Candidate Experience

Candidate experience, in a literal translation from English, refers to a candidate's feelings about the recruitment process they participated in. Everyone looking for a job forms an opinion about a company as an employer. This can be influenced by various factors, from the duration of the recruitment, through the ease of communication with recruiters and their approach to the candidate, to the impressions regarding the interview. To find out what applicants think about the entire process, companies conduct candidate experience surveys.

What is Candidate Experience?

What constitutes Candidate Experience?

Candidate experience is the sum of all experiences of an individual participating in the recruitment process. It might seem that it only, or mainly, concerns the impression the qualification meeting made on the candidate. In reality, however, candidate experience begins the moment a person shows interest in the company and lasts until onboarding. Of course, not everyone who applied to the company will be hired. For many people, this process may therefore end with negative feedback after the job interview – or just by sending their CV.

That's why it's extremely important for recruiters to pay just as much attention to properly preparing each stage of recruitment. Properly, meaning with the candidate's well-being in mind. To explain as clearly as possible how many situations a job seeker "collects" experiences related to a company as an employer, we will break down the example of an applicant whose recruitment process ended with onboarding. Their candidate experience included:

• Learning about the company's existence – perhaps as a customer or someone who came across an advertisement for the brand's product/service, or immediately in the context of an employer, i.e., when encountering a job advertisement or hearing about recruitment from a friend.
• The process of getting to know the company – checking its social media or looking at the website, possibly using its services/products if they were a customer of the brand even before becoming interested in it as an employer. In the latter case, they may already have experience related to the level of customer service or support, or, for example, shipping times for goods.
• The quality of the job advertisement – its visual clarity, the clarity of information, ease of application (e.g., availability of an application form versus an instruction to send a CV to XYZ email address).
• Waiting time for a response from the company.
• Level of communication with the recruiter – these are both larger and smaller factors, such as receiving directions from the recruiter to the company, receiving a thank-you message for submitting a CV, indicating a contact person in the recruitment process, etc.
• Waiting time for the interview day.
• Ease of travel/logging into the system for online recruitment.
• Ease of navigation within the building/system.
• Quality of the job interview – its duration, the behaviour of the recruiter/manager, the level of comfort at the meeting place/connection quality for online recruitment, etc.
• Waiting time for feedback.
• Quality of feedback.
• Waiting time for onboarding to begin.
• Quality of onboarding – level of training, availability and behaviour of the buddy, intensity of support received, level of company preparedness to welcome a new employee (e.g., availability of equipment and office accessories), etc.

There are quite a lot of points on the list, and at each of them, many different factors can influence what impression a given stage of recruitment makes on the candidate. Those responsible for the entire recruitment process therefore have many opportunities to present the company in the best possible light.

Ways to improve Candidate Experience

Here are a few ideas to help you improve your Candidate Experience

Quick response to applications

Candidates expect confirmation of application receipt within 24-48 hours. Automatic confirmations with information about next steps build a sense of professionalism and respect for the candidate's time.

Use an ATS recruitment system for this, which will send the message automatically!

Clear communication about recruitment stages

Presenting a clear timeline of the recruitment process allows candidates to better manage their expectations and other professional commitments.

Personalisation of communication

Using the candidate's name and referring to specific elements of their CV or portfolio shows that the company treats each application individually, not just as another number in the system.

Use tags when creating emails in the recruitment system for this.

Simplifying the application process

60% of candidates abandon an application if the process takes longer than 15 minutes. Simplifying forms, allowing applications via LinkedIn, or importing data from a CV significantly increases conversion.

Check how to design a user-friendly recruitment form.

Constructive feedback

Even when an application is rejected, candidates value specific tips for areas of development. This builds a positive employer brand in the market.

Use the rejection reasons feature and define different message content depending on the rejection reasons. If your ATS can't do this, check ours.

Flexible meeting times

Offering various options for interview times, including outside standard working hours, shows understanding for candidates working at other companies.

Thank-you email to the candidate for participating in the recruitment meeting

In the USA, it's customary for candidates to send thank-you notes for invitations and interviews. But what if we reversed the situation and thanked the candidate for coming?

Many recruiters notice an increasing number of "empty" recruitment meetings. Candidates don't turn up for scheduled meetings and don't even bother to cancel. Thanking a candidate for attending the meeting is a nice gesture that they will surely remember.

Incidentally, the email can include the expected date for information on the next stage of recruitment. A candidate who receives such an email, even if later rejected in the recruitment process, will certainly remember the company more positively.

Using technology in moderation

Chatbots can help answer basic questions, but key decisions and conversations should involve a human. A balance between automation and personalisation is crucial.

Accessibility and inclusivity of the process

Ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities, offering various forms of interviews (video, phone, in-person), considering cultural diversity in the selection process.

Why is it worth conducting Candidate Experience research?

