New research on talent analytics has uncovered a surprising disconnect when it comes to the candidate experience. According to Aptitude Research’s latest report, though companies say candidate experience is a priority, few have made many changes in the way they communicate with candidates over the last three to four years. 50% of companies continue to use email as the primary way to stay in touch with candidates. So much has changed with technology, with the labor market, and the business environment even in the last 12 months– shouldn’t the way hiring teams interact with candidates keep up? In the coming months, enhanced communication with candidates and the collection of candidate feedback will be essential for organizations committed to improving their candidate experience.
Drive candidate engagement
More than two-thirds of companies (68%) say finding and attracting quality hires remains a top challenge, despite high unemployment rates. A candidate-first approach can help you drive candidate engagement and improve quality of hire. Enhancing your candidate experience starts with understanding what candidates think about your process and where you might be falling short. Putting these metrics in place and watching for trends over time will give you insight from the candidate perspective:
- Candidate satisfaction: Find out how candidates rate their satisfaction with each stage of your hiring process. Use candidate surveys and the candidate net promoter score (cNPS) to measure.
- Candidate engagement: You can measure engagement in hiring several ways. Consider metrics like candidate drop-off and ghosting rates at various stages in hiring.
- Candidate feedback: Asking candidates for their feedback can help you accomplish two goals. You gain a wealth of data on your hiring experience from a different, credible perspective than your own, and you improve the experience for candidates. Talent Board research with 152,000 job seekers indicates that asking candidates for their feedback increases their satisfaction with the hiring experience.
Also, track candidate safety metrics. Three-quarters (77%) of TA leaders said they are focused on keeping candidates safe during the interview, screening, and on-boarding processes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is become an essential part of your hiring experience and should be measured.
Engage candidates with a virtual hiring platform
Once you’ve started collecting and analyzing your candidate experience metrics, you’ll have the data to identify where your process could be enhanced. A science-based virtual hiring platform like Modern Hire can help you take a candidate-first approach and raise your quality of hire with improvements like these:
- Faster hiring process. Automation built into the Modern Hire platform enables the candidate to engage with you faster via text and on-demand interviews. Candidates can complete these immediately after getting your invitation or by clicking on a link in a social job posting. You receive their responses and can start your evaluation right away. Modern Hire’s candidate auto advance and automated scoring move candidates through hiring steps with little to no wait. Automated scheduling puts the power in candidates’ hands to schedule their live interviews quickly and conveniently.
- Enhanced communication. Build frequent candidate touch-points into your hiring process and send personable messages that keep candidates informed and help them feel respected. Every candidate can and should receive clear, consistent, and regular communication from your organization.
- More insight into your employment experience. Candidates want to make an informed decision about your job offer, so the more insight you can provide them during the hiring process, the better. Modern Hire’s scientifically validated pre-employment assessments enable candidates to experience job simulations and realistic job previews. They get a deep, multimedia dive into working for your organization while you get accurate, predictive data on their future job performance. Using a Virtual Job Tryout™ pre-hire assessment is a proven strategy for engaging candidates and elevating quality of hire. You can also give candidates deeper insight with on-demand video interviews. Have the hiring manager pose the recorded interview questions and include short videos from company leaders and current employees to give candidates a better sense of their opportunity with you. Modern Hire on-demand video interviews can be used on their own in your hiring workflow or integrated with pre-hire assessments to create a seamless, convenient experience for candidates.
- More candidate feedback. The Modern Hire platform makes it easier to give and get candidate feedback in real-time.
Improve hiring process fairness
Fairness in hiring enhances candidate hiring experiences and ensures you are considering the most qualified candidates. You can create a fair candidate experience with a virtual hiring platform that reduces bias at every step, so your team makes candidate selection and job offer decisions grounded in objective data. According to the Aptitude Research study, nearly half of companies start their process with resume and social profile data. This practice can introduce bias and create an unfair hiring process. Modern Hire’s platform eliminates bias and provides objective data. It also supports process consistency, which is another crucial driver of hiring process fairness.
Today’s candidates want to see for themselves what your role and culture will be like, so they can make their best employment decision. Provide hiring experiences that are insightful, convenient, and fair to keep your future great hires engaged and ready to accept your offer.