6 Candidate Experience Challenges

The overall opinion a candidate has of a company’s recruitment process is defined as the candidate experience. This begins long before the interview, when the candidate learns about your job offer, and continues through to onboarding the hired candidate.
In fact, research from Robert Walters shows that 78% of candidates decide not to accept a job offer after a poor candidate experience, so how the candidate experience is managed throughout the recruitment process can have a significant impact on the decisions candidates make. The candidate experience can also impact your company in other ways:

Potential employees are also potential customers and brand ambassadors.

In addition to being a potential employee, every candidate may also decide to become a customer. Neglecting your candidate experience could cause your company to lose important customers. In fact, 60% of French candidates are prepared to boycott a brand if their candidate experience is poor, according to a study by Yaggo and IFOP. This is therefore a major issue for a company!

Brand image

A dissatisfied candidate will share his experience with his friends, on job sites, etc. Indeed, according to Yaggo and IFOP, 1/3 of candidates have a negative image of the company after a bad candidate experience. This has a direct impact on your company’s brand image!

Company culture

Candidates do not apply simply because they are attracted to your offer. Your culture, values and vision are also important. According to a study carried out by Meteojob, 53% of candidates want to know what life and atmosphere in the company looks like. So don’t neglect these different elements when recruiting. They will give candidates an idea of their future experience in your company.

New expectations

The expectations of today’s job seekers are different! According to Glassdoor, 58% of candidates want clear and regular communication throughout the hiring process. In addition to communication, 53% of candidates want to know what the company’s expectations are and 51% want to receive feedback even if they are not selected for further stages. So do not hesitate to ask for feedback at the end of the recruitment process, listen to what candidates want, and focus on transparent communication.

Ambassadors

A dissatisfied candidate will talk around! But the opposite is also true. A study carried out by IBM in 2016 showed that a candidate who has had a positive experience is twice as likely to recommend the employer to others than a candidate who has had a negative experience. This willingness to recommend a company seems to be influenced by all aspects of the recruitment process, whether it is the level of transparency, the follow-up of candidates or the simplicity of the application process. A positive candidate experience will therefore turn your candidates and future employees into potential ambassadors!

Future offers

It is entirely possible that a candidate will not be a perfect match for the role they have applied for! But think about the future! If you keep their CV in your CV database, it is possible that it will match an offer you will share with them in the future! Having had a positive candidate experience, they will be more inclined to apply again for that new opportunity. In fact, 83% of candidates stop applying to a company if their candidate experience is negative.

The candidate experience is a crucial aspect of the recruitment process, influencing not only the outcome of individual hiring decisions but also the overall perception of your company as an employer. Prioritizing a positive candidate experience can be easily done thanks to an ATS such as Beehire, which will streamline your recruitment process and create a consistently positive candidate experience.