Candidates not only act like consumers when searching for jobs, candidates are the consumers at many companies. This is why the corporate brand and the employer brand are becoming intertwined. And now, so are the customer experience and the candidate experience.
Candidates are turning their frustration with the “black hole” of recruiting from cynicism into activism. The latest Talent Board research shows that 46% of job seekers who have a negative candidate experience say they’ll take their business relationship and product purchases elsewhere.
Compare that with research from the Temkin Group, which found that 39% of consumers who have a negative customer experience decrease their spending with the company or stop it completely.
Candidates truly are acting like consumers: They’re using the power of their voice and their wallet when they aren’t treated well. A bad candidate experience doesn’t just affect our ability to recruit; it now impacts our company’s ability to grow.
What Candidates Really Want
Improving the candidate experience has been an increasing priority among HR and TA leaders. There’s definite progress being made in areas like mobile-friendly career sites, shorter Apply processes and standardized interview methods. Process improvements are important, but what candidates are telling us is that they really want more communication.
Job seekers rated a company’s candidate experience higher when there was open, transparent and two-way communication (including feedback) between them and the employer across all stages in their candidate journey, according to the Talent Board research.
It turns out that a great candidate experience has come down to meeting a few basic human needs: the chance to be heard, the satisfaction of getting a response and the feeling of being respected.
Let’s Humanize the Candidate Experience
At Rally, we think now is the time to shine a spotlight on the importance of communication as the next priority in improving the candidate experience.
That’s why we’re organizing the RallyFwd™ Virtual Conference on May 1, 2018. Our theme is “Let’s Humanize the Candidate Experience,” and our focus will be on new strategies and technologies for candidate communications and engagement.
In partnership with Rally sponsors Glassdoor and The Muse, we’re putting together a fantastic line-up of speakers who will share how to create more authentic and transparent employer brands, more personalized and responsive communications, and more accessible and timely engagement. We’ll learn what works, and we’ll be ready to put best practices into action.
I’m particularly excited about our keynote speaker: Jeanne Bliss! Jeanne pioneered the role of Chief Customer Officer at Lands’ End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker and Allstate. She’s one of the top thought leaders and authors on how to put customers at the center of business, and her recent work has been extending that expertise to employees and candidates. Jeanne will inspire us to humanize the candidate experience with powerful customer experience examples that follow her simple, human standard: Make Mom Proud.
It’s time to take the next step in improving the candidate experience. It’s time to humanize it.
Join us for RallyFwd™ on May 1, 2018. Register today.
