Winning Top Talent Through Exceptional Candidate Experience

May 28, 2024, by Stephanie Messier | Recruitment

When you’re a small business, getting job seekers to choose you over your competitors, especially those with big names, can seem impossible. But there’s something that any employer—big or small, with or without a dedicated HR staff—can offer to win over top candidates, and that’s an exceptional candidate experience.

Below, you’ll learn how to create an experience that not only attracts candidates but also retains them, creates an employee referral machine, and improves your employer brand.

Key takeaways

• The candidate experience is the journey between when a candidate first discovers an employer and when they’re ultimately hired and on-boarded by that employer.

• The candidate's experience matters because it can make or break a candidate’s willingness to accept your job offer and recommend you to others. Over time, a positive candidate experience also results in a more engaged workforce, a better employer brand, and more people wanting to work for you.

• A positive candidate experience is one where all interactions with your company by a candidate are authentic, transparent, convenient, and prompt

• Technology can go a long way in creating an exceptional candidate experience for employers with limited recruiting capacity

Understanding the candidate experience

What is candidate experience?

The candidate experience is the journey between when someone first discovers an employer and when they’re ultimately hired and on-boarded by that employer. It’s the time, communication, and overall experience had by a candidate across the following stages:

• Awareness: Seeing a job post for the first time

• Consideration: Researching the job and employer.

• Application: Applying for the job.

• Interview: Interviewing for the job.

• Offer: Receiving an offer for the job.

• Onboarding: Being on-boarded by the employer.

Why does candidate experience matter—how does it affect talent acquisition?

The candidate experience matters because it can make or break a candidate’s willingness to accept your job offer and recommend you to others. Over time, a positive candidate experience also results in a more engaged workforce, a better employer brand, and more people wanting to work for you.

Accepting offers

This one’s straightforward: the better a candidate feels about your role and company as they go through each step in their candidate experience, the more likely they are to accept your job offer.

Building an engaged team

A candidate who grows more excited and motivated with each stage of their experience is more likely to hit the ground running once they’re actually hired—and stay running down the road. Compound this over multiple hires and you end up with an excited, motivated workforce at large.

Learn more about building an engaged team with fractional recruitment .

Getting referrals

Candidates who have a positive experience with you are much more likely to recommend you to other people in their network. This can open up access to new, qualified talent pools that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible.

Improving your employer brand

Beyond referrals, satisfied candidates talk more often and more highly about your company in general, whether that’s in the form of an employer review on Glassdoor or a post on social media. Both positively impact your employer brand, which in turn can lead to more attention and applications from candidates.

What does a positive candidate experience look like?

Authentic, transparent, convenient, prompt: these are the adjectives of a positive candidate experience.

Ideally, you want the answer to be yes for questions like:

• Do candidates get a clear picture of what your job and company is really like?

• Is applying easy and quick?

• Do they know what to expect at every stage of the hiring process?

• When decisions are made, is new information getting to them quickly?

• Are you providing feedback?

7 key components of a positive candidate experience

If the answer is no to any of these questions, consider taking these to upgrade your candidate experience:

Verify what you’re hiring for

You likely do your research to know when to hire more staff , but a step that often gets neglected is conducting a skills gap analysis to identify the specific skills your team lacks—and that your new hire should have.

For example, say you’re a tech company that uncovers a need for more cloud computing expertise. You could then build your recruitment efforts around hiring a Cloud Solutions Architect, not just a general, potentially less helpful software engineer role.

Simple, jargon-free, attractive job descriptions

Use clear, human language in your job postings that is both understandable and attractive to your target audience.

For example, instead of saying "seeking a dynamic synergy facilitator," say "looking for an experienced project manager." Additionally, instead of just saying you offer interesting projects, diverse culture, and work-life balance, describe them as specifically as you can.

An easy and accessible application process

Make applying as easy and fast as possible; the longer and more complicated it is, the more candidates are likely to drop off.

For example, consider the following:

• Make your process mobile-friendly

• Allow LinkedIn Easy Apply

• Don’t require applicants to create accounts to apply

• Avoid lengthy assignments upfront

• Reduce the number of fields candidates must fill out

The reality is that applications like these:

Get a lot more finishes than applications like these:

Prompt follow-ups and clear communication

Update candidates on their application status and answer questions as quickly as possible. Why? 54% of candidates have walked away from a job due to poor communication.

Plus, candidates, especially those in high demand, are often pursuing multiple jobs at the same time; the quicker you are in updating them, the less likely you’ll lose them to another employer.

For example, set up automated emails that go out when application statuses change (when an application is received, when it’s passed on, etc.) and respond to chosen candidates immediately with next steps and timelines.