We don't need to convince any HR professional that a positive recruitment experience for the candidate is super important. We all know that:

• 78% of candidates believe that how they are treated in the recruitment process reflects the employer's attitude towards employees (data from LinkedIn).
• 80-90% of candidates withdraw from further participation in the recruitment process due to an unpleasant recruitment experience (data from Recruiting Brief).
• 72% of candidates who have negative recruitment experiences share them online or with friends (data from CareerArc).

Candidate experience research is often a company's only chance to learn candidates' opinions about it as an employer. Few applicants spontaneously inform the recruiter or manager about what they liked or disliked about the entire process. However, they may share this information elsewhere – for example, on employer review portals, Facebook groups for job seekers, or with family and friends. And what benefits does such knowledge bring to the company?

An employer can significantly increase the effectiveness of their recruitment simply by adapting it to the real needs of candidates. If the process is not simply humane, it will not convince a potential good employee that this is an interesting place to work. Because what should they expect from working with a company where they couldn't park for 15 minutes and almost missed their interview because no one told them they needed to park at XYZ location? Why would they want to come for an interview if they received the invitation two weeks of silence after sending their CV?

Candidate experience research is also an opportunity to learn how the company's recruitment process compares to competitors. Nothing prevents asking candidates in a survey to compare their experiences with potential impressions from other recruitments.

Moreover, conducting such research itself impacts candidate experience. Asking a candidate about what they considered the strong and weak points of the recruitment process they just participated in signals to them that the company took them seriously. It informs them that their opinion matters to the employer, and that the employer strives to meet candidates' expectations and improve for them. The research is therefore a form of recognition and an expression of respect for individuals who decided to apply to the company.

How to conduct Candidate Experience research?

There are several ways to measure Candidate Experience.

Popular tools for measuring Candidate Experience:

Recruiter response time

This refers to how quickly after a candidate submits their CV or performs an action (e.g., participates in an interview), feedback from the recruiter appears. In the tomHRM recruitment module, you can easily check when a candidate was contacted – either by email or phone.

Candidate survey assessing Candidate Experience

Simple, easy, fast, and measurable. A Candidate Experience survey is one of the most effective methods for measuring candidate satisfaction. The most convenient option here will be an electronic survey sent as a link along with a thank you for participating in the recruitment. This is an excellent opportunity to invite the candidate to express their opinion on a given recruitment process. It's important not to delay sending such a message too long – a mass mailing to everyone after the entire recruitment is completed might mean that one person receives an email two days after feedback, and another after a month, when they will no longer remember many details.

When creating candidate surveys, be careful about:

• central tendency bias (when the respondent averages opinions)
• mood effect (when their assessment is influenced by their mood – e.g., related to the rejection of their candidacy).

It's also worth additionally motivating candidates to express their opinions – for example, by providing access to an exclusive knowledge base, invitations to webinars, or even extra gadgets.

What should such a survey look like?

It is certainly worth including both open and closed questions, including "rate on a scale of 1 to 10...". The issues worth addressing include assessing the level of communication with the company representative, indicating the strengths and weaknesses of the entire recruitment process, evaluating the duration and complexity of the process, and determining whether the candidate would recommend the recruitment to friends looking for a job.

If you are looking for a simpler solution, you can opt for an NPS survey.

Net Promoter Score

An adaptation of the consumer loyalty indicator (in the case of Candidate Experience, it refers to how many candidates would recommend a job offer at your company to colleagues). The Net Promoter Score is a continuum from -100 to +100, where -100 means no candidates would recommend the company, and +100 means every candidate would. A score of 0 indicates a good Net Promoter Score, and +50 is an expression of excellent Candidate Branding.

The easiest way to measure Net Promoter Score is by asking a simple question: "Based on your experience, would you recommend participating in the recruitment process at our company to a friend?"

Net Promoter Score can be used as a standalone KPI in Candidate Experience research.

Our survey and company test creator will also allow you to conduct Candidate Experience research among candidates!

Less obvious ways to measure Candidate Experience

Several other factors are also linked to Candidate Experience:

Company career page analytics

If you publish job offers on your website and have an entire section dedicated to careers at your company, check visitor statistics and pay attention to whether candidates read the information you publish (average time spent on the page) and how they navigate it (user path). Google Analytics will provide you with the necessary information.

Researching spontaneous candidate reactions

Some candidates spontaneously share feedback after receiving recruitment information. These are usually positive opinions (which is why you shouldn't rely solely on them). However, it's worth checking how many such opinions appear. Such individuals will also be more inclined to complete our survey.

Job offer withdrawal rate

Every withdrawal can be caused by a negative recruitment experience. Therefore, it is worth monitoring the withdrawal rate and trying to understand its reasons.

Monitoring online reviews

On many websites, candidates share their opinions on the recruitment process. This is a good tool, especially for checking negative reviews that a candidate might not want to voice directly or even through a survey. However, it's worth remembering that due to a lack of verification, these opinions could be a result of frustration or even – in extreme cases – actions by unfair competitors.

The Candidate Experience KPI is not difficult to measure, and it is extremely important. Don't forget about it!