How to Create Great Candidate Experiences

According to a recent Top Workplaces study, only 56% of organizations believe their recruiting and hiring processes are highly effective. This aligns with candidate sentiment, as many surveyed job seekers feel frustrated with elements such as poor communication with potential employers, negative interview experiences, and unclear job expectations, just to name a few.

Although employers often have the upper hand, the power dynamic shouldn’t overshadow the importance of treating job seekers with the same level of consideration and respect as valued customers. Providing a positive candidate experience not only reflects your company’s values and integrity but also strengthens your employer brand and ability to attract and keep top talent under your roof.

Otherwise, you risk people losing respect for your organization as both an employer and a brand. In fact, more than half of surveyed workers say they’re less likely to patronize a business after a bad job application or interview experience.

In this guide, we’ll cover what candidate experience is, why it matters, strategies to deliver a delightful candidate experience, and best practices to keep in mind. Designing a positive candidate experience is a multifaceted effort, but you don’t have to do it alone. Combined with BambooHR^Ⓡ Hiring & Onboarding, you can leverage these strategies to find and keep top talent engaged, collaborate with your hiring team, customize offer letter templates, quickly complete onboarding paperwork, and cement your company as a great place to work.

What Is Candidate Experience?

Candidate experience is how job seekers feel about your company after they experience your recruitment process. The process typically includes learning more about your organization, applying, being screened by a recruiter, interviewing with hiring managers, and potentially receiving a job offer.

Consistently providing positive candidate experiences is crucial regardless of whether an offer is extended. For instance, if your hiring process is streamlined, informative, and respectful of their time, top candidates are more likely to accept your job offer, having developed trust in your organization. Even candidates who aren’t selected may still view your company positively and consider applying again in the future. Plus, they might share their positive experience with other job seekers in their network or leave good reviews on sites like Glassdoor, strengthening your employer brand.

On the other hand, a bad candidate experience will cost you top talent both now and in the future.

Why Is a Good Candidate Experience So Important?

A good candidate experience isn’t just a nice-to-have but a strategic tool that can do wonders for your company’s reputation and, in turn, your bottom line. Here are some of the many benefits you can unlock:

• Competitive edge: Compared to February 2020, Glassdoor reports employers are ghosting candidates more than twice as much. Being professional and communicative throughout the candidate experience can set your organization apart from competitors, helping to attract top talent.
• Robust talent pipeline: Employees who’ve had a positive candidate experience are more likely to refer other high-caliber candidates when positions open up down the road and even become brand ambassadors. This saves your recruiting team from having to start from square one while also bolstering your brand’s reputation.
• Lower candidate drop-off rate: Elements such as accurate job descriptions, user-friendly applications, and transparent communication (more on these later) can help keep candidates engaged and committed throughout the hiring process.
• Efficient and less costly hiring process: There’s no sugarcoating it—hiring isn’t cheap. In fact, you can expect to spend $7,500 to $28,000 in hard costs to hire and onboard a new employee. But by attracting and engaging top talent from the start, you can decrease your time to fill and their time to productivity.
• Smoother onboarding: Treating candidates well during recruitment sets the stage for a successful onboarding process, as new hires start their roles with a positive mindset and motivation to deliver value as soon as possible.
• Higher employee retention: Setting clear and accurate expectations about the role and company culture during the hiring process can reduce new-hire turnover since their on-the-job experience will align with what they were told to anticipate.
• Stronger internal employee culture: A positive candidate experience involves current staff members working together to find new hires who will be culture adds. This collaboration and respect for each other’s insights can help reinforce a culture of transparency and inclusion among your hiring team.

How to Create a Candidate Experience That Delights and Delivers

Between employers’ ghosting and interview processes that last several months, job seekers are resigned to the fact that finding a job is notoriously hard. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are some strategies you can leverage to design a positive candidate experience from the awareness stage through onboarding—all while reinforcing your brand’s reputation as an employer of choice:

Make It Easy for Candidates to Learn About Your Organization

Job applications are time consuming, so many job seekers will first research your company to help them decide if they’d like to apply or not. Here’s how you can persuade them to hit that submit button:

• Maintain a comprehensive company website. Create a dedicated “About Us” page that clearly outlines your company’s mission and vision statements, values, leadership team, and any awards or recognition received to give candidates a helpful snapshot of what your organization is all about.
• Share employee testimonials. Job seekers value authenticity. In fact, a study by Edelman reports 79% of employees trust their coworkers more than management and executive leaders. Featuring testimonials from highly engaged employees on the company’s website and social media channels, as well as employer review sites like Glassdoor, is a cost-effective and powerful recruiting strategy.
• Offer virtual tours. Creating videos of your office space and day-to-day operations can be a fun way to give prospective candidates a sense of what the atmosphere and work culture are like. For example, an open floor plan could signal your team values collaboration, and a kitchen stocked with healthy and delicious treats may be one of the many perks employees enjoy every day.
• Attend networking events. Whether your company collaborates with educational institutions and attends career fairs, participates in thought leadership panel discussions, or sponsors an industry conference, getting your name out there can help active job seekers and even passive candidates learn more about your organization.
• Create an employee referral program. Since your employees are already deeply knowledgeable about the work you do and what the culture is like, they’re more likely to recommend qualified people from their network and can provide them with valuable insights on what it’s like to work there.

