One of the best ways an organization can invest in its talent pipeline starts at the beginning: the hiring process itself.
What does a standard hiring process look like?
- Write a job listing
- Gather applications
- Screen resumes
- Conduct screening calls
- Administer assessment
- Conduct in-person interviews
- Run background and reference checks
- Make a job offer
The process itself seems relatively straightforward, but if you think the bare minimum is good enough, your company can miss out on a higher caliber of talent and a positive reputation in your industry.
Put in effort up front to reap the benefits in the future. Here are a few ways you can create a better candidate experience in your hiring process.
Write A Clear Job Listing
The most important part of a clear job listing is the details. Here are a few questions you should answer:
- What is the job title?
- What are the job responsibilities?
- What is the salary range for the role?
- What benefits are included?
- What skills and experience are required for success?
- What is your company’s work-from-home policy?
- What is a summary of the job’s day-to-day experiences and responsibilities?
- What are your company’s values? What is the organizational culture like?
Some of those points might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised. Many companies attempt to dance around details in their job listings, avoiding listing salary ranges or time off policies. This can set up a tone of distrust in your first interaction with job seekers; honesty will save both your hiring manager and your potential employees time and effort.
Another point to consider is the tone of your job description. It’s an opportunity to let your company’s voice and energy shine, but overdoing it can turn candidates away. Indeed shared that 24 percent of applicants with a college degree were put off by the tone of a job description, while LinkedIn revealed that 57 percent of respondents were put off by jargon in a job description, and 64 percent wouldn’t apply for a role if they didn’t understand the title listed.
A job listing might be a candidate’s first impression of your company. Don’t waste it!
Emphasize Transparent Communication
Improving communication might be the most important aspect of creating a better candidate experience. If you can only focus on one thing, make it communication!
Clearly outline the expectations and length of your hiring process in the first phone call. Multiple interviews are a significant investment for job seekers. Making a hasty hiring decision is ill-advised, but so is wasting your time and candidates’ time.
Provide regular updates on the status of their application and the next steps. Try to move the interview process as quickly as possible so candidates don’t accept another position while waiting to hear back from you. Explain the purpose and significance of each interview; a conversation with HR is for general screening, while a final interview might be to measure the culture fit with their new boss.
When administering an assessment as part of the hiring process, take time to help candidates understand the purpose behind it. Many people write off ‘personality tests’ as junk science, so it’s crucial to make sure that your assessment provider is research-backed and legally compliant for the hiring process. Assessments should be used as only a portion for the hiring process to stay compliant with hiring guidelines. They should be used to better understand the candidate and their fit within the role, never as a decision-maker or a way to discriminate.
You can’t give every candidate a job, but you can give them an excellent experience with your company. Offer constructive feedback; if they take it, make sure to give actionable evaluations that will help them succeed in future interviews. This can leave job seekers with a final positive impression of your company. Finally, encourage them to apply for other positions in the future if you see potential.
Streamline The Process
Don’t add obstacles for job candidates!
The same LinkedIn article referenced above shared that 90 percent of qualified applicants at Fortune 500 companies dropped out if the application process was unwieldy.
Make sure that your website is up-to-date, quick to load, and easy to understand. Avoid asking for repeated information; if you ask candidates to upload their resumes, don’t require them to copy and paste the information into another form.
Don’t require links to social media, but make sure there is a space to share if the candidate wants to, as well as a place to upload work samples or link to their portfolios.
Create A Positive Interview Experience
You’ve screened your job candidates and made some crucial decisions. Now it’s time to move into in-person interviews!
All of the work you’ve done up until this point contributes to a better candidate experience; your applicants will be forming an impression of your company. It’s up to your interviewers to finalize a positive impression while gathering the information needed to make a hiring decision.
Give interviewers ample time to meet job applicants. Don’t cram interviews back to back; give the interviewer an opportunity to be punctual, fully briefed, and prepared for the interview beforehand. Allow for small talk and getting to know each other keeping in mind behavioral styles, and set a friendly, confident tone for the interview and the company culture overall.
Ask all candidates similar questions; staying consistent in every interview will help your decision makers see the areas where one candidate is a better fit for the role than the others.
Make sure to provide your interviewers with training on unconscious bias and active listening. Demonstrating fair and unbiased interviewing techniques also requires an avoidance of illegal questions, like those related to age, gender, sexuality, race, religion, marital status, veteran status, and disability. Ensure that your interviewers understand why those topics are not allowed; this inviting, fair environment will help create a positive atmosphere for all job candidates.
Ask For Feedback
Finally, remember to ask for feedback as you offer it in the interview process! This is an easy way to gather valuable data and discover pain points in your hiring process. It also demonstrates a commitment to ongoing improvement and responsiveness to candidate needs.
Try to gather this feedback in a customized way. An automated request for a survey is unlikely to inspire someone to share, so try a personalized email from the hiring manager that mentions specific details from their interviews. Don’t get overly personal, but let candidates know you remember them as individuals and value them, even if they weren’t ultimately the right fit for the role in question.
This unique insight into company culture isn’t something that you want to miss out on. Job candidates can offer an outside perspective, and their insights will provide opportunities to strengthen the company culture and brand of your business. Asking for feedback empowers open discussion while creating a better candidate experience for the future.
Creating A Better Candidate Experience
Focusing on improving the hiring process attracts top talent, provides clarity for job seekers and interviews alike, and develops company culture in a positive direction.
By focusing on transparency, communication, efficiency, and fairness throughout every stage of the hiring process, employers can demonstrate their commitment to creating a positive and inclusive work environment. They can also develop their talent pipeline and increase chances of high employee engagement and retention for new hires.
If you want to improve your hiring process to create a better candidate experience, you need the right tools. TTI Success Insights can help. Contact us here to get the information you need.
