• Is the "candidate experience" high on the agenda when recruiting?
• Do you give meaningful feedback to candidates following their application?
• Do you elaborate on "there was a more experienced candidate" feedback?*

If you answered "yes" to all three, then top marks! It sounds like you have this under control....

If you answered "no" to any of the three questions, or if you hesitated a bit too much(!), then read on.

Why is this important?

How often have you heard the saying "bad news travels fast"? Well in the job market today, this is really quite meaningful.

We speak to hundreds of candidates every week. Unfortunately, so many candidates have had bad experiences with their job hunting and we can tell you first hand, this experience sticks. And they talk about it.

If you have ever personally had a poor candidate experience in your own job search, you will know the feeling.

Failing to provide feedback to a candidate is one of the most common (and most avoidable) issues that we encounter, which in turn has the greatest impact on candidate experience.

A candidate will invest a lot of time, energy and a great deal of emotion during the interview process. Time off work, preparing for the interview, putting together presentations etc.

Without any feedback, this can cause a significant degree of resentment. This can be damaging for an employer brand, especially when this feeling is shared.

How can you address this?

This is really simple and does not need to be a complicated process.

Treat the candidate as you would wish to be treated

Imagine that they will tell people in their network about the experience (because they will).

Imagine that candidate as a future employee and treat them as such

Even when your workload is busy, treat this aspect as a part of the recruitment process and follow it each and every time.

Rest assured, you will over time develop a strong reputation in the relevant candidate and recruiter networks that will serve you well in attracting future talent.

*This does of course count as feedback. However, can the candidate use this to help them in their search for work? If you can give some detail, let them know what was good, what was missing, what they could improve on. Anything like this is gold dust for a candidate and will set you apart.

To find out more about how we help our clients manage the candidate experience, click on the link below: https://www.harrislord.com/contact