Write Clear and Compelling Job Descriptions

With countless job postings competing for candidates’ attention, your organization only has 49.7 seconds on average to catch their eye before they move on. Writing a job description that attracts top talent is a balancing act of accuracy and brevity. Here are some vital elements to include:

1. Relevant job title: While picking an unconventional job title may seem like a good way to stand out, you’ll likely make it harder for ideal candidates to find you. For instance, job seekers are more likely to search for “Sales Representative” as opposed to “Sales Superstar” positions. Stick to familiar job titles—there’ll be other opportunities in the job description to showcase your brand voice.
2. Company introduction: This is the perfect place to share your organization’s mission and what makes your company culture unique. For instance, if you’ve earned any awards (e.g., Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For^Ⓡ or Fortune Best Workplaces for Women™), list them here to make a strong first impression with candidates.
3. Job summary: Give an overview of the role, explaining why the position is needed and the positive impact they can make. The goal is to get them excited about the chance to join your team.
4. Job responsibilities: Collaborate with the hiring manager to develop a bulleted list of the essential job duties on an average day. Specifically, make your job description memorable by narrowing it down to five to nine tasks to avoid overwhelming candidates.
5. Job requirements: Don’t conflate requirements with preferences, as having a laundry list can discourage high-quality candidates from applying. Focus on what they need to get the job done (e.g., industry-specific certifications, knowledge of pertinent software programs), not nice-to-have skills.
6. Benefits: Simply put, candidates want to know what’s in it for them. Show them you value your employees as humans—not just business units—by offering competitive fringe benefits and perks. Some benefits, such as health insurance and 401(k) plans, are often seen as table stakes, while perks like free lunches and pet-friendly offices are bonuses.
7. Required legal language: Consult with your legal team about any necessary disclosures you should make in job postings. For example, here at BambooHR, we note that we require all candidates who receive and accept employment offers to complete a background check before being hired.

Streamline the Application Process

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 92% of job seekers abandon online job applications because of their length and complexity. Aside from keeping ideal candidates engaged, streamlining the application process will also speed things up for your hiring team. Here are some strategies to make it easier for candidates to apply:

• Make your careers page easily accessible. Candidates shouldn’t have to dig through obscure sections of your company’s website to find open positions. Make your careers page easy to find from any page by linking to it in the main navigation menu and the footer. Plus, include relevant keywords and metadata to optimize the page for search engines and increase visibility.
• Don’t require an account to apply. Making candidates create a complicated password to meet the required number of characters, symbols, and numbers only adds friction to the application process. If you don’t allow them to apply directly on your website or through the external job boards you partner with, they’re more likely to move on to another company that offers a more straightforward process.
• Offer a mobile-friendly experience. Many job seekers like the convenience of applying for jobs on the go with their smartphones or tablets, so make sure the layout and design of your job postings are easy to navigate on smaller screens.
• Limit your application process to one page. A multi-page application can bring surprises (e.g., a mandatory portfolio upload or open-ended questions). By having everything on one page, candidates can see what’s required upfront and then prepare everything they need ahead of time to apply in one sitting.
• Only ask for essential information. Distilling applications down to necessary questions only saves candidates time. For example, if you require a resume document upload, don’t make candidates write out their work history. What’s more, shorter applications speed up the review process (and overall hiring process) for your recruiting team, improving time-to-hire and time-to-fill metrics.
• Provide clear instructions. Transparency at each application stage can help job seekers apply confidently. For instance, if you require candidates to upload documents, specify which formats will be accepted (e.g., PDF, DOC, etc.)
• Include fields for URL links and free responses. If you can’t offer large file size limits for document uploads, candidates will appreciate being able to link to their larger work samples rather than compressing their files and sacrificing quality. Also, free responses will allow job seekers to share pertinent details they couldn’t cover in other parts of the application.
• Send a confirmation email. Acknowledging receipt will give job seekers peace of mind after they spent valuable time preparing their application for you. Consider sending them a copy of their application to go the extra mile. Just as you’re screening multiple candidates, people are applying for multiple jobs with tailored resumes. They’ll appreciate a copy to help them better prepare for interviews.
• Test the application process yourself. For example, perhaps you’ll notice it takes too long to complete, or your email confirmation template isn’t formatted correctly. Putting yourself in candidates’ shoes and submitting a test application will help you identify and fix any bottlenecks to make it as user friendly as possible.