Provide detailed interview expectations

Give candidates clear information about upcoming interviews. Provide anything that would help them prepare or alleviate their anxiety.

For example, send an email outlining who they will meet, the format of the interview, where the meeting will take place (address if in-person and link if virtual), and any resources that will help them prepare.

Offer and ask for feedback

Set up a system for mutual feedback between you and your candidates. Feedback, from both winning and silver-medalist candidates, is one of the most direct ways to improve your candidate experience.

For example, after interviews, ask candidates to complete a short survey about their experience or leave a review on Glassdoor. Similarly, offer constructive feedback to unsuccessful candidates

Let technology do the heavy lifting

The right technology can do wonders in improving your candidate experience.

For one, there are Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) and recruitment software with audience segmentation, automated email campaigns, and other features helpful in improving your communication and organization of candidates—all while reducing your workload.

Also built into many of these tools are useful measurement capabilities, allowing you to see how candidates are interacting with you at every stage of the candidate journey. This can be incredibly useful for identifying and fixing pain points in their journey.

Remember, that which isn’t measured can’t be improved—and candidate experiences are no different.

The role of employer branding in the candidate experience

Company culture attracts candidates to jobs as much, if not more than jobs themselves, to the degree that over 50% of recruiting professionals expect to up their investment in employer branding this coming year.

More than this, company culture also keeps candidates interested as they go through your application process. This is why it’s so important to infuse employer branding at every stage of the candidate journey, from consideration to onboarding.

How to infuse employer branding across your candidate experience

Think of employer branding as anything that shows why you’re a unique, attractive place to work—anything that shows your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) , in other words. This might include:

• Employee testimonials or quotes

• Employee stories

• Company values in action

• Behind-the-scenes content of the day-to-day at your company

• Reviews of your company by employees

• Awards your company has won

• Number of referral hires

• Work by ERG at your company

• Progress reports on goals supporting company values

For more inspiration, see these award-winning examples of employer branding .

7 ways to use employer branding content

Here are some ways to get maximum use of this content along the candidate journey:

• Post content to your careers site and social media

• Bundle it into shareable resources

• Make sure your recruiters are updated on and able to speak with candidates about your latest employer brand initiatives

• Encourage or incentivize employees to create or share employer brand content to their personal networks

• Share links to content in job descriptions and in communications with candidates

• Link to employer brand content in your email signature

• Discuss or show content live during interviews

An example of an effective piece of employer branding content, showcasing career trajectory possibilities within ADT.

What to avoid when creating your candidate experience

In reading about what produces a positive candidate experience, you may know what you want to avoid. But to be sure, let’s quickly run through common candidate experience pitfalls to avoid.

8 candidate experience pitfalls to avoid

• Unclear job descriptions: Job ads should accurately and clearly reflect the role.

• Complicated application processes: Simplify how candidates apply.

• Lack of communication: Don’t leave candidates in the dark.

• Vague interview instructions: Provide detailed interview info.

• Absence of feedback: Offer feedback after interviews.

• Missing employer branding: Show why your company is great, not just your job.

• Disconnected employer branding: Make sure the employer branding you share reflects your everyday working reality.

• Not measuring: Let data help you understand where to improve your candidate experience.

With so many variables, it’s hard to account for everything when creating a candidate experience—and in your recruitment efforts more generally.

Decrease your chances of falling into these pitfalls by learning more about common recruiting mistakes .

Candidate experience FAQs

How can SMBs without a dedicated HR team personalize the candidate experience?

Much of what makes for a personalized candidate experience can, in fact, be automated—at least in part. For example, certain recruitment tools allow you to automatically send emails or texts to candidates depending on the actions they take (applied, finished an interview, etc.). Features like these can be invaluable in quickly getting candidates next steps, updates on their status, helpful resources, as well as asking for feedback.

What role does technology play in improving the candidate experience for SMBs?

Technology, like applicant tracking systems (ATS) and recruitment software, can streamline the hiring process, making it more efficient and candidate-friendly. Features like mobile-friendly applications and automated status updates can significantly enhance the candidate experience while simultaneously reducing the workload of recruiters.

How can feedback from candidates be effectively incorporated into the recruiting process?

Feedback from candidates can be used to understand what’s working in your candidate experience and what areas you should consider improving. For example, you might get consistent feedback that candidates are getting offers quicker from other employers. You could then take this and see how you could improve the speed of your application process, looking at factors like number of interviews, decision timelines, how updates are getting sent, and so on.

Time to create an exceptional candidate experience

Regardless of your size or capacity, using the tips above, creating an exceptional candidate experience is within your grasp, even without a dedicated HR team.

For more helpful expertise on all things candidate experience—and almost any other area in the realm of recruiting—check out our recruitment toolkit.