Are you looking for some easy wins to increase your candidate care? President at Parsons Strategic Consulting, Tracey Parsons share some quick fixes to take your recruitment process to the next level.
I know, I know, listicle. I hate them too, but they are easy to write, easy to read and well, easy to share. This one is all about easy. What are the easy things we can do today to boost the candidate experience? Now, there are a TONNE of hard things we could do like updating all of our job descriptions to be really honest about the job and who fits in at your organisation, but I am focused on stuff you might be able to actually implement within the week:
1) Tell them how long it’s going to take
The truth is that most candidate report hating the application. They really do. There are memes and tweets that show us exactly what people think about applications. But, what’s interesting in my recent silver medalist interviews is that they don’t remember the application at all. We’ve created something that they will simply endure. Their expectations are super low. It’s like my 14-hour flight home from New Zealand. I knew it was going to be terrible and since I didn’t die, it was fine. The best case (and the hardest thing to achieve) would be to change the application to make it easier and more memorable. While I advocate that, it doesn’t fit into “easy”. So instead…
What if we told people on the login or application page how long the process is going to take. I mean who doesn’t love that new feature on blogs that tell you how long it takes to read the post. I LOVE THAT. So, take a minute to have a set of people apply and time it. Average the time and ask your CMS provider to throw a simple sentence on the login page.
2) Tell them why they should apply
Same concept as above. People hate this application process, but if we could spend a little time crafting a few lines of copy and inserting it on that application or log in page, where we tend to lose them anyway, we may be able to keep their modest excitement they had from reading to job description to actually complete the transaction. Give them three reasons why they should apply to your organisation. This is perfect employer brand fodder and it would boost the experience.
“Give them three reasons why they should apply to your organisation.”
3) Update your interview invite templates
So, you’ve made it slightly less horrifying to apply for the job, which is a major moment of despair for people. But, when someone makes it through the machine to an interview, phone screen or in person, we should probably make these notifications less notification-y. What about telling them that they’re special. What about telling them how many people they beat out for the interview. What about telling them their skills stood out. What about telling them anything interesting. At all. This is a special communication. It’s like getting into Hogwarts for some people. But we miss an opportunity to make it feel like they got into Hogwarts.
“When someone makes it through the machine to an interview, phone screen or in person, we should probably make these notifications less notification-y.”
Now, there are a LOT of other things we could be doing to make the experience better for people. I’m thinking about dispositions (seriously, let the robots do it). Maybe better career site content. Better job descriptions. Better nurturing emails. The list goes on and on. But, some of those are harder than others. These are more hacks. I’d love to see your examples when you execute on these. Please send me a note with a link and you will make my day!
At every intersection of the talent revolution, Tracey seized opportunities to push innovation and be the change agent. Tracey is the President at Parsons Strategic Consulting, a consultancy at the intersection of employer brand, recruitment marketing and systems to create delight for talent and brands. Tracey has extensive experience in talent strategy, social recruiting and marketing, thought leadership, brand development and consulting at companies like SmashFly, TMP Worldwide, and her own startup, CredHive. She’s also been a contributing writer at SmashFly, her own blog, Work it Daily, and Social Media Explorer.