Design a Fair and Engaging Interview Process

Once you’ve determined which candidates have passed the screening process, it’s time to narrow down the pool further and interview them individually. Consider the following best practices to help you minimize bias and hire the right person for the job:

1. Assemble diverse interview panels. Getting perspectives from people of different genders, ethnicities, backgrounds, and job functions reduces the influence of personal biases. Be sure to train interviewers on ways to make the hiring process more inclusive and objective. [Note: Multiple perspectives are necessary, but limit the panel to key stakeholders only. Having too many cooks in the kitchen will make it much harder to reach a consensus.]
2. Ask standardized interview questions. Base your questions on the job description’s requirements and competencies. Asking all the candidates interviewing for the same job position the same questions (including behavioral interview questions) in the same order is known as a structured interview format. This ensures consistency across interviews and makes it easier to compare candidates’ responses.
3. Use interview scorecards. Also called evaluation forms, interview scorecards allow the panel to systematically assess candidates based on predetermined criteria and a consistent rating system. For instance, you might score candidate responses on a scale of one to five (with higher results indicating the interviewee possesses the particular skill) for different elements such as technical skills, soft skills, and overall culture fit.
4. Follow up with interviewers. While the interviews are still fresh in their minds, have each panel member make notes and then debrief as a group to share feedback and decide which candidate(s) will advance to the next round.
5. Keep candidates informed. Providing candidates with regular updates on the status of their application, next steps, and potential delays can help ease any anxiety or frustration they may be feeling, keeping them engaged. Even if you’ve chosen not to proceed with a candidate’s application, let them know as soon as possible to respect their time. If they request it, offer constructive feedback—your insight might help them land their next opportunity.

Optimize New Hire Onboarding Experiences

At this point, you’ve selected your rockstar candidates, and they’ve accepted your job offer—hooray! Now it’s time to nail the onboarding process to retain the employees you’ve invested a lot of time and effort in during recruitment. In fact, you have an average of just 44 days to convince new hires to stay. Here are some ways to make a great first impression:

• Send welcome packets before their first day. With employee onboarding software, new hires can electronically sign essential paperwork such as Form I-9 and their W-4 Form, set up direct deposit, read the employee handbook, and more. Allowing new employees to dot the i’s and cross the t’s beforehand frees them up to make connections and focus on their role once they get to the office or start working remotely.
• Gift company swag. The options for branded swag are endless, but it’s a bonus if you can choose gifts that’ll be useful in their day-to-day on the job (after all, most people probably don’t want yet another ill-fitting t-shirt with a huge logo). A laptop bag, cable organizer, noise-canceling headphones, or a book that’ll help them better understand your company culture and values are some options to consider. For example, at BambooHR, we send every new hire a copy of Crucial Conversations.
• Introduce them to their immediate team. Whether their manager hosts a team meeting or each tenured teammate sets up their own one-on-one with the new hire, set aside time for introductions on their first day in person or virtually. Even if it’s just a few minutes, it can go a long way toward making them feel welcome and included.
• Pair new employees with a buddy. According to Gallup research, employees with a friend at work are more likely to recommend their workplace, stay with the company longer, and have higher job satisfaction. Implementing a buddy program can help those new friendships blossom early on. Onboarding buddies can help new hires learn about different processes and workplace cultural norms as well as answer any “silly” questions new employees may not feel comfortable asking their manager (like how to use that fancy espresso machine in the breakroom).
• Organize a welcome lunch. After they’ve met their immediate team, treat all the new hires to lunch to foster connections and camaraderie. Encourage senior leaders and more tenured employees from various departments to attend as well so new hires can meet them in an informal setting to help ease the pressure they’re likely feeling. And don’t forget about your remote workers—send them a gift card to get their favorite takeout dish to enjoy at a virtual lunch.
• Create engaging onboarding videos and training modules. People retain up to 95% of a video message compared to only 10% of a written message. So instead of handing them a stack of dense documents to read, make a video series covering key topics like company policies, values, product overviews, cybersecurity best practices, and more. To help the influx of new information stick, complement the videos with short quizzes and real-life scenarios to make training more interactive.
• Provide a clear roadmap. Have managers create a personalized 30-60-90-day checklist for their new reports. This format aims to give new hires direction and purpose, helping to decrease time to productivity. Training sessions, intro calls with key stakeholders, meetings, and details about their first project are some agenda items managers might include.
• Schedule regular check-ins. Managers can complement their new hires’ onboarding plans with frequent one-on-one meetings to assess their progress, address blockers and concerns, give feedback, and provide ongoing support. The meeting cadence can be adjusted as new hires become more confident in their roles (e.g., going from three weekly meetings to one after their first month).
• Ask new hires for their feedback. Why guess what’s working and what isn’t when you can go straight to the source? When new employees wrap up their onboarding process, invite them to complete an anonymous feedback survey to see how engaged they feel about the company’s mission, how useful they found the activities, and if they feel welcome on the team. If you notice any trends in responses, adjust your onboarding process accordingly to make it even more effective for your next batch of new hires.

