HR professionals and employers know that the War For Talent is far from over… Every day, they experience the scarcity of talent. In the past, candidates were readily available, but now we see a clear shift in power. Candidates, as career owners, take their careers into their own hands and are no longer swayed by cheap marketing tricks and empty promises. 💪

As a result, candidates have high expectations for a recruitment process, job offer, and experience. And that last part is crucial for attracting and finding talent. 🧨 We’re talking about the candidate experience they undergo before, during, and after the application. To implement a strong talent acquisition strategy, recruitment processes must truly be worth it, with experience at the forefront. 😍

A strong candidate experience is a must for finding the perfect candidate. In this blog, we provide you with some tips on how to ensure the ultimate experience for candidates during recruitment. 🚀

5 Tips that lead to the ultimate candidate experience in the recruitment process

What exactly does candidate experience entail? Well, when a candidate comes into contact with your company, they begin to gather impressions of who you are as an employer and what it would be like to work for your company. It’s the total experience a candidate has of your company throughout the entire recruitment process. From reading the job posting to the first personal contact, to, for example, the last day of work.

How you, as an HR professional or employer, optimize the candidate experience during the recruitment process is explained in these 5 tips:

1. Write a clear job posting ✍️

As we mentioned earlier, the candidate experience begins quite early for the candidate. Perhaps they’ve already seen some nice social posts from your company, or maybe they’ve even encountered you at a job fair? All of this is perfectly possible, but for many job seekers – passive or active – it starts with your job posting.

When a candidate reads the job posting, feelings will arise, and they should naturally be positive. So, make sure your job posting clearly reflects who you are as a company and don’t pretend to be something you’re not.

2. Make applying easy 🤌

We all live at an incredibly fast pace, and we don’t want to waste time on anything, not even applying for jobs. An overly long and complicated application process or a clearly defined procedure, the candidate knows what to choose.

Seven clicks and other cumbersome HR processes are things they can do without. Here’s how to avoid that:

• Make your career site attractive and easy to find on your website.
• Eliminate unnecessary steps in the application process.
• Briefly describe what the candidate can expect during the application process.
• Always send a personalised confirmation email after receiving an application.
• Follow up with your candidates through an additional email, a newsletter, …

3. Be transparent about all steps in the application process 👣

When candidates know what to expect during the entire application process, you’re one step closer to the ultimate candidate experience. As mentioned in the previous step: they don’t like to waste time. Being honest about the steps during the hiring phase is not superfluous.

This includes properly adjusting the job description during interviews, asking relevant questions, setting the right expectations, … To make it even more interesting, also provide the timeframe. Outline when such a conversation will take place, how long each step will take, …

4. Give candidates a voice 🎤

An aspect not to be forgotten that contributes to the ultimate candidate experience is giving candidates the opportunity to provide feedback. Because let’s face it, nothing is worse than feeling like a number and feeling passed over. Ask them what they liked about the process, what wasn’t so good, and what improvements they recommend.

5. Apply quickly at your own company for verification 👍

What better way to experience your candidate experience than by applying to your own company yourself. Put yourself in the position of an applicant or potential candidate and go through your own recruitment process from A to Z.

Look at how your company uses its social media channels for recruitment, inform yourself via the company’s career site, go through your interview questions, and be honest about how you feel. This way, you eliminate minor flaws and give real applicants the ultimate candidate experience they deserve.

There’s a lot involved in the ultimate candidate experience for applicants. But it all contributes to finding top talent in the War For Talent.