The major trends in the world of jobs and professions show that the candidate experience is an increasingly fundamental concept for companies, but how has it evolved over time?

Candidate experience: what does it refer to?

The concept of candidate experience in recruitment is broad and complex and we can say that it is formed even before the candidate submits his application for a position.The idea behind the candidate experience refers to how the candidate (or the potential one) experiences the whole selection process, which starts from the first moment when he/she gets in contact with the company up to a potential hiring and onboarding. Let’s think about the candidate experience as a journey: a real path, a journey that can take place through several channels and methods.The first contact between person and company can in fact take place either through a job advertisement or on the career-opportunity company page, on social media or during an organized career day. The subsequent phases can also take place in person or through digital tools, in a flexible and dynamic way.

Candidate experience: what are job seekers attracted to?

The candidate experience begins when the job seeker starts searching information about companies that best reflect the values ​​in which he/she believes and that can offer positions in line with their professional aspirations.However, the job position is not the only element with which a job seeker creates his/her idea of ​​the perfect company: often candidates independently carry out research to test the authenticity of the communication messages disseminated by the company and evaluate their honesty.

In fact, in recent times the Corporate Image is considered an even more important element than the position offered itself, together with the founding values ​​of the company, the leadership style, people management, the concrete commitment to sustainable development initiatives, attention to work-life balance and organizational flexibility.

It is therefore evident, based on these factors and on how the job seekers’ expectations have changed over time, that even the candidate experience cannot be conceived as it was a few years ago: companies must evolve their proposal in terms of Employer Branding, in line with market trends and company itself.

Candidate experience: the main touchpoints to take care of

Companies aiming at attracting talents have to implement an effective Employer Branding strategy, which firstly has to set the creation of a unique and memorable candidate experience. Nowadays, the negative experiences lived by candidates during the selection phase can also have a very wide resonance thanks to the role of social media, without considering the risk of losing potential talents due to carelessness or deficiencies during the recruiting process.Let's see together what are the main points of the candidate experience not to be overlooked:

• Lean and efficient recruiting process: we saw together how to structure an effective recruiting process, to ensure the company is attracting the best talent, but also to offer candidates a simple and fast user experience.
• Interview to be managed in a clear and transparent way: the interview phase, whether in person or virtual, has always to be managed with extreme professionalism, placing the candidate in a comfortable situation, making all the information available on the offered position and on the organization, clarifying any doubts and questions that may arise.
• Care for feedback: one of the steps that often is overlooked during the recruiting process is feedback phase. It is extremely important that, regardless of the outcome of the selection, all the candidates receive honest and constructive feedback: the culture of feedback is an essential element in a people-centred organization.
• Onboarding management: the selection does not end with the identification of the most suitable person for the role or with the signing of the employment contract. This is where onboarding comes into play: it is essential that the new employee is accompanied and supported during all the hiring phases, up to his/her entry into the company and beyond. The digital transition has facilitated the evolution of traditional onboarding into digital onboarding, with advantages for both companies and candidates, following Employer Branding’s principles.

The key point to be kept in mind is that the management of the candidate journey in every phase significantly contributes to the idea that the candidate will form about the organization and what he/she will share about this with external audience.

The role of technology in candidate experience

We have already examined the role of digitalization in HR processes and the innovation that this transformation has brought with it. Recruiting is certainly one of the areas where such an innovation has generated the greatest benefits.The IT market offers softwares that can support in managing contacts with candidates, through chatboxes to answer to the most frequently asked questions, or simply by simple sending a thank you message that keeps the contact open.

‍Digital recruiting is now a reality in all the most structured organizations: the aim is exactly to redesign the candidate experience by focusing on the person and his/her needs, using the technology and exploiting the potential offered by digital tools in all recruiting phases.Similarly, Artificial Intelligence supports HR in managing all the recruiting phases, allowing a more efficient use of time and resources, containing selection costs and also streamlining the candidate experience.

This concept is part of the gamification logic applied to HR, in the integration of game techniques to the selection processes, allowing greater people involvement, especially towards new generations which are digital natives.