What Best Practices Ensure an Optimal Candidate Experience?

Creating a candidate experience isn’t a one-and-done feat. As you tweak your hiring process over time, keep the following questions in mind when evaluating if it’s as strong as it can be:

Is the Technology Involved Easy to Use and Understand?

As mentioned above, you can make your application process more user friendly by simplifying navigation, omitting unnecessary questions and steps, providing clear instructions, and offering a mobile-friendly design.

Plus, ensure your company website, social media channels, application platform, and other digital tools are accessible to candidates with disabilities. This may involve:

• Using a font size of 10 or higher and enabling text enlargement
• Providing the option to turn off the timeout feature if your application has a time limit
• Writing alt-text descriptions for images, logos, and buttons
• Captioning and audio-describing videos
• Making content compatible with screen readers, screen magnifiers, voice recognition, and other assistive technology

These measures can create a more inclusive experience for all candidates, regardless of their technological preferences or abilities.

Are the Interactions with Your Organization Attractive and Positive?

Candidates will have several digital and personal interactions with your organization throughout the recruitment process. To ensure they have a positive experience, put yourself in their shoes and make a checklist that may include questions like:

• Is the careers page easy to find, user friendly, and informative?
• Are our website and social media channels current and reflective of our company culture and values?
• Do we maintain a high overall company rating on employer review sites?
• Is our communication with candidates timely and professional?
• Are interviews conducted as fair conversations rather than interrogations?
• Do new hires feel well adjusted after completing the onboarding process?

A seamless and engaging digital experience paired with timely and respectful communication can leave a lasting impression on candidates, even if they’re ultimately not chosen for the job.

Is the Experience Personalized?

Personalizing the candidate experience doesn’t always require grand gestures; often, small touches can have a powerful impact. For instance, when contacting top applicants to request an interview, addressing them by name and referencing one or two details that stood out from their application shows attentiveness and respect for their individuality.

And after a candidate has accepted your job offer, have them take a “get to know me” survey to find out their favorite snack, store, hobby, etc. Then, surprise them on important milestones, like their first day or completion of their first project, with something that proves you’ve been paying attention, like a gourmet gift basket.

It’s also important to keep in touch with silver medalists. Just because a candidate didn’t receive an offer doesn’t mean they weren’t a strong contender. The fact of the matter is you’ll only be able to choose one candidate in most cases, but you never know what the future will bring. Keeping great resumes on file and promising relationships warm will come in handy the next time a similar job opens up, saving you a ton of recruiting work.

Is Follow-up and Feedback Timely?

It’s a good rule of thumb to promptly follow up with all candidates, even if you’ve decided not to proceed with their application. Although not what they were hoping for, a rejection email, as opposed to radio silence, provides closure for candidates and shows your organization respects the time and effort they put into applying for the position. People will remember how they were treated during recruitment, so demonstrating professionalism will reflect positively on your employer brand.

What’s more, it’s crucial to keep your top candidates in the loop as well. Let’s say you’ve identified a frontrunner but some key decision-makers are currently unavailable, causing a bottleneck in the hiring process. If you don’t update the candidate early enough, they may assume you’re no longer interested and accept another job offer from a competitor who moved faster.

To avoid these pitfalls, consider using automated rejection email templates for efficiency while still personalizing them to some extent (e.g., greeting them by name as opposed to “applicant.”) and setting clear expectations with hiring managers about timely communication with candidates.

Is Your Organization’s Brand and Culture Clear?

If your company’s brand and culture aren’t crystal clear, you risk ideal talent scrolling past your job postings while potentially getting inundated with applications from unqualified candidates. We recommend conducting a brand audit that covers:

1. Internal branding: Are your company’s mission, vision, and values clearly defined in an accurate and exciting way? Do the benefits you offer align with your values? For instance, one of our values here at BambooHR is Enjoy Quality of Life, so we pay our employees to go on vacation.
2. External branding: Once you’ve established your brand identity, ensure it's consistent across all touchpoints, such as your job posts, company website, ads, and social media channels. In addition to understanding what your company does, candidates want to know what the culture is like. Share employee experience content like photos from company retreats or testimonials about the impact of your employee resource groups.
3. Customer experience: Your company’s brand is more than just its products or services. Potential employees want to take pride in their work, so share customer case studies detailing how your company has made a difference.

With these strategies in your toolbox, you’re ready to design and deliver a candidate experience rooted in empathy. Happy hiring!