Employer branding is a big buzzword at the moment. It gets thrown around a lot and organisations everywhere are assessing the way their websites and social media accounts impact the perceptions that candidates have of them.

Something else that plays a massive role in employer branding but often overlooked is the recruitment process. In particular, the candidate experience during this process. We recently surveyed over 500 active job seekers about their experiences with organisations they had applied to, a key question we asked was:

“Can you think of 1 organisation that gave you a good candidate experience?”

The results were quite shocking…

Over 50% of the people that we surveyed couldn’t name a single organisation that had provided them with a positive candidate experience, more than half!!

It has been well documented that we have entered a phase in recruitment where employment has risen to the point that vacancies outnumber active job seekers. This means that competition for the top candidates is tough, the most skilled people have their pick of the bunch and those that can’t provide a positive candidate experience don’t stand a chance.

Our exclusive research has identified that key factors of a positive candidate experience include:

• Application handled smoothly and fairly
• Informative job advert
• Excellent communication throughout process
• Useful feedback
• Straightforward application process
• Website easily navigable
• Detailed job description and person specification
• Interview provides insight into company culture

How many of these boxes do you tick? What kind of experience are your candidates getting?

The knock-on effects of a poor candidate experience go beyond losing a particular candidate for a particular vacancy. Not providing a positive candidate experience displays one of two things, an inability to place yourself in a candidate’s shoes or a lack of desire to do so. Either way it will quickly lead to you developing a poor reputation with candidates, which can spread like wildfire through social media.

Take the time to go through each stage of the recruitment process, from advert to offer, and try to see it from the candidates’ perspective, what are the influencing factors on their experience?

The evidence suggests that more than half of organisations aren’t taking the time to consider their candidates’ experiences during the recruitment process. At a point when competition for candidates is so high, these organisations are likely to miss out. Carefully consider the impression that you are giving, take the time to optimise your recruitment processes and you will stand above your peers in the eyes of the top talent.