The Candidate Experience and How It Impacts Your Company

Take a moment to think back to the last time you looked for a job. The last time you navigated a company’s career site. The last time you filled out an application and waited patiently for a response.

How was the experience? Do you remember feeling frustrated or lost? Could you locate the company’s career page? Did the application have more blanks than a Wheel of Fortune bonus puzzle without “RSTLNE” or more instructions than the board game.

What Is the Candidate Experience?

Every potential candidate will have a unique experience with your company, but we can identify the fundamental aspects of the “candidate experience.”

The candidate experience is everything. It is the totality of every interaction between and activity involving your company and a candidate.

T​he candidate experience is all-encompassing and involves any of the following:

- Navigating your career site

- Applying to a job posting

- Meeting a company repres

entative at a career fair

- Interacting with employees

- Going in for an interview

• Completing the onboarding process

• Every stage of the recruiting process can have a positive or negative effect on the candidate experience and, in turn, a positive or negative effect on how candidates perceive your company.

  ‘The Experience’ Perspective

  With that in mind, I think we can break down a positive candidate â€‹experience based on three ideals:

  1. Clarity and ease of the initial application.
  2. Keeping the candidate well-informed throughout the recruitment process.
  3. Treating the candidate with respect as a human and not a name on a piece of paper.

  ​Every recruiting move you make as a company should fall in line with these principles the same way your company thinks about the “customer experience” when designing, creating, and updating products and services (especially the third one).