A Quick Guide to Creating a Positive Candidate Experience
A positive candidate experience makes applicants feel appreciated and respected, which improves the chances of them being enthusiastic to work in your business. By following these basic checks while hiring, you can stand out as a company that cares, gives more confidence to clients, and sustains your industry reputation. So strap in people, and don’t forget to take down notes.
Cut down on jargon
In some fields, it’s hard to avoid using words or terms that only a handful of people understand. This is true especially if you must adhere to industry-specific language while writing job descriptions.
However, do your best to keep your job description free of unnecessary jargon, written in clear and concise language. Avoid the usage of superfluous or shallow terms that would reflect poorly on your company brand. In addition, make your leadership team look like the people you would want to work for.
Be Realistic
An entry-level position that requires 5+ years’ experience, a UX role that requires the candidate to know how to code, or a marketing role that requires candidates to have a skillset that the entire department of Proctor & Gamble would envy. We’ve all seen ads like this.
Understanding the profession and specialism, the scope of the role, and the business requirements, and then articulating these in a clear and concise job post is critical if you want to attract the right talent.
Be Transparent
Would you enter negotiations to buy a house without knowing its value? Would you put a listing up to sell your car without adding the features of the vehicle? Of course, you wouldn’t.
Similarly, expecting educated, qualified candidates to take your business seriously and see you as a winning bet if you don’t specify important details like compensation is a stretch. If the salary is so competitive, advertise it and communicate that you are a business that values its key staff.
By being transparent and advising on package details upfront saves for any frights later in the process, where expectations might be polarized between parties. Whenever possible, add the salary or compensation to your post and make your business look like a place you’d want to work.
No Ghosting
It is difficult to give personal feedback to everyone who applies to a job post. At SGP, we get thousands of stage-one applicants for a role. But, once we get to the screening and interview stage, the importance of two-way communication is always in our minds – we make sure that feedback is given at every stage.
Ghosting a candidate if they have not made the cut for the next stage of the recruitment process is detrimental to their well-being. It reflects badly on your company and it’s not nice. It’s important to show people that you care.
Respectful Rejections
Every candidate won’t be the right fit for a role. Additionally, despite having a handful of brilliant candidates, you might have only one role to fill in your team. When you’re conveying a rejection, let them down gently. Because you know what’s worse than making that call? It’s taking that call. By adhering to a respectful process for rejecting job applicants you’re not only being decent and human, you’re also being gentle on someone’s self-esteem after it takes a beating.
Forget how it makes your business look, it’s just cool to be kind.
