Top 3 Factors That Impact the Candidate Experience

In today’s hiring climate, having a hiring process that puts the candidate first can make all the difference. After all, research shows that 75% of people said that a positive candidate experience influenced their decision to accept the offer.

There are 3 key factors that impact the candidate experience: the people, the process, and the technology. Below, we break these factors down and talk about what you can do to ensure quality hires time after time.

75% of people said that a positive candidate experience influenced their decision to accept the offer.

1. The people on your team

When it comes to the candidate process, having the right people on your hiring team is essential. Just as companies use the interview to get to know the candidate, the candidate in turn uses the interview to get to know the company. Therefore, it’s important to properly prepare the interview team ahead of time to ensure they successfully showcase the brand.

Your interview team may come across as disorganized if multiple rounds of interviews ask the same questions repeatedly. Ensure each member of your team is responsible for a specific area of questioning by having a succinct strategy in place. Once each interview is conducted, it’s useful to store all interviewer notes in a central location as a reference. Taking the time to outline a clear team strategy ahead of time can ensure a smooth interview process from start to finish.

2. The process itself

You don’t want to have a long, drawn-out process as it discourages applicants from sticking through to the end.

The interview process itself is vital to a positive candidate experience. You don’t want to have a long, drawn-out process as it discourages applicants from sticking through to the end. Special attention needs to be given to the timeline and number of rounds of interviews. The key to a successful interview is structure and timeliness, both of which are optimized by having a strong process in place.

Having a bank of questions with a specific end goal in mind will help your interviewers and candidates stay on task throughout the interview, respecting everyone’s time in the process. This helps to eliminate asking the same questions multiple times or forgetting to ask a question altogether. It also helps to keep your process moving forward, as everyone has a clear understanding of where they are at in the pipeline and what step will come next.

3. The technology you use

The technology you deploy for your talent acquisition goals can really improve the overall interview process. Whether it’s one cohesive system, or a combination of tech resources, these tools should work to operationalize and optimize your overall hiring process. From automating data entry to improving team collaboration, investing in the right technology makes all the difference.

Relying on recruiting software allows the hiring team to focus more on the human side of the interview process and less on things like data entry, scheduling, and workflow management. Without the right technology, communication could be lacking between teams or candidate engagement can drop off without a central location to manage email exchanges. It’s important to assess exactly what areas of your hiring process could be enhanced with technology and then evaluate the different options from there.

For more tips and tricks in these 3 areas, listen to this episode of the POPS! The People Ops Podcast hosted by Josh Jones, Manager of Talent Acquisition at Employ, Inc.