When It Comes to the Candidate Experience It’s the Same ‘Ol Story

If I hear it one more time, I think I’m going to scream.

This part: The research reports are great, but it’s the same old story. So, what’s new and fresh?

I’m talking about the Talent Board global candidate experience research. The overall data from pre-application to onboarding we capture hasn’t varied much over the past few years that we’ve been conducting this annual research.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t incremental trends of improvement that have been happening across the board around the world. There have been. But there have also been negative sentiment increases around the world.

Even with the positive improvements overall, and better processes and recruiting technologies that empower talent acquisition professionals to spend more time investing in candidate communication and feedback, there are so many factors pummeling a business year ’round that the heavy lifting in recruiting is in the sustaining of candidate experience improvements over time, beyond year one. There are leadership changes, and team churn, and economic impacts, and political impacts, and the list goes on.

So, what’s new and fresh?

Well, everything and nothing.

For example, there is an overall incremental positive trend upward the past three years with five-star candidates saying they’ll increase their business relationship across North America, EMEA, and APAC (see the image — APAC trends down a bit actually).

This is good news. Candidates who are more likely to apply again, refer others and buy stuff if and when applicable with consumer-based companies.

This means that everything we’ve shared in our reports year after year as to what CandE-award-winning companies are doing differently and more of (companies that have the highest positive candidate ratings in our research) can make a difference near term (some general examples below and the case studies in our reports).

But even with the mix of companies participating changing every year, and the fact that we believe more companies are struggling with candidate resentment in today’s tight job market, the long-term improvements take continuous investment. In fact, there are multi-year CandE winners that do not win consecutively year after year because of struggles like these.

And yet, these are the companies willing to hear from their candidates, most of whom do not get the job, so there’s already a negative sentiment baked into the talent acquisition foundation, for external and internal candidates alike. This isn’t about making every single candidate happy, because that’s completely unrealistic. It’s more about being consistently clear and fair in the process. And ensuring candidate closure regardless of how far someone gets in the recruiting process, and hopefully providing some level of feedback for later-stage candidates.

This is not for the faint of heart. It’s a big progressive step for those just beginning the journey of candidate experience benchmarking, asking for candidate feedback and rating their experience, and then identifying one or two improvement initiatives to invest resources in. And not all things are equal considering the size and stage of organization, the industry, whether in a boom or bust cycle, and the list goes on.

So, what’s new and fresh?

Again, everything and nothing.

Negative trend lines are also trending up across all three regions, those one-star candidates saying they’ll sever their business relationship across North America, EMEA, and APAC (see the figure below). This is not good news. Candidates who are less likely to apply again, refer others and buy stuff if and when applicable with consumer-based companies can certainly impact the business bottom line.

One step forward and one step back. I think I’m going to scream. It truly is the same old story.

We’ll have to keep digging into the data and connecting the dots to truly be able to map out the best combinations of people, processes, and technologies that help to increase and sustain a competitive people edge. And not just for full-time employees either; we want to dive into the contingent workforce candidate experience more since that makes up nearly 40 percent of the workforce today.

Three hundred employers and over 220,000 job seekers at 300 companies from around the world make up the 2017 Talent Board benchmark research class. We released the benchmark research from North America, followed by EMEA and APAC.

Through these candidate surveys, we looked at the current state of candidate experience, as well as the tools, processes, and technologies employers today use in their recruiting practices, and how they contribute to the candidate experience. Some takeaways this year include:

Take a customer-centric approach: Corporate marketing and customer service aren’t the only teams today using social media channels and websites to serve “customers.” Savvy employers are making their recruiting teams available to answer questions during live chats on career sites and social media, as well as experimenting with chatbots to answer general employment questions. The latter frees up the recruiting teams to have more hands-on time with potential candidates already in play.
Walk in the candidate’s shoes: Employers must be willing to admit that their existing apply processes may not be working. In order to think about the application process from the candidates’ perspective, more organizations are thankfully applying for their own jobs, especially the CandE Award winners, and are reaping the benefits of incrementally improving their application process.
Communication and feedback continue to be differentiators: CandE Award winners continue to differentiate themselves from pre-application to onboarding, communicating more with candidates, giving candidates feedback earlier in the recruiting process, and asking candidates for feedback even before they apply for a job. Most candidates who have an overall “very poor” one-star and two-star candidate experience — representing tens of thousands of candidates in the Talent Board research — are getting very little if any consistent communication and/or feedback, a missed opportunity in a highly competitive talent marketplace.
The business impact is here for good (or ill will): The trend continues: candidates who believe they have had a “negative” overall experience say they will take their alliance, product purchases, and relationship somewhere else. This means a potential loss of revenue for consumer-based businesses, referral networks for all companies, and whether or not future-fit and silver-medalist candidates apply again. However, the good news is that those who had a “great” overall experience say they’ll definitely increase their employer relationships — they’ll apply again, refer others, and make purchases when applicable. These aren’t just the job finalists either, or those hired, but the majority are individuals who research and apply for jobs and who aren’t hired.

Employers around the world interested in participating in the 2018 Talent Board Candidate Experience Awards benchmark research program can register starting in March 2018.