Are your resourcing practices up to scratch, or are you putting talent off with a poor candidate experience? This is a question that HR managers and recruiters need to be able to answer with confidence. In a competitive marketplace, offering an exceptional candidate experience could be the crucial advantage that gives you the edge over rival recruiters.

Overhauling your recruitment process doesn’t happen overnight. However, there are some quick and easy changes you can make right now:

Email the Candidate

Taking two minutes to email the candidate to inform them of a delay or acknowledge receipt of an application or supporting documents isn’t difficult. What it does is significantly improve communication, keeping the candidates engaged in the process.

Furthermore, informing them of timescales helps to manage their expectations and crucially, reduces the chances that candidates will accept another offer as they haven’t heard anything from you.

Provide Feedback

Again, just taking a few minutes to write an email to a candidate with some useful feedback isn’t a big change. Providing feedback on a candidate whether they are successful or not, makes them feel appreciated for the time they have committed to the process.

If you have another suitable vacancy coming up, a candidate who has received constructive feedback will feel empowered to apply. In fact, research from Talent Board found that 64% of candidates who had a positive experience will increase their relationship with the company whether they were successful or not – and feedback is a huge part of this.

Ask for Feedback

As well as providing candidates with feedback on their performance, it’s just as important to find out what they think about your recruitment process and candidate experience. Ask candidates to fill out a short feedback form on what you’ve done well and what you could improve on, then action the findings to overhaul your resourcing processes in the long haul.

Give Candidates an Opportunity to Meet the Team

Whether you use a specialist recruiter or not, candidates should always get the chance to meet and engage with hiring managers and team members when they come for interview. This gives them an essential insight into the cultural and climate at your organisation, and it personalises the whole experience. So, when it comes to a salary negotiation situation where you can’t quite beat a rival, the candidate could end up choosing you because your organisation feels like a better fit.

Optimise for Mobile Users

According to Glassdoor, around 90% of job hunters will use their mobile phone at some point during the search process. Optimising your website, job portals and application forms is all about making it quicker and easier for candidates to apply. The last thing you want to do is to put them off at this crucial first stage.