With the current job market more candidate-driven than ever before, the best candidates are in high demand and have multiple opportunities from which to choose their next career move. 

There’s no shortage of challenges companies face when it comes to attracting and recruiting top talent, and the current market is making things tougher. 

Yet, while some are paying over the odds, increasing their benefits or offering more stock or equity in an effort to overcome them, addressing the candidate’s experience could make a significant impact. 

The way candidates engage with potential employers and what they look for has changed significantly in recent years. Today’s workforce wants to feel valued, trusted and empowered by their employer and many will no longer settle for working for an organisation where this isn’t the case for them. 

During the interview process, candidate experience has a huge bearing on whether a candidate chooses to join or not. Every interaction can positively or negatively impact their decision-making, so a well thought out recruitment process is essential.   

Therefore, in order to attract the best talent, every stage of this process needs to be well thought out and every action carried out with the candidate’s experience in mind.   

So, how can improve your candidate experience during your interviews? 

Develop an effective, efficient recruitment process 

From the time you start drafting and posting your job adverts, right through to the offer stage (and indeed the period between acceptance and start date), your process needs to be effective. 

Ask yourself whether you’re potentially missing out on securing talent because your process is too long or too convoluted, with multiple stages and involving unnecessary tasks. 

With competition for top talent so fierce at the moment, speed and agility throughout the recruitment process is essential. The best candidates won’t necessarily wait around when they have other companies moving them quickly through their processes. 

Interviews are a two-way street and potential employees will be assessing your company just as much as you’re assessing them.  

If the recruitment process isn’t great and they have a bad experience with you, chances are they’ll feel this is a reflection of how you operate day-to-day and they can expect more of the same should they join. 

Be open and transparent from the start 

Again, this comes down to offering your candidates an exceptional experience. 

The power of being transparent and upfront early on should never be underestimated, so informing your candidates about things such as the company, the expectations, the salary and bonuses from the onset will potentially save you wasted time, ignored message or late-stage dropouts down the line.  

When candidates feel like they need to pull information out of an employer, it’s a surefire way of getting them to quickly lose interest in the role.  

Keep candidates informed 

There’s nothing more frustrating for candidates than spending time interviewing with you to either not hear back from you for weeks or worse still, not hear back at all. 

Keeping candidates in the loop should be the bare minimum, so it’s important to set expectations and when they should expect to hear from you and how long each stage should take. 

Once you’ve set these expectations, it’s vital you stick to them as this will go a long way to boosting the candidate’s experience with you and will show them you’re reliable.  

Showcase your people throughout  

Everyone wants to feel respected and appreciated by the company that they’re working for and if they feel that their growth and wellbeing is being supported current employees are more likely to speak positively to prospective employees.  

This in turn can have a significant impact on a potential candidate’s overall feelings towards your company and their decision-making as a whole.  

Effectively standing out from the competition in a candidate-driven market can be challenging. But by taking advantage of the right recruiting tools, maintaining an adaptable mindset and delivering a new approach, you can set yourself apart and find the best talent.