In a world where candidate is king and skills are in short supply, it’s never been more important to provide a positive candidate experience.

In-house recruiters must meet their candidates’ expectations across all stages of the recruitment cycle.

From ease of application to feedback after interview, the right kind of candidate experience can give you the edge over competitors in your industry who are also seeking talent.

It can help you retain candidates in a talent pool – applicants who haven’t become disillusioned with your employer brand after a negative candidate experience.

It can lead to recommendations from candidates to other prospective employees.

But how do you get it right?

 

 

We’ve curated 5 of the best blog posts about candidate experience in our latest ‘Essential reads’ line-up. Enjoy!

1. Looking for the secret to great candidate communication?

We can only imagine how frustrating it must be for busy in-house recruitment teams to be lectured about the level of communication candidates should receive.

Feedback at stages X, Y & Z of the recruitment process. Consistent updates and acknowledgements. Detailed, constructive feedback. ‘When do we have time for this!?’ they must cry.

In this blog post, we take a detailed look and how candidate experience and communication can be improved with simple, practical tips.

Read it now: The secret to great candidate communication

2. Is your ATS providing first-class candidate experience?

An excellent read from our chums over Chatter, who share their thoughts about how using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) can enhance your candidate experience.

They examine how the technology has to be right in order to facilitate a positive candidate experience – but also how an ATS cannot achieve this in isolation.

For first-class candidate experience, technology has to be twinned with exceptional employer branding.

Read it now: Is your ATS providing a world-class experience for your candidates?

3. Spotlight on ATS integrations

Whilst we’re on the subject of recruitment technology, why don’t we take a stroll over to blog post number 3 on our candidate experience top reads?

The joy of recruitment software is that it can become even more effective when integrated with other systems. As such, ATS integrations can enhance your candidate experience.

Focusing on the roles video interviewing, psychometric testing and onboarding play in the candidate experience process, we share stats, tips and food for thought.

Read it now: Applicant Tracking System integrations

4. Shoulda, woulda, coulda

In-house recruiters know what they should be doing to provide a good candidate experience. But there’s also more that they could be doing.

In a guest blog partner, Sonru, we explore how recruitment teams can go the extra mile when it comes to their candidate experience offering.

Read it now: Candidate experience – what you should and could be doing

5. Is candidate experience more important than you think?

We’ve touched upon the reasons why candidate experience matters – securing you talent, ensuring happy applicants and customers… we know that.

But when you also factor in the emotional state of an application, good candidate experience suddenly becomes even more important.

Remembering that applicants may feel vulnerable or frustrated during their job-seeking process is essential – and a candidate’s emotional journey should be considered.

Read it now: Why good candidate experience might be more important than you realise

Find out more

8 essential reads: Employability initiatives

11 essential reads: Applicant Tracking Software

5 essential reads: A flexible workplace

About the author

Tristan Potter

From candidate experience to flexible working, and from supporting graduates to ATS reports; Hannah's written it all over the years! Hannah has contributed to publications as diverse as The Guardian, UK Recruiter and University Business. She is also the wordsmith behind our whitepapers and guides, from GDPR to Employee Volunteering.