HR invests a lot of time, resources and energy in improving the employee experience. Indeed, what would be the point of trying to acquire new talent when the talent you have doesn't stay?

Nevertheless, it wouldn't do to neglect the candidate-experience because it's partly what your future hires, and therefore your growth, are based on.

How do you achieve this?

Employees who are more fulfilled in their work are more productive and are absent less often, just as pampered and challenged potential candidates make better talents hired!

By focusing on how you interact with candidates before they apply, you increase your chances of recruiting better profiles.

Very often, that path is through your online presence.

The stakes are extremely high, as these two statistics from the Candidate Experience Research Report  show:

• 41% of candidates surveyed who had a bad candidate experience with a company said they were encouraged to go apply to the competition
• 64% of candidates who had a good candidate experience admitted that they also had a better image of the company's business brand

The candidate experience is therefore not just an HR issue, it concerns the entire company.

The candidate experience challenge goes beyond the HR framework alone

In 2018, how do you make the online candidate experience more effective?

1 - Get your foot off the "Apply" button

Would you like to visit a commercial site filled with "Buy" buttons?

Probably not.

The most qualified people for your position are often passive candidates, who are not immediately in the mindset to apply (which would often mean, for them, switching companies). 

The ubiquity of calls to action (CTA) to postulate effectively rules out the possibility that one might visit a career site for information, at least initially.

A successful candidate experience involves putting forth quality content and patiently weaving a relationship between the passive candidate and the employer brand.

The relatively long duration of this process is often referred to as Slow Recruitment.

2 - Make the application process more fluid

For every ad published, recruiters often receive a avalanche of applications.

The reflex of some professionals is sometimes to complicate the application steps in order to discourage the less motivated.

While it's legitimate to test the engagement of your candidates, an obstacle course doesn't work well in the long run, especially with passive candidates.

Inversely, make it easier to convert your traffic by using methods like progressive profiling and ask your visitors to identify themselves as talent rather than candidates specifically responding to a job posting.

3 - Customize the application steps based on the profile you are looking for

Save time and customize the application submission to better filter candidates.

When a graphic designer applies for a job, they should be able to submit their portfolio as an attachment to their resume.

A salesperson will surely want to list the revenue they generated while a software engineer will want to add the url of the sites or apps they developed.

To enable visitors matching your Candidate Personas to showcase their expertise, provide the necessary tools.

4 - Offer a serious but fun test to your applicants

You can use your TTY to automatically send a message to everyone who applies asking them to submit a sample of the work they are most proud of. Only those who respond will be able to move on to the next stage of recruitment.

For example, The Super Agency offered a quiz to candidates wishing to join our team.

The Super Agency selection test

For information, only 20% of our candidates obtained a sufficient score (in this case 16/20) to be called for an interview - not counting all the people who gave up in front of the requested exercise.

Thanks to this method, we were able to identify "super agents" who were motivated and performing!

5 - Launch micro-sites by job

Instead of posting ads by position, choose instead to create a microsite by business (IT, sales, finance) and describe the imperatives and challenges of working within your organization.

Propose that candidates submit a pre-application, the machine will then do the work of matching with positions that best fit the candidate's profile, personality and interests.

Axa is a good example of innovation(s) on this front.

On its career site, the world leader in insurance offers both to apply through the traditional route or to identify the job that matches the candidate's expectations thanks to a dedicated form.

Axa's career site guidance tools

In addition, a visitor can sign up for a meeting schedule to better plan their interview.

To recruit salespeople for its distribution network, Axa is therefore equipping itself with several powerful identification tools.

6 - Talk less about jobs and more about careers

So few original job postings are read that the few that do stand out are usually posted on LinkedIn with a comment "Why don't we read more like this!".

Other than the form, the habit of operational people to describe a job description with the fiery passion of a recipe sometimes leaves one speechless.

It is more useful to describe the challenges of a mission rather than the tasks to be accomplished. Explaining the meaning and the importance of a role within an organization will make more sense of what is expected of the candidate.

Here's how you can challenge candidates to attract only the best and most motivated ones!

Do you have any other ideas for improving your candidate experience?