Is all the “candidate experience” stuff that companies are being ‘forced’ to do, creating the prima-donnas of the corporate world?

Why are we feeding people’s egos? Are we breeding the next worst thing, following in the wake of the overpaid and hyped footballers of the modern day?

The recruitment challenges faced by companies haven’t dramatically changed so why are we being asked to consider our employer branding, to embrace social media and to use new technology when ultimately, all that companies really wish to do is recruit employees who perform and who are successful in their positions?

Read Why Should SMEs Build An Employer Brand and Job Advertising On Social Media.

Are we therefore just making all of this ‘candidate experience’ effort just for the sake of it?

Improving Your Candidate Experience

You may think that your company has been successful for many years, that you have always recruited and retained the best employees out there, so why change now? What’s in it for your company and where do you start?

The journey for many companies started a long time ago. HR Managers were asked to literally do a million things over the course of any normal day and just one of those jobs was advertising for a job and recruitment.

Despite their heavy workload, HR Managers took charge of candidate experience long before the phrase ‘candidate experience’ was coined. They would bring the stakeholders together and agree the requirement. They would create job descriptions, liaise with and manage agencies, set up interviews, help make decisions on which candidates to recruit, manage the offer and deliver a seamless onboarding process when the candidate started: all of which are vital aspects to securing candidates.

Use a job description sample to create your next job advert and find the top talent.

So how have we gone from an HR person or HR team doing all of this to companies with over 50 FTEs recruiting talent acquisition managers and why now?

Cleary the workload has always been there, so what’s changed?

Social media is probably the most significant factor in the emergence of the in-house recruiter. This has bred innovation and we have discovered new ways to unearth, engage and attract candidates.

An agency recruiter’s best trick is finding people. Years ago, it was common for agencies to share some good candidates (& others, not so good) but the recruitment process was patched together, you’d fumble your way through and with any luck, you’d find a candidate to recruit at the end of the process.

This was the person who was going to answer your prayers.  Whether it was in the form of IT, Sales or Finance problems, you needed a fix fast and you’d be prepared to throw everything at securing that candidate.

Read A Guide On How To Hire.

This candidate was highly sought after, not just by your company but by the market in general. They wowed your company at every stage, but the candidate experience had been disjointed, there wasn’t a clear message from the company or the people & the candidate wasn’t entirely sure what job they were being offered. However, you knew that you wanted to secure this person.

To secure this candidate you gave them more money, then more money if required, lunch vouchers, more holiday entitlement and whatever else it took.

The candidate experience was awful, you had found a candidate but had overpaid for someone who wasn’t necessarily committed to the position and company.

In this scenario you would run the risk of the candidate taking the job for the wrong reasons and if so, would this reduce the chances of the candidate being a successful employee?

Continue reading to find out why candidate experience is important.