On LinkedIn, a seasoned recruiter posed an interesting question to other recruiters, “What is the thing you believed ten years ago that you no longer believe today?”
There were some great responses:
Yet one provocative response led us to reflect:
Intriguing, right? In 2020, most companies say that customer experience is very or extremely important to their organizations. But many of those same companies may be leaving candidate experience to chance.
Colleague, Collaborator, Competitor, Customer
At some point or another, we have all been a candidate. At the end of the candidate journey with your potential employer, you likely emerged as one of four things: a colleague, collaborator, competitor, or a customer. Quite possibly you were a collaborator, competitor, or customer before or during the application process. BNO recently found that nearly 20% of applicants to a Fortune 100 employer were also customers. Virgin Media famously studied the correlation between customer and candidate experience and found that a bad candidate experience was costing the company $5M annually in lost customer revenue.
Power Up Your Candidate Experience Quotient: Show Up, Follow Up, and Pony Up to Power Up
SHOW UP.
With a Net Promoter Score mindset, you understand that you are creating detractors and advocates for your brand at every step in this journey. One way to show up – and to create advocates – is to be the type of organization to which the best candidates want to hitch their careers.
When candidates decline and employees leave, “to whom do you lose?” The answers that lie in your decline surveys and exit interviews can reveal new insights on how your organization can show up for your ideal candidates.
FOLLOW UP.
Just do it. Hard stop.
Thank them for their interest and set clear expectations on the next steps and timing. If they are not selected, you owe them a call or a note that is personalized, authentic, and empathetic.
Ghosting has become a stunningly common problem in the recruitment world and, of late, has become more common among companies and candidates. Build a strong candidate experience foundation by fostering a culture within your recruiting team and company that is designed to build promoters even among the disappointed.
Source: LinkedIn
PONY UP.
Referred candidates onboard faster, perform better, stay longer, and ultimately provide better ROI on your recruiting time and money.
Craft your employee referral program so that the experience is as meaningful as the bounty you offer. When an associate in your organization refers a friend for employment, they have said, “I believe in our company, culture, and this candidate. This is the kind of person with whom I want to work.”
Consider when someone is referred, what is the communication plan and role of the person who brought them to us? How do you maximize this experience for your referring employee?
Sources: HR Technologist, REFFIND
POWER UP.
When our culture reflects our values and our values say our employees are our greatest asset, we can see the direct line between investing in our candidate experience and our company’s bottom line. A great candidate experience leads to great teams, which manifest in a thriving business and enthusiastic promoter scores.
SHOW UP + FOLLOW UP + PONY UP = POWER UP
Need help maximizing your candidate experience success equation? We’re here to help and we’d love to brainstorm creative ideas to create a world-class candidate experience for your organization. Contact us to start a conversation.
Special thanks to 3i Blog contributor Richard Swartz for framing this important topic and contributing insights
