete this process when they are in active job-seeking mode or are really, really interested in the position. While on one hand Paula should be excited at this stage, she actually feels anxious at the same time. Having a smooth, easy, and mobile-friendly application process can make a massive difference with top, passive candidates. You’re very likely to raise your application completion rate, and have a much better Candidate Experience. [Susan…can you provide examples of how you have made the application process smoother, and how that has impacted the candidate experience?]
- The application process provides a great opportunity to “mystery shop” your Candidate Experience. Go to the websites where you advertise your jobs. Click through from sites like Indeed and LinkedIn. How many steps does it take to get to the application form? Once you’re at the application, how many steps does it take to complete the process? And how long does this whole process take. To take it to the next level, make sure you’re also completing your application process on a mobile device. This is the true test. If you’re going to great lengths to attract top candidates, you’ve got to get the mobile application process right. Is it easy to navigate? Is it easy to attach profile links and documents? This is critical to raising your rate of completed applications. [Susan…any thoughts or stories about how a positive application process drove Candidate Experience?]
- Even though communication is step number 4, it really is ubiquitous throughout the recruiting process. It’s possible that candidate’s like Paula have seen social media posts from your company, and already have a picture of your employer brand in their mind. And it’s most likely that they came across messaging from your company when they were researching the opportunity with your company. Communication comes in many forms and mediums during the recruiting process. In this case, Paula has now submitted her application and is experiencing a range of emotions. She’s guardedly optimistic, as she wants to be excited but her enthusiasm is tempered by the unknown. Most candidates have very low expectations when it comes to communication from a potential employer. This is an enormous opportunity to create a positive Candidate Experience that sets your company apart from the competition. In fact, Fortune Magazine reports that 96% of candidates will apply for jobs at a company they know will keep them informed.
- Communicating clearly and honestly with candidates is a massive opportunity for building a great Candidate Experience. Imagine Paula the Programmer’s surprise when she receives a response within 24 hours. Even if it’s a rejection, she can at least have closure and move on. And let’s say your company is indeed interested in Paula. Showing her your company is interested right away sets the tempo for your relationship through the hiring process and beyond. You’ve got an opportunity to engage while Paula’s interest in the job is still at a high level. Timely and clear communication is crucial during the hiring process because it will set the candidate at ease. The challenge with this step of the Candidate Experience is that recruiters are busy people. That’s why you should leverage every communication channel available during the hiring process. For example, the phone works extremely well for the first contact with candidate’s you’d like to interview. Email works great for scheduling interviews, as well as rejecting candidates. Video chat is efficient for qualifying interviews and talking with candidates in other locations. And when you absolutely need to get in touch with a candidate…text them. It’s important to know how to communicate with people, and to keep them informed early and often. No matter the outcome, folks like Paula will tell others about their positive Candidate Experience. [Susan…what methods have you used successfully during the recruiting/interview process?]
- Make sure to take a look at your own communication process. Do you have automated email alerts going to candidates? Do you have easy-to-use templates enabling faster response time? Are your recruiters held to a standard in terms of response time? Are your recruiters aware of all of the options they have to communicate with candidates? Don’t be afraid to “mystery shop” this stage by submitting an actual application into your system. You’ll be interested to see how long a response takes, how it arrives, and what the message is. This is the opportunity to set the stage for a positive Candidate Experience. [Susan…any stories of how quick response time has driven your Candidate Experience?]
- Integrity Search conducted a survey in which 38% of candidates cited “lack of feedback” as a top frustration with the interview process. The interview process takes a deep investment of time for both the candidate and company. Getting an answer one way or the other provides closure to both sides. One way to measure your Candidate Experience with this step is “Time to Hire”. This is different than the traditional “Time to Fill” measurement that many recruiters use. “Time to Hire” is specific to one candidate. Let’s take Paula as an example. We’ll assume that Paula accepted an offer to work for your company. From the time she submitted her application until the moment she signed the offer letter, how much time transpired? Is it a swift and decisive process, or is it drawn out with multiple layers of bureaucracy and decision-making? Even if it is not an offer, you can look at how long candidates are sitting in your queue for open jobs. If a candidate is in a stage of the interview process and hasn’t been contacted in more than a week, that is a bad Candidate Experience. Top candidates like Paula start to assume that they didn’t do well in the interview, and start to move on mentally. Give resolution at each stage of the interview process. Be specific whether it’s good or bad news. And be timely with the feedback. That’s key to keeping candidates like Paula feeling good about your company.
- When you come to a conclusion on a candidate, you’ve got to let them know right away. It’s the right thing to do, they’ll respect you for it, and it drives a better Candidate Experience. It’s not always simple to reach a conclusion, but you can come up with a system to make it a bit easier. One approach is a red, yellow, green methodology: Red: The candidate is not a cultural fit, and is likely to never be hired at your company. Send rejection promptly. Yellow: The candidate is not a skills fit today, but aligns with our culture. Send rejection, with invitation to talent network. Green: The candidate is a skills and cultural fit. Engage immediately. [Susan…any examples to provide of how this has had an impact on your recruiting teams and candidates?”
- A few key questions to ask are: when was the last contact with the candidate?,