“Walk a mile in my shoes … “
If you know anything about vintage music, you’ll recognize this line from a song by Joe South, which was covered a number of times by Elvis Presley’s likes. Moving beyond musical history, it’s a great mantra for many aspects of life and relationship building – including successful recruitment. The best way to optimize every candidate experience is to do just that: walk a mile in their shoes.
The Candidate Journey
The candidate experience is a journey: from the first touchpoint, they encounter with your company until they’ve been hired and onboarded. You create these touchpoints, so make them awesome.
- Research has repeatedly shown that a positive – or negative – candidate experience can change a person’s mind about joining a company. In one leading study, nearly 60 percent of job seekers reported they had had a poor candidate experience, and 72 percent of them shared the details online or via word of mouth.
- Reconsider the candidate experience you’re offering. It all comes down to effective communication. The same study shows that 65 percent of dissatisfied job seekers never, or rarely, received notice from an employer about the status of their application. And 60 percent said better communication would have made the most positive impact throughout and after they applied.
What the Candidates are Experiencing
Strive to understand what candidates are thinking and feeling as they engage with your organization. The journey begins with awareness of your brand. Hopefully, it advances from there to consideration of your job offer, then onto them actually applying. At each stage, provide messaging that resonates with a person’s passions and interests.
- Brand awareness can go on for months or even years. Or, it can be as fleeting as a single job ad. Typically, people need to encounter your message several times before they trust enough to engage.
- Potential candidates are just as likely to hear about you from friends, coworkers, the media, or their own research as they are from your own marketing materials or normal web traffic. Try to control this uncertainty by proactively promoting your brand via social media and other relevant channels. Remember to extend your reach beyond traditional recruitment platforms, so you can connect with passive, as well as active, job seekers.
- As you entice talent to move into the consideration stage, make sure every piece of content you generate teaches them more about your business. For instance, make sure your blog posts have links and calls to action that draw users deeper into your career site. Create user-friendly landing pages for job listings. Anyone who clicks on them should be able to access the application they want immediately, without having to navigate through clutter or confusion.
- Your goal is to give candidates enough information to think of your company as a trusted, desired employer during the awareness and consideration stages. Don’t drop the ball during the application and hiring stages. Continue to keep candidates front and center. Pay careful attention to them and keep them informed and pleased with the progress.
Search Wizards Has the Talent You Need
Does your talent acquisition team need more horsepower? Search Wizards can deliver the results you’re looking for – within budget, on time, and with results that will make your brand pop and your heart sing. Contact us today to learn more.
