You see, neither technology nor brand in isolation can create a truly world class applicant experience. It’s the combination of the two that’ll really help you stand out from the crowd. Get the combination right and you’ll be in great shape when it comes to convincing the very best talent to join your business.

So it’s really about fab technology enabling a fab experience. But a fab experience for everyone, not just your candidates, your resourcing/HR team and your hiring managers too.

Each and every touch-point throughout the process is an opportunity to sell yourself to your applicants and build your internal credibility with hiring managers. How do you do it?

Here are our top 5 recommendations:

1) Get the process right. One size doesn’t fit all so tailor the system to meet the needs of each role type. Get it working hard to help you stream the candidates so you and your hiring managers get to spend the most time with the strongest applicants; and don’t make those candidates you’re unlikely to be interested in jump through hoops before they find out. Treat them well – you might be interested in them for future recruitment.

2) Keep it simple. Help candidates find what they’re looking for as easily as possible. There’s nothing more frustrating then clicking on a vacancy link to land on a job search page and having to track down the role you wanted to apply for in the first place. Test links and remove any that are no longer live. Keep reviewing the candidate journey to remove any unnecessary obstacles. Make sure your hiring managers get to see the best of the best – not just the ones who had the tenacity not to give up!

3) Make it consistent. Make sure your ATS can carry your visual identity, it’ll help you maintain a seamless experience and give it an ownable hallmark that will set you apart from your competitors. After all, an application form that’s dull and boring isn’t going to help you create the impression that’ll really engage them in all you have to offer.

4) Talk to them like human beings. Make sure your tone of voice makes its way through to your ATS too. Confirmation emails, form field text and everything in between should be reviewed and rewritten to ensure that communications arewarm, friendly and on brand.

5) Keep improving. Approach your ATS as an iterative project. The first big step is to get it implemented, but once it’s in, don’t walk away! Keep listening to feedback from everyone, expand your knowledge of the system, test it for yourself and chat to your partners about how you can make the process even better.

About Chatter

Chatter has collaborated with the good folks at Hireserve for the past 4 years across a variety of client projects. We help businesses like O2, Global, MTV and First Group to build and manage their reputation as employers by improving the way they communicate with talent.

If you’d like to find out more about Chatter, check us out at:

Welovechatter.com  |  Facebook.com/welovechatter  |  twitter.com/welovechatter

Find out more:

Read: How does your careers site affect candidate experience?

Read: What you should be doing for great candidate experience

Discover: How social and mobile can aid candidate engagement

About the author

Tristan Potter

Tristan has a decade's worth of experience writing content and copy for organisations across Bristol and the Southwest of England. He has written on a diverse range of topics, including technology, philosophy, politics, and recruitment. His writing has appeared in The Drum, HR Grapevine, and The Guardian, among other publications. He joined Hireserve in March 2022.