In today’s competitive market, companies prioritising delivering an exceptional candidate experience are likely to move ahead and stay ahead. Swift communication, transparency across the lifecycle, and an enhanced perception of the hiring process shapes an organisation’s employer brand, attracting top talent and driving business success.
Annapurna partnered with Resource Solutions, a leading provider of recruitment and consultancy solutions, for a VIP roundtable with some of the leading People champions from across industry.
The conversation was led by Scotty Morgan (Sales Leader, EMEA at Resource Solutions) and James Atchison-Wootton (Innovation Manager at Resource Solutions). This brought about the following takeaways:
The Interconnection of Candidate and Customer Experience
An oversighted view is regularly seeing the candidate experience and the customer experience as siloed journeys, whereas they are actually closely intertwined…or should be.
Just as customers are treated as consumers, candidates should be seen in a similar light. Providing a positive candidate experience is as essential as delivering a good customer experience.
Whose job is it to educate what ‘good’ looks like for a candidate’s experience? A hiring manager may not necessarily know what a great process is, so Talent Acquisition professionals need to educate hiring managers on what constitutes a good candidate experience, and it should be seen as a crucial aspect of the overall business ecosystem.
If someone was interested in a product, you wouldn’t leave them outside for weeks so why should you when someone is interested in joining your organisation?
Candidates are consumers and selling a job should be the same as selling a product.
Balancing Technology and the Human Touch
While automation and technology can streamline certain aspects of the hiring process, it is important not to lose the human touch.
Automation is well-received when it feels somewhat personalised, but it should not make the candidate experience overly transactional. Candidates will always be happy to talk to a chatbot and embrace automation but it has a place.
When an interview is involved, you should always have a single point of contact that is human. Striking the right balance between technology and human interaction is vital to ensure candidates feel valued and respected throughout the recruitment journey.
The Impact of Candidate Experience on Employer Branding
Candidate experience plays a significant role in shaping employer branding. Even if a candidate is not ultimately the right fit for the business, treating them fairly and providing a positive experience can lead to significant positives when it comes to brand advocacy.
Conversely, a poor candidate experience can tarnish the company’s reputation and affect its ability to attract top talent.
Talent professionals should focus on improving the entire ecosystem, from pre-apply employer branding to the rejection process, to ensure a holistic and positive candidate experience that aligns with the company’s values and brand image.
The candidate experience has become a much larger focus for organisations in recent years. However, we must still understand that the way we sell on candidate experience must be authentic to ensure there aren’t huge discrepancies between the candidate experience and the employee experience.
If someone is or isn’t right for a role or for the business, they should still leave saying the experience was great.
About Resource Solutions
Resource Solutions is a leading provider of recruitment and consultancy solutions, managing a recruitment budget of over £2 billion on behalf of our clients since 1997, as part of the Robert Walters Group. We redefine work so everyone has a lifetime of opportunity, supporting organisations to build and manage their workforce to face the challenges of tomorrow, putting people and innovation at the forefront of everything we do.
We are experts in the development of outsourced recruitment. From our unwavering commitment to foster relationships as powerful talent partners, to our passion and experience in making every click and conversation a seamless, positive experience, supported by industry-leading technology, we pride ourselves in our ability to continuously work simpler, smarter and faster. Our focus is wholeheartedly not only to build solutions that perform, but which deliver the exceptional to help clients achieve their goals and identify new opportunities.
