Why You Should Offer the Candidate a Great Experience
For generations, a tolerable candidate experience was accepted because in the minds of most people, this was “how the system worked”. Hiring managers believed that theirs was the only opinion that mattered. Candidates believed that they may only get hired because of an introduction by friends or family. But with the turn of the year 2015, we are realizing that candidates may have the upper hand; they have a choice. Tight job markets have created a lack of expertly skilled labor who have the choice of job offers and will take their talent elsewhere.
Offering a good candidate experience has become not a luxury, but a mandate for organizations. A great candidate experience will be needed to attract millennials, passive candidates and to amplify your organizational brand. Treating candidates poorly is risky business as more than half (52%) of candidates across the world said that a negative candidate experience would impact their buying products or services in the future from that organization.
Millennials will make up 75 percent of the workforce by 2025. Employers struggle to attract and retain millennials without rethinking their candidate hiring experience. Millennials really want something other than profit; they want to focus on people and purpose. Attracting this top talent and retaining them will take offering a “partnership” and not merely a position that will be easily replaceable. A good experience while going through the search, interview and hiring process will set a company apart while helping the Generation Y make a lifetime and lifestyle choice that’s personal to them.
Passive candidates make up about 80% of the workforce. They can require kid-gloves while in the hiring process and can be quite hard to sway to leave a current position. Creating a great organization brand and networking with passive candidates will help pipeline these prospective employees when it’s time to hire.
Your company brand is the content strategy that you develop to drive people to your business (ie. Passive candidates and Millennials). Amplify this brand to build your competitive advantage in the war on talent. Drive candidates from your social pages directly to your network. Candidates are really candidates before they are applicants.
The quality of the candidate experience is at the heart of today’s hiring practice. It is a measurable indicator of how effective your HR strategy is. How many candidates applied through your network? How many of your jobs were shared and liked, your stories, events and blogs? Ensuring an optimal candidate experience will aid in getting to know your candidates better and improves the quality of the hire. By improving the candidate experience you’ll reduce time-to-fill and cost-to-fill jobs in the future.
Should you need additional information in this area, please contact a SESI recruiter.