An overwhelming majority of candidates deem communication and responsiveness to be the most important indicators of their overall experience during the hiring process, according to a report published by CareerBuilder. 61% of candidates place the most emphasis on both the importance of receiving timely responses from employers throughout the process and being notified if the candidate is not the correct fit for the job. The majority of candidates also feel strongly that employers should update them on where the candidate is in the application process. What this means is that employers need to find a way to quickly and effectively communicate with candidates throughout the hiring process in order to provide them with a positive candidate experience.
The Importance of a Positive Candidate Experience
While it’s common sense that applicants want a positive experience when applying for a job, employers may be wondering what the upside is to them to focus their attention and limited resources on making this happen. Here are a few key benefits to fostering a positive candidate experience.
- Investing in the candidate experience yields more engaged employees. A new employee who had a positive experience throughout the hiring process is much more likely to be positive and engaged when they start working for your company than an applicant who was strung along and neglected by your hiring team.
- Applicants who had a positive candidate experience can help you build your company’s reputation in the social media stratosphere which will then make it easier for you to recruit top talent.
- You are building your network of top talent every time you post an open position. Keeping candidates engaged and happy throughout the hiring process makes it much more likely you will get a positive response when you reach out to your existing applicant pool for new positions. Having a network of applicants at the ready shortens your time-to-hire which yields your company big savings.
Using Technology to Foster a Positive Candidate Experience
Understanding that a positive candidate experience is of significant value to your organization and knowing that responsive communication is the single most important driver of a positive experience for candidates presents employers with the challenge of finding a way to communicate with applicants given limited time and resources. Fortunately, applicant tracking software technology provides an easy, affordable solution. ATS’s give employers a suite of communication tools that enable hiring managers and recruiters to automate the flow of communication with applicants throughout the entire hiring process.
Here are just a few examples of the tools available to hiring managers through an ATS :
- Automated application receipt confirmation emails let you inform your applicants in seconds that you have received their application and even give you the ability to provide them with an overview of your hiring process.
- Thanks But No Thanks emails are a fast and easy way to send out single or batch communications to applicants thanking them for their interest in your company while informing them that they are not the right fit for the position.
- Personalized email templates allow you to create and store frequently used email messages and then send them to applicants with the applicant’s name and relevant application details added to the email message via database fields stored in your email template.
These communication tools make it easy and painless to revolutionize your candidate experience and yield your organization top-quality talent. They’ll also make you look like a recruiting superhero when you lead the charge on implementing them in your organization.
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