Things Hiring Managers Should Know About the Candidate Experience

As a hiring manager, it can get easy to be caught up primarily in the needs of your company. It’s your job – you’re looking out for your team and trying to get the best talent you can to grow! You probably don’t take a lot of time to think about what a candidate is experiencing when you’re too busy trying to decide what you think of them during the hiring process. 

Why is the Candidate Experience and Hiring Process Important?

Considering the candidate's experience during the hiring process can be a huge asset to your company, and it can help you find new hires who are engaged, prepared, and ready to go the distance with your company!

Here are just a few reasons why you may want to cultivate a positive experience in your company’s hiring process. 

Create a Favorable Impression of Your Company

Your hiring process is the first indication any talent will get of what makes your company’s structure, management, and atmosphere special. As a result, building a relationship with your staff starts at first contact, not after they’re hired! They may retain a bad first impression they got during a negative candidate experience, which can make them struggle more to commit to your company and integrate into the team.  

By contrast, a favorable first impression shows your staff how you shine – whether your company culture is particularly organized, laid-back, passionate, or supportive. Candidates can see this right off the bat, so be sure to play to your strengths as a business.  

Compete for Top Talent and Better-Quality Hires

Just as you’re competing with other companies for the best talent, the best talent is likely also weighing the pros and cons of each company for which they apply. If job seekers have a positive candidate experience during application, early communication, interviewing, and onboarding, they’re much more likely to choose you over a similar company! Plus, they may even be more likely to stick around for longer and more willing to commit to the long haul if they recognize that your company values their unique experience.  

Save Your Business Time and Money

The process of searching for talent can be difficult and disappointing at times, with companies often hitting dead ends in interviewing or struggling to find qualified and interested applicants. This recruitment process can be made even more difficult by poor practices in hiring and onboarding. For instance, imagine that your company found great talent and went through several rounds of interviewing, only for them to turn down the job offer because they felt that your recruiting process was disorganized or inconsiderate of their time. Streamlining your hiring process and orienting it around the candidate's experience can help avoid frustrations with wasted time and money during a talent search. 

Things That a Hiring Manager Should Know About the Candidate Experience

As we’ve explored the benefits of a good candidate experience during a job search, below is a list of things for hiring managers to keep in mind as they try to find their next great employee. 

1) First Impressions Matter

First impressions are hugely important in business, and for many potential candidates, they are the frame through which they will see your company - even after they’ve been hired! This holds true in both positive and negative ways; people who had a bad candidate experience during the hiring process may have doubts about the company even after hiring, and candidates who had a good first impression of your company are likely to give the company the benefit of the doubt if things don’t turn out. 

2) Candidates Will Value Transparency and Honesty

On the flip side, while it may be tempting to hide, downplay, or minimize things that you suspect candidates may not want to hear in a job description, it does not pay off in the long run to present a false face for new hires and candidates. If hired, they will find out soon enough that their impression of the work was false, which can lead to frustration. Candidates will value being told “less than favorable” aspects of your company as long as the information is presented upfront and in an honest manner. Honesty can also help with building trust during the hiring process, which is the basis of any strong employee-employer relationship.  

3) Engagement Begins with a Great Application Process

You can get your new hires to start off engaged – and stay engaged – with a great candidate experience and application process. If it seems like, right off the bat, your company cares about their experience, values their time, and wants to help them integrate into the team, these new employees will be more likely to be engaged with their work and the company as a whole! This work engagement can really spell great things for a business, including better work output, less conflict, more trust, and more cooperation between employees.  

4) Keep Candidates Engaged with Good Communication

The hiring process at any business can take a lot of time, and to some extent, this is difficult to mitigate. After all, you want to take your time so you can select the best person for the job!

However, you can help mitigate a poor candidate experience and some of the frustration that comes from waiting by keeping these candidates in the loop as much as possible. This can mean a lot of different things, from giving them a specific timeline in which they’ll hear back from you and sticking to that, to scheduling interviews quickly and efficiently. In the absence of any regular communication, some qualified candidates may assume that you’re not moving forward, and they may opt to go with a different company that got back to them sooner, so be sure to keep them in the know from start to finish! 

5) Make Applying Easy Through Software Automation

Much of the hiring process has gotten simpler on both the employer’s and employee’s end in recent years, primarily thanks to the widespread adoption of online application software. If you’re selecting a software solution for job applications, it can be helpful to opt for software with a lot of reach and strong UI features. Applying for jobs can be tedious or even impossible on poorly designed websites! 

6) If You Aren't Moving Forward, Let a Candidate Know Immediately

Just as hiring candidates costs you time and money, applying to jobs costs candidates time and money! They may have had to travel to interview in person, take time off of work, or miss out on other opportunities in order to meet with you. If you choose not to hire them, try to be as considerate of their time as possible and tell them as soon as your team has made the decision so they can move on and look for other opportunities.  

7) Providing Interview Feedback is Valuable

If you choose not to hire a candidate but you saw potential or you noticed a few largely fixable issues in their interview, it can be really great to offer that feedback to them following an interview.  

Candidates are often in the dark about why they might not have landed a job, which can prevent them from fixing their mistakes and making themselves more hirable. Plus, maybe your candidate can re-apply later on down the line once they’ve filled in the gaps in their resume, experience, or interviewing ability. 

Horizon is a Trusted Partner for Hiring, Onboarding, Payroll, etc.

Horizon is proud to be your reliable partner for all your HR needs, offering comprehensive solutions for hiring, onboarding, payroll, and much more. We can simplify the complexities of workforce management, ensuring seamless processes and legal compliance at every step! Trust our team at Horizon to support your business with expert services designed to streamline your HR operations and enhance employee satisfaction from start to finish! 

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