It’s well known that when Gerry Crispin—“The Godfather” of recruiting—speaks, human resources professionals should listen. And rightly so, everyone was particularly attentive when he presented at a candidate experience workshop in New York last month.

Candidate experience is a concept used in talent acquisition that comprises every aspect of what happens and how job seekers feel during the process of getting a new job.

According to Gerry’s findings from The Talent Board’s annual Candidate Experience Research and his decades of HR experience, there’s still much to be done in this area. But getting candidate experience right can significantly improve your chances of hiring good employees.

Over the years, Gerry has observed five high-level themes that impact candidate experience the most. As he explained, working to improve recruiting, interviewing, and hiring processes through the lens of these themes can rapidly accelerate your performance.

Set clear expectations up front

People typically have a better experience when they know what’s going to happen. Hiring organizations have traditionally been terrible at this—just think about candidates filling out seemingly endless, 45-minute job applications.

Research shows, companies that clearly set expectations have a better candidate experience. Small tweaks, such as adding an indicator showing how long an application takes to complete, will make candidates happier. But don’t stop at the application.

You could also let candidates know when you’ll be making a hiring decision, show them how many other applications were submitted, or explain who they’ll be speaking with and when during the interview process. Better expectations can be set across the hiring lifecycle.

Listen to your candidates and give them a voice

While recruiting processes are riddled with “no-reply” email addresses and other one-sided interactions, Gerry explained that giving candidates both the opportunity to be heard and provide feedback significantly improves candidate experience.

Similar to what’s been happening in the B2C and B2B worlds for years now, some companies have started giving candidates the option to “chat with a recruiter” on the spot. Others are creating social media accounts specifically for engaging with job seekers.

Companies should be striving to mirror the levels of interaction and engagement consumer-facing companies deliver, because candidates bring those expectations into the job search process.

Make sure the hiring process is perceived as “fair”

Treating candidates fairly goes beyond just meeting compliance and securing their private information. Instilling a sense of fairness often requires systematic changes to your recruiting, interviewing, and hiring processes.

The perception of fairness is connected to whether candidates understand what’s expected of them and whether or not they feel like they’ve got a voice in the matter (points 1 and 2 above).

It’s also related to their treatment, and how aligned the job description is with the rest of the hiring process.

If you’re just reusing old, irrelevant job descriptions, and then asking questions completely unrelated during assessments or interviews, candidates will notice and likely hold it against you.

Always provide closure (and feedback when possible)

Gerry explained, “There’s absolutely no excuse for not telling someone they didn’t get the job or thanking them for applying. You’ve got to be able to do that—and, at the very least, technology makes it easy to automate this.”

Too many companies are guilty of never corresponding with unqualified candidates after they submit their application. Perhaps this is one of the reasons so many job seekers feel like applying to positions online is a futile exercise. Simple steps can be taken to improve this.

For high-volume hiring, it makes sense to automate the process of notifying disqualified applicants. Recruiters should also ensure that those who have actual interviews are both given some form of feedback and notified when a candidate is chosen.

Demand accountability from your recruiters

For many talent acquisition leaders, the answer to improving candidate experience is right in front of them—make recruiters more accountable.

Gerry said, “Recruiters, by and large, who are accountable for candidate experience are rated higher, which will drive up the company’s overall candidate experience.”

Demanding accountability requires creating a process for measuring performance, incentivizing improvements, and enabling an environment of continuous learning. You can connect recruiter performance to candidate experience via follow-up surveys with applicants.

Where to start

Although changing your recruiting, interviewing, and hiring processes to fit better with modern candidates’ expectations may seem like an intimidating task, conducting a candidate experience audit is often the best place to start.

You’ll likely be surprised at how many ideas come to you by just searching for and applying to one of your own jobs online.

Follow Mike Roberts on Twitter @mp_roberts.

