Your ability to attract and retain top industry talent is determined by the kind of candidate experience you provide them. Candidate experience refers to how a candidate sees and comprehends your hiring processes. This includes all stages of the recruitment process, beginning from job search, application, screening, and onboarding.
It is a collective experience of how you engage and interact with the candidate during the recruiting process. Since the hiring process is carried out online as well as offline, both, social media tools and personal encounters affect the overall candidate experience.
Let’s weigh the importance of offering a great candidate experience.
Why a great candidate experience is important?
A great candidate experience not only makes the hiring process worthwhile for the job seekers but works to your advantage as well.
Enhances your employer brand
Simply put, how candidates ‘feel’ about your hiring process affects their decision of whether or not to accept your job offer. This means a good candidate experience is directly proportional to a strong employer brand.
With recruiting shifting to the digital space, candidates now have access to various social media platforms. So, a bad experience can not only make the candidate reject the job offer but also post a review online, hampering your brand reputation. While a good candidate experience will aid in developing a strong employer brand, a negative experience will make it impossible to attract and retain top talent.
Helps hire faster and better
A streamlined recruiting process will offer a smooth candidate experience as well as considerably reduce the recruiting time. A structured hiring process and using social media platforms to put it across will help you in having effective communication with the candidates. This also means that the chances of the candidates accepting your job offer increase. All in all, you will be able to attract and retain candidates faster and better.
Gets you in touch with passive candidates
Generally, social media networks are great channels to engage with candidates. So, when you put forth a strong social media recruiting game, you can provide a good candidate experience as well as target passive candidates. While passive candidates may not be interested in your current job opening, add them to your talent pool to consider for any future opportunities.
How to improve or create a great candidate experience?
Social media recruiting and good candidate experience go hand in hand. This is because you can use various social media channels to achieve the above-stated benefits.
Here’s how you can improve or create a great candidate experience using social media.
Develop a careers page that is easy to find and understand
The careers page offers an insight into your company culture. Thus, making it a great way by which you can attract potential candidates. Posting employee testimonials and mentioning clear job application instructions can help build a good candidate experience. Besides, making the page easily accessible can also add to the smooth job search experience.
Introduce a quick and mobile-friendly job application process. As most candidates like to view and apply for jobs on the go, make the application process user-friendly. This will also reflect that you care for the candidate’s time and ease. Upon receiving a candidate’s application, send a confirmation email or text that is tailored to the job role applied for. Doing so is sure to enhance the candidate’s experience.
Draft clear job descriptions and make them accessible across social media channels
Create job descriptions that are accurate and industry-specific. Avoid using jargon and stereotypical phrases that fail to provide a clear understanding of the job role. Mention the job title and requirements to attract the right candidates.
Post the job descriptions on various social media networks apart from the company careers page. Make your job ads accessible on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for candidates to browse and apply.
Respond to follow-ups and inquiry emails
Although the number of job applications you receive may overwhelm you, do not miss thanking or responding to candidate emails. Get back to candidates stating the recruitment status. Be polite in your communication and appreciate the time and efforts put in by the candidates. Putting across your company and its processes organized and humane will offer the candidates a good experience.
Use recruitment software to enhance the candidate experience
Automating and streamlining your hiring process will translate to a good candidate experience. Recruitment software can help you achieve just that. It helps simplify the hiring process for the candidate and for you as well.
Consider a recruitment software like Jobsoid that can help optimize your talent acquisition efforts. With Jobsoid, you can manage all the stages of recruiting effectively as well as offer candidates a pleasant experience. It allows you to choose from free job description templates that are crafted by HR professionals across different industries. Additionally, it offers job postings on premium job boards and various social media networks. Besides, the automated personalized and dedicated email responses will add a human touch to the entire recruiting experience.
Start a free trial today with Jobsoid and offer candidates a positive recruiting experience!
