In today’s tech-driven, competitive world, attracting and recruiting top technical talent is most definitely a challenging task. This is especially true for companies who strive to build high performing teams, as they must prioritise providing an excellent candidate experience throughout the recruitment process. In order to identify the significance of this, forward-thinking organisations must reimagine their recruitment strategies in order to create an overall better, seamless and inclusive experience for their prospective candidates.
Meet Sarah Jane, a skilled software engineer who seeks to find a company that truly values her work and expertise. She applies to Company A but receives no form of communication for several weeks, which leads to doubt and disappointment in her mind. However, in contrast, Company B prioritises candidate experience. Sarah discovers that their hiring process is efficient and seamless. She receives personalised emails and finds the team members to be engaging and inclusive during the interviews. Although Sarah decided to join a different organisation, she becomes a strong advocate for Company B’s exceptional candidate experience. This highlights the integral and crucial role that candidate experience plays in both attracting and retaining top talent during the process of technical hiring.
What is candidate experience?
Candidate experience is nothing but the perception of a prospective job candidate about the prospective employer. The job search, application process, onboarding and all the interactions during the hiring process impact the candidate experience. Candidate experience mainly starts off with the candidate’s first exposure to the company and its hiring process, but encapsulates the entire recruitment spectrum from the first touch to the final point of either rejection or hire.
Read more: How interview training improves candidate experience
Ways to improve candidate experience during technical hiring
Communicate well
One of the most important steps towards improving candidate experience is communicating effectively. It is simple, yet efficient. Provide consistent updates and feedback during the hiring process. This could be a detailed email consisting of the next possible steps, giving them a full view of their progress and providing them with transparency. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is something that can be utilised in this regard. AI-enabled processes can provide the candidates with a quick and fast review of their overall performance and fit for the position. In states such as Illinois, the Illinois law mandates that the employers must give the candidates that AI will be used during the interviews in order to provide transparency. One mustn’t be afraid to use AI in the hiring process to improve candidate performance, it is required to simply extend fairness and transparency whilst applying these tools for hiring.
Showcase company culture
Candidates wish to know what the job they’re applying for is truly like. Highlight your company’s cultures, values as well as the work environment throughout the hiring process. Provide opportunities for engagement such as tours of the office, virtual meet-and-greets etc,. Due to virtual hiring, it is extremely easy to give your candidates a look on the inside as to how your company functions. Videos and day-in-the-life simulations can be an effective way to showcase your culture and values.
Make efforts for talent-sourcing
Did you know that applications with over 45 questions have an abandonment rate of almost 90%?
It is an undoubted fact that talent sourcing can define the hiring success rate. If the job description is not attractive enough/impactful, it will not lead to any further stages. Thus, sourcing tech candidates correctly is the key. When it comes to providing a positive candidate experience, recruiters must always think from the candidate’s perspective. This will help further improve the candidate experience and land you the right talent.
Follow up
Make sure to follow up with a candidate feedback survey. According to Glassdoor, companies who are able to provide a positive candidate experience are likely to increase the quality of their hires by 70%. Implementing candidate feedback is an excellent way to track the effectiveness of the hiring process. Provide your potential candidates with a survey both before and after hiring. The more data collected, the better for the analysis part of your company’s hiring process. This will eventually better the candidate experience. Efficient follow up can do wonders for branding opportunities, recognition of talent and humanization of the overall hiring process.
Read more: How to interview a candidate more experienced than you?
BarRaiser benefits for candidate experience
BarRaiser has several benefits that aid it in the efficient hiring of candidates and betters the candidate experience.
- We have a plethora of products that aid the improvement of candidate experience such as streamlined structures interviews, interview intelligence which makes the experience faster, fairer and high-quality. BarRaiser also has the tool of an AI-powered Interview Assistant which makes interviewing better, prevents unethical lines of questioning and provides smart feedback recommendations.
- BarRaiser connects the hiring team, interviewer community and recruitment function which allows for the delivery of powerful candidate experiences.
- BarRaiser provides for faster hiring by its automated recommendation for the candidates for faster decision making and also consists of a detailed scorecard along with interview recordings which leaves absolutely no room for any form of bias.
- BarRaiser provides for global hiring with remote interviews, scheduling of interviews according to the different time-zones and with the BarRaiser smart scheduling, allows interviews to be conducted per the candidates choice, be it at midnight or a busy weekend.
Conclusion
Ultimately, technical hiring is a challenge for both the candidates and technical recruiters. What is important is overcoming these obstacles for a better, improved candidate experience. BarRaiser is committed to ensuring that the candidate experience is smooth, high-quality and effective.