What Your Candidate Experience Says About Your Company Culture

Finding and hiring the best talent is of absolute importance to the success of your company. Yet today’s labor market is competitive, meaning to get people to join your business, you’ll need to find ways to stand out and attract the best of the best.

What Your Candidate Experience Says About Your Company Culture

Traditionally, this was done by offering people higher salaries and better benefits. And while these are still important, many people care about other things when looking for a job. For example, job seekers desire a strong company culture is one of these things, so it’s important you establish this type of workplace environment and use it to market your open positions.

To do this, you’ll need to make sure all your job postings and social media postings send a clear message about your culture. And you’ll also need to update the information on your website so that applicants can easily learn about what it’s like to work for your company. But you also need to pay attention to your candidate experience, as this will say a lot about your company culture, and ultimately determine your ability to land top talent.

What is Candidate Experience?

A major buzzword in today’s world of HR and recruiting, a lot of companies are paying closer attention to their candidate experience. But what exactly is it?

In short, candidate experience refers to the process people go through to find, apply for and eventually start new jobs. It takes into account everything from how easy it was to learn about the job, how efficient the application process was, how they were treated throughout the process (i.e. do you call them back when they didn’t make it?) and how pleasant the onboarding process is.

And there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that candidate experience can have a positive effect on your company. It not only makes it easier for you to find the right people, but it helps improve the chances an employee will commit to you long term after joining your team. Part of the reason candidate experience is so important, though, is that it helps broadcast your company culture. Here’s what it says about your company.

How Much Do You Care About People?

Long gone are the days where people care about only the salary you offer them. They want to work for a company that cares about them and that they care about. And your contact with prospective employees is your first chance to demonstrate this.

For example, if you don’t return calls or emails, or if you struggle to make people feel welcome when they come in for interviews, this sends the message that you’re indifferent to people’s feelings. Obviously you can’t respond to every enquiry, but if you reach out to someone for an interview, the least you can do is notify them when you’ve chosen someone else.

At the end of the day, you’re trying to demonstrate to people that you value their time. A poor candidate experience sends the message that you don’t value it all that much, and this will reflect negatively on you company and your culture.

How Happy Are Your Employees?

Each and every interview is different. Sometimes you walk into an office and you can just tell it’s a good place to be. You’re greeted with a smile at the door, and people around the office make it a point to say hello. But in other instances, you walk in and the place feels like a graveyard, and this completely turns you off to the idea of working for that company.

What Your Candidate Experience Says About Your Company Culture

If people are happier doing their jobs, then this is going to translate into a better candidate experience. Those working in HR and recruiting are going to work harder to sell the company, and then when you do meet with candidates, you’ll give off a much better vibe, indicating to prospective employees that your culture is vibrant and desirable. And word will spread, leading to better applicants and an increased likelihood of finding an all-star to join your team.

How Important is Efficiency?

What are the things people dislike the most about their jobs? Bad bosses will nearly always be near the top of the list, but unnecessary or burdensome paperwork and bureaucracy is another big one.

The efficiency of your candidate experience will give people an idea about the efficiency of your business. If you make people jump through hoops by forcing them to fill out long, tiring application forms and submit lots of different documents to different departments, then they’re going to take this a sign that your company is not optimized.

However, if you streamline the process by using a simple application form and outsourcing your HR and onboarding tasks so that they can bring new people in without much trouble, then you’re sending a much better message. Essentially, you’re telling people that at your company they will spend more time doing their jobs and less time chasing down signatures and submitting unnecessary paperwork.

Start Improving Your Candidate Experience

Company culture is a big reason why people will apply for your job and people learn about your company culture in a variety of different ways. One of which is your candidate experience. Take a look at yours and think about how you can make it better reflect your company culture.

About the Author: Jock is a business owner who knows the value of a good team. He has been an entrepreneur for nearly his entire career, and through his work, he has become an expert on many different aspects of business administration and management.

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1 Comment

  • Draup

    February 17, 2023 - 11:14 pm

    This is an informative article that emphasizes the importance of creating a positive candidate experience during the recruitment process. The author argues that the candidate experience is an essential aspect of company culture and can impact the quality of hires, employee engagement, and retention. The article provides useful tips for improving the candidate experience, such as providing timely feedback, being transparent, and showing empathy. I think this is an excellent resource for HR professionals and recruiters who want to attract top talent and create a positive employer brand.

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