Candidate Experience Audit: The Best Way To Measure How You Are Doing

Most of us have read about the importance of the candidate experience and how it can affect an organization’s ability to successfully attract talent.

The studies are quite clear and demonstrate very clearly the implications of a company with a positive candidate experience reputation vs a negative one. Here is what some of the surveys say about the candidate experience:

• 66% of job seekers will share their negative experience with friends and 51% will share their thoughts on social media plus 27% would actively discourage others to apply.*
• 46% of candidates who believe they have had a negative overall candidate experience will take their alliance,product purchases or alliances elsewhere.In a study at Virgin Media of 123,000 rejected candidates , they believe it resulted in 7500 cancellations at a cost of $5.4 million a year.*
• On the positive side, up to 80% of candidates with a positive experience will share experiences with friends and colleagues and up to 51% will share positive experiences on social media.*
• Similarly 74% of candidates with a positive experience will definitely increase their relationship with employer including purchases.*

*Sources: Talent Board, CareerArc, LinkedIn

One of the best ways for an employer to assess their candidate experience and identify gaps in their recruitment processes is through a candidate experience audit.Our methodology is to gather data on the candidate experience from three different perspectives:

1. Employer self-assessment. We ask our client to complete a self assessment questionnaire which examines every aspect of the recruitment process commencing with the social media presence all the way to the onboarding when a successful candidate commences employment.
2. Candidate assessment. We examine the candidate perspective on our client’s recruitment process by looking at Glassdoor reviews and other social media sites. W will also survey a random sampling of previous applicants so we can get an additional perspective on how the recruitment process is viewed by recent candidates.
3. Our assessment. We review every stage of our client’s recruitment process commencing with the social media progressing through the career site and application process to the the final stage where a successful candidate is being onboarded. Each stage is benchmarked against industry best practices so we can identify gaps and improvement opportunities.

Using the data from the three sources we develop an action plan which captures opportunities for improvement. We identify immediate( quick wins), short term and longer term opportunities We also recommend performance metrics at each stage of the recruitment process to evaluate future progress.

What clients will find after completing the audit is there are a significant number of changes that can be done immediately or in the short term. These changes often do not involve a significant amount of time or resources to implement. Candidates tell us that the biggest single area that can improve the candidate experience overall is to increase the communication throughout the recruitment process. Making changes in this area can often lead to significant improvements in the satisfaction level of candidates. For our clients it means continuously looking at their recruitment process through the lens of a candidate.

Improving the candidate experience is an excellent way to improve your ability to attract talent.
But we also believe that “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” (Peter Drucker).

Are you ready to conduct your Candidate Experience Audit? Contact HR NAV PLUS or call toll free 1-800-982-0767 for more information.

We also will be conducting a Candidate Experience Survey in September. Participants will receive a free report which will summarize the overall state of the candidate experience nationally as well as by sector and company size. Stay tuned.