According to Shortlister, 80% of candidates who experience a negative recruitment process will openly or proactively tell others about their experience. Let’s not give those people anything bad to say. Here are three steps to building a solid foundation for a great candidate experience.  

 Writing a Detailed Job Ad 

A vital first step in creating an amazing candidate experience is writing a detailed job ad. Give the candidate all of the information they need to know about the job but don’t waffle on.  

 A question a lot of businesses have about writing job descriptions is whether or not to include salary. The short answer is yes.  

According to LinkedIn, 61% of candidates say the salary range is the most important part of the job description. 

 You definitely need to include salary, but what other information is a candidate looking for in your job ad?  

• Title: An accurate job title helps set candidates’ expectations for the role in terms of responsibility and seniority. 

• Location: Where is your office located? Or at which site will the candidate be working if you have more than one location? 
• Overview: A two or three-sentence paragraph to sum up the role.  
• Tasks: What are the most important tasks the candidate will need to perform to succeed in the role? 
• Objectives: Why are you hiring? How will the candidate’s success be measured 
• Responsibilities: Immediate and long-term objectives. 

• Accountability: Who will they be reporting to?  
• Desired Skills: What hard and soft skills do the candidate need to have to thrive in the role? Which are must-haves and which are you happy to provide additional training for? 
• Day to day: What will a normal day look like for the candidate if they get the job? 
• Benefits: Does your site have a gym? Do you finish early on Friday? Are health and dental included?  

Have a User-Friendly Careers Site  

Your careers site should be the heart of your recruitment strategy. As such it needs to provide an excellent candidate experience.  

Is your careers site easy to find, both from your website home page and from Google Search?  

If you are hiring, you can add a ‘We’re Hiring’ option to your main navigation that will take candidates to your careers site. If you are constantly hiring, or don’t want to add this to your top navigation, you can add your careers site in your footer or About Us section.  

Your applicants will be grateful for not having to spend time hunting through your site for available jobs. They will see you put value in your candidates by making your careers site prominent and providing a smooth candidate experience.  

Once a candidate finds a job they want to apply for on your careers site, make the application process easy.  

Don’t get too complicated with your questions or make the application too long. You can tell the candidates at the beginning of the application roughly how long it should take them to complete to help set expectations.  

According to CareerBuilder, 60 percent of job seekers quit in the middle of filling out online job applications because of their length or complexity. 

Ensure That Every Step Of Your Hiring Process Has Value 

Candidates drop off when the application process is too long or complex, so keep it short and simple. Make sure that every step is of value.  

Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. Think about how much of your free time you would willingly give up to fill out an application and what information you would think is relevant to that application.  

For example, for some roles such as developers, it is common practice to have candidates take a skills test to prove they know the coding languages required before moving on to the next step of the application process.  

However, for many other roles, taking skills tests is not commonplace and may feel like a waste of time to candidates. [Text Wrapping Break] 

Give Candidates Feedback 

Keep candidates updated throughout the application process. Let them know when they make it to the next round, and when they don’t. A great candidate experience is not only for the candidate you hire, it also needs to be provided for your rejected candidates.  

Go beyond simply saying “you were unsuccessful” and elaborate as to why you made your decision. This feedback and understanding of the decision-making process help candidates both accept their rejection and find something positive to take away from the application process.  

According to LinkedIn, 94% of candidates want to receive feedback after an interview. Candidates that are left in the dark, wondering why they haven’t heard from you or for what reason they were not selected will be having a bad candidate experience and come away from it with a poor opinion of your company.  

It’s not rocket science… In fact, it’s basic recruitment principles elegantly executed that makes all of the difference to a candidate.  When the recruitment process is designed with your candidates in mind,  you effectively create a win-win situation where your business and your people all benefit. 

Keen to learn more about how to create a great candidate experience?  Download our E-Book: How to improve your Candidate Experience: A Step-By-Step Guide.