The tech industry is getting more competitive every waking day, raising concerns for technical recruiters and hiring managers. As a result, the responsibility for finding the right fit is more than ever. To stay ahead of the game, organizations are constantly trying to elevate their candidate experience.
Why?
After ‘The Great Resignation,’ there’s an emergence of ‘The Great Rehire’ as suggested by Lever. This has become the central focus for organizations for leveraging candidate experience.
In a survey conducted by Brandon Hall Group, 25% of employers are willing to improve the assessment experience, and 27% are willing to improve the interview experience.
What is candidate experience?
The definition of candidate experience is the series of emotions felt through the entire recruitment process. This includes communication with HR managers and recruiters, quality of assessments, and time management. The cumulation of qualitative and quantitative feelings of the candidate is known as the candidate experience.
Importance of candidate experience
In today’s talent-driven market, candidate experience has become extremely important. It determines business outcomes directly and indirectly. Therefore, providing a positive candidate experience is the need of the hour at every stage of the recruitment.
Benefits of positive candidate experience
A positive candidate experience has an equal amount of benefits for recruiters as well. Let’s look at some of them:
Contact to Contract
It basically means the conversion of a candidate to an employee. By having good communication from the very first point of contact, recruiters can build a positive relationship. This will ultimately help you decrease your time to fill due to the lesser time taken for a response.
Alleviating the journey
The entire hiring process is hectic. So valuing candidates’ time and effort will result in enriching their experience. By automating technical screening and programming tests for hiring, recruiters can cut down on manual chores and diminish human error. Keeping it flexible and transparent also alleviates the hiring journey.
Opportunity for Employer Branding
A positive candidate experience can also be a great aggregator for employee branding. This heavily depends on the level of satisfaction received by the candidate during the hiring process. According to Ideal, 73% of candidates who were satisfied with the recruitment process are more likely to refer others, re-apply and make purchases as applicable.
Increased profitability and business growth
Candidate experience can actually make or break your business. A positive candidate experience will ultimately lead to generating revenues for companies. Because, at the core, a positive experience means a positive outcome. In recent times candidates’ needs have changed, so organizations should align with the demands and provide a positive candidate experience. The much-talked-about Virgin mobile case exemplifies how a bad experience can ruin your company.
Challenges of positive candidate experience
On the other hand, negative candidate experience can be damaging to the organization. Let us understand some of the main challenges of positive candidate experience:
1. Communication gap
Improper communication can lead to a negative candidate experience, such as delayed responses during the hiring journey and unclear communication of the job role and expectations. These are the hindrances that can ruin your chance of hiring the top tech talent. According to Talentegy reports, 63% of candidates are very likely to be dissatisfied with the level of communication after the application process.
2. Longer time to hire
If your hiring process takes longer, an increase in the candidate drop-off rate is very likely. It can make candidates search for an alternative position and end up with your competitors. In addition, it will get more expensive due to the amount of time included in the cost per hire. A longer time to hire doesn’t mean a quality hire, as stated earlier, candidates will drop off if the wait is too long. The candidates feel unappreciated, and according to CareerBuilder, 83% of candidates say that providing the timeline of the entire hiring process is a great practice and is likely to improve the candidate experience.
3. Bad interview experience
The way candidates think about hiring is not as same as the recruiters. So, when a qualified candidate goes for an interview, it establishes the first impression about the people they will be working with. A bad interview experience reflects poorly on the organization itself and management. Hiring managers should be proactive and update themselves on the current trends and fundamental practices to improve interview quality. As per LinkedIn, 83% of candidates are highly likely to change their minds about the job role or organization due to a negative interview experience. In comparison, 87% of candidates say a good interview experience can make them like the job role or organization they initially disliked.
4. Improper pipeline management
Proper regulation of the talent pipeline is necessary to keep track of the hiring journey. Humanize the hiring process by developing a relationship with the candidate. This can be beneficial for optimizing the talent for the proper job role. As a technical recruiter, when you’re hiring a full-stack developer, you need to consider that the skills should align with the job requirements. This ultimately boils down to proper management of the talent pipeline. Keep in mind that your hiring affects the overall business outcome. Therefore choose the right tools and manage according to your company’s needs.
Top 5 practices that enhance candidate experience
Now that we know our enemies, it’s time to prepare for combat. These are the five best practices for enhancing candidate experience in tech hiring to land you the right fit.
1. Improving the workforce
To enhance your positive candidate experience you should definitely invest in your existing workforce. Despite the ongoing battle between upskilling and reskilling it is very important to proactively seek ways of upgradation. Reskilling your existing workforce is not only good for internal mobility but it plays a huge role in positive candidate experience. When a candidate comes across your work culture and growth habits, it will create a good impression and will encourage them to actively seek opportunities in your organization. It is also a great retention strategy too.
2. Talent sourcing efforts
Did you know that applications with over 45 questions have an abandonment rate of nearly 90%?
It is given that sourcing habits define the hiring success rate. If your job description is not impactful there will be no existence of further stages. Therefore, sourcing your tech candidates correctly is the key. A combination of traditional and unconventional sourcing techniques is considered best. Nowadays, everything is about the community. So, knowing your talent means where they are hanging out. Community platforms like StackOverflow and Github are every developer’s go-to. When it comes to providing a positive candidate experience, technical recruiters and hiring managers should always think from the candidate’s perspective. This will help you understand their psyche and land the right tech talent.
3. Coding tests for interviews
Like we discussed earlier, interviews hold a high degree of importance that can be crucial to offer acceptance. After the completion of sourcing and screening, the employer needs to ace the interviews. That’s why it is paramount that they keep learning and practicing techniques for improving technical interview skills. One of the major interview rounds is the coding tests for interviews, this will help the employer to understand and analyze their skill in real-time. Be flexible and transparent on choices, whether it is a take-home assignment or a live coding test. This will invoke a positive notion about the work culture. And ultimately give them a positive candidate experience. Reduce bias with automated technical assessment platforms and fasten your recruitment journey.
4. Follow up with a candidate feedback survey
According to Glassdoor, companies who are able to provide positive candidate experience are 70% likely to advance in their quality of hires. Implementing candidate feedback surveys is a great way to track the effectiveness of your hiring process. Present the candidates with a survey at pre and post-hiring because the more data you collect, the better analysis can be made to improve your organization’s hiring process. It is also great for branding opportunities, humanizes the process, and recognizes the quality of your talent pool.
5. Power of structured onboarding
The onboarding process for a tech candidate is very important. According to shakebugs, the onboarding process starts from the hiring stage itself. 81% of hires believe that they should be given the details of the role in the pre-onboarding process. When you’re onboarding a developer it is crucial that they go through all the internal systems from deployment to tools and security to guidance. This will help you retain the talent for longer years by making them feel valued. And in return, they are more likely to bring you quality referrals. In the end, bringing growth and success to your organization.
Insights from Candidates
Tech hiring is challenging for both candidates and technical recruiters. That’s the reason why automating your hiring process can yield better results. It gives you more time and helps you to make lesser errors. The best way to measure your candidate experience is by receiving reviews.
Take a look at what candidates themselves are saying about us (don’t worry, it goes well)
Ready to take your candidate experience to the next level?
Whether you’re a tech recruiter looking for an easy-to-use and fast assessment tool or a hiring manager trying to nail the interview process. At WeCP, we’ve got it all. Don’t forget to use our candidate feedback survey feature to enhance your candidate experience. Empower your hiring journey by signing up for free today!
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