Christian De Pape looks at a few first steps you can take to create a better recruitment process experience for the people you want to hire.

1. Better candidate
experiences through
technology
@recruitingsoc
recruitingsocial.com
#CandidateExperience / #CandX

2. Nice to meet you!
Let me introduce myself
and our company.

3. My name is Christian.
I’m a communicator.
I care about: Delivering deliberate,
personable, and effective messages
to create better, more meaningful
experiences.
@christiandepape

4. We connect big thinking businesses
with big thinkers.
@recruitingsoc
recruitingsocial.com

5. Important to know:
I’m not a recruiter. I’m not an HR professional.
I bring a different perspective.

6. What are we looking at today?
The candidate experience, and super-simple,
technology-driven tactics to help you create a better one.
A starting point.

7. Sound good?
Let’s get started.

8. So, what is it?
Candidate experience is the feelings, attitudes, and
behaviors your hiring process brings out in job candidates.

9. Okay, but why care?
2 Reasons:

10. First, it makes your job easier
Increases referrals.
Increases repeat applicants.
Helps candidates to self-select.
Speeds up hire times.
Better prepares hires.
Decreases bad hires.

11. Second, the data
If candidates had a bad candidate experience –

12. 42%Never seek employment with the company again.
Harris Interactive / CareerBuilder

13. 22%Tell others not to work there.
Harris Interactive / CareerBuilder

14. 9%Tell others not to purchase from the company.
Harris Interactive / CareerBuilder

15. On the flip-side
If candidates had a great candidate experience –

16. 51%Share positive experience on Glassdoor, Twitter or Facebook
The Talent Board 2013

17. “Job hunting would be awesome if
employers would treat people like
people, not another piece of paper”
— Recruiting Social survey 2014

18. That human element
is key to a great
candidate experience.

19. How does technology fit in?
Technology can help you do more, more easily:
To communicate better. To personalize the experience.
To show them you care. To keep getting better.

20. How to choose tech tools
If it makes you and your organization
more human in the candidate’s eyes?
Go right ahead.

21. Now, let’s get to those tactics
Super-simple, super-doable.

22. Turn on your ATS’s
auto-reply to applications
Could it be any easier?
Here’s the thing:

23. 75%Of employers don’t
CareerBuilder

24. That leaves applicants
wondering:
“Did they get my application?”
“Am I being considered?”
“Have I been rejected?”
Not very considerate, is it?

25. Besides, what a
wasted opportunity!
A strategically-written auto-reply can:

26. Save you time & effort
Eliminate unnecessary calls and emails – Answer FAQs
Showcase your employer brand – Link to culture videos
Show you’re human – Embed a ‘thanks for applying’ video

27. Don’t forget to use merge tags
Merge tag: a placeholder that’ll be swapped out for
candidate-specific data in each message that goes out.
We all love to see and hear our own names.

28. What about rejected
applicants?

29. 39%Aren’t notified when not selected
The Talent Board 2013

30. It’s hard to turn people down
Make it as easy as you need to:
Bulk email? Okay.
Generic template? Okay.
Anonymous template? Okay.
Something is better than nothing. Just do it.

31. Plan a welcoming
guest experience
Interviews are stressful –

32. So help candidates
feel at ease
You’ll gain a more accurate impression
of who they’ll be as an employee.

33. SMS handy info right before
Make it easy to find you – Include your office address
Help them arrive on time – Give a traffic update
Save them a headache – Provide parking instructions
Give a little reminder – Reconfirm who they’ll be meeting

34. Something like this:
“John, looking forward to meeting you this morning!
We’re at 555 Richards St. Heads up: traffic on Hwy 1
is backed up.”
Tip: Save a template in your ‘Notes’ app to copy/paste
as a message, nice and easy.

35. Design the wait
Hand them a device with tabs open for:
An itinerary. LinkedIn profiles of people they’re meeting.
Video welcome from CEO. Culture videos.
Relevant company blog posts.

36. Help hiring managers charm
Prepare your managers with the info they need –
Share context in their calendar invites.

37. Like this:
“Joe’s a passive candidate. He’ll need to be convinced
to make the jump.
You’ll notice on his Facebook profile that like you,
he’s a Seahawks fan: http://facebook.com/joe…
Pre-screen questions and answers are attached –
please review beforehand so we don’t ask the same
things twice”

38. Thank the candidate
before they thank you
How about a tweet:
@johndoe great to have you stop by @acmecorp offices
earlier today!
Or what about a thank you card?

39. Okay, after the interview –

40. You shared the outcome with all
candidates, right?
When they’re this far in, it needs to be by phone.
And once that’s done, you can –

41. Send a candidate
feedback survey
Know how you’re doing. Learn your pain points.
Trade assumptions for data.

42. Survey web apps make it easy
SurveyMonkey
Google Forms
FluidSurvey ß my favorite

43. Different approaches
Broad measures (Net Promoter Score-style):
“How likely are you to refer someone to apply for
work with us?”
Specific measures (Comment card-style):
“Did the receptionist smile when you arrived?”

44. How to get them to do it
Keep it very short (and make sure they know it):
“Our 3-question feedback survey”
“Our 20-second feedback survey”
Tip: Add an incentive
“You’ll be entered into our monthly draw for a
$10 iTunes giftcard”

45. We’ve built a sample for you to try:
bit.ly/sample-candsurvey
Get the survey & invite email template:
bit.ly/candsurvey
What it could look like

46. Oh, and –
That feedback has no value if you don’t
listen to it and apply it.
Use it to get better.

47. See? Getting started isn’t hard
Just focus on: Communicating more.
Personalizing the experience. Showing them you care.
Continuously getting better.

48. Fancy new apps?
Emerging platforms?
Not necessary.
Just use the tools at your disposal better.

49. Thinking big
You’ve taken your first few steps.
Now how about designing the full experience?

50. Discover more
To dig deeper, you can:
Mystery shop (yourself, competitors)
Shadow candidates
Interview recent hires

51. Map the ideal experience
Create a candidate journey map. Take a page from the
customer experience management (#cx) notebook and
plan out every interaction, every step.

52. What an impression
(and great new hires)
you’re going to make.

53. “At the end of the day people
won’t remember what you said
or did, they will remember how
you made them feel.”
— Maya Angelou

54. Want to talk #CandX?
Don’t be shy. Say hello:
christian@recruitingsocial.com
@christiandepape
@recruitingsoc
recruitingsocial.com