The candidate experience you provide applicants during the hiring process is extremely important. After all, these are the first interactions with your business and your brand as an employer. So, you want to make a good impression. Here is how to improve your staffing firm’s current onboarding process to improve your candidate’s experience.
How Onboarding Impacts Candidate Attraction and Retention
Why Candidate Experience is Important
Candidate experience is everything. It can impact the quality of candidates you receive and your reputation as an employer. For example, if your application takes too long, fewer candidates are likely to complete the entire process. At the same time, candidates want employers who communicate thoroughly. This means you will need to stay in touch throughout the hiring process so that each person knows where they stand. So, how do you improve your candidate experience?
Candidate Sourcing
First, start with how you source your candidates. Do you have a good way of reaching out to both passive and active candidates? Consider all the ways you are currently sourcing talent. Employee referrals are a common way employers find new talent to add to their organization. On top of being a great way to identify new candidates, it is also a great way to make your current staff feel valued.
Aside from employee referrals, you can put some thought into other ways you are sourcing your candidates. Maybe you are active on job boards or you have a strong social network. Tap into all of the channels you have available to you and see what works best.
Communicate
Again, communication is key when it comes to providing a good candidate experience. Applicants don’t want to be left in the dark about where they stand in the hiring process. Instead, do what you can to be transparent throughout the process. Once they successfully submit their application, send a confirmation email and detail the next steps.
You should also gather their preferred methods of communication when they apply for the position as well. This will give you the email address or phone number where they can be reached and even preferred times of day for contact. Having this information will make following up and communicating easier. Not to mention, it provides a great experience for the candidate.
Utilize Technology
There is a lot of new technology out there to help you simplify your hiring process, improving your candidate experience. Software can help you source new quality candidates and maintain communication automatically. It will filter through applicants to pinpoint individuals who fit your company’s needs all around.
When they are filling out their application you can also set up your software to autofill their information, making the process go a little more quickly. You can also offer them the option to upload their hiring materials, which can speed things along as well. All of this information can be stored and sorted with your software.
Depending on where they are in the application process, some staffing technology will also send candidates updates through their preferred method of communication. This will give them an email update once their application has been received when it has been reviewed, and what the next steps are.
Ready to Improve Your Candidate Experience? Essium’s Onboarding Software can help!
In the end, having a simple and easy process will improve your overall candidate experience. Simplify your onboarding process with Essium’s Xenqu technology. Contact us to learn more about our staffing software.
