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Want to attract the best people? Offer a better hiring experience.[/caption]

Why a Candidate's Hiring Experience Matters

Just a few short years back, the phrases “user experience” and “customer experience” weren’t as commonplace inside of companies as they are in today’s market. Organizations with an expertly planned and continually refined experiences (which includes customer/user touch points and falls under the realm of branding and brand experience) reap the rewards of increased sales, greater customer loyalty, and employees who are more engaged–improving productivity, job satisfaction, and retention.But despite all the attention and investment in improving the experience across an enterprise there remains one area in need of serious reinvention for many companies–the candidate hiring experience (CHX), or, hiring experience (HX) for short. A candidate’s hiring experience begins from the moment they learn about an opening at your company, continues throughout the interviewing processAnd while some employers don’t see an issue with treating potential employees without as so much as a passing thought, smart and savvy employers view this as a valuable brand impression opportunity even if the applicant isn’t ultimately hired and competitive differentiator that can be owned entirely. Making a case for the candidate hiring experience should be top priority for any employer looking to gain an edge in a highly competitive job market because the days of employers calling all the shots in the hiring process are over as more candidates share their experiences and become more discerning.

What Employers Who Embrace the Hiring Experience Know

Savvy employers know that in-demand talent have their choice of employers and well-qualified passive or active candidates are at risk of being overlooked entirely by dated applicant tracking systems or hiring practices. They also understand there are also other candidates who are highly desirably that get turned off completely by the hiring experience they encounter and opt not to apply, quit pursing a role they applied to, or in some cases, drop out of the interviewing process before an offer can ever be extended, and instead, go to work for the competition.The ending result is job requisitions that take longer to fill or are left unfilled entirely. Hiring inefficiencies attributed to a poor candidate hiring experience strain existing resources, stalls growth, reduces productivity, and places innovation in the backseat so that the daily demands alone of the business can be met. Here are some other facts that employers who embrace the hiring experience know:

◊ Reputation and benefits bring them to the table–a good CHX gets them onboard

◊ You’re only as strong as your weakest link–review all hiring experience influencers including recruiting partners

◊ Hear it from the horse’s mouth–put systems in place to get feedback directly from applicants, interview candidates, and new hires

◊ The success for all cannot be achieve alone–HR and/or the Talent Acquisition departments should work collaboratively with operations, communications and IT departments to design & implement a program

◊ Training is your friend–use it. Don’t subject your program to failure because nobody understands what is expected and how to execute

Taking the steps towards making your organization’s candidate hiring experience a memorable and positive one that will guarantee that even the unhired candidates will sing praises about it and your company is worthwhile. Great employees can come from anywhere. Your next hire, customer, business partner, or boss may be a candidate today. What will they remember about their experience with you?

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