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Candidate Experience: How Small Tweaks Can Make a Huge Impact

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by Melinda Canino, MS, CIR with strategic HR inc.

If you work in human resources, you’ve surely heard people talking about the importance of the “candidate experience.” But what does that really mean, why is it important, and how can you address it? These are critical questions to answer if you want to position your company for success. If you haven’t asked them of yourself or your organization, there’s no better time than the present!

What is Candidate Experience?

Candidate experience has been defined in many ways, but essentially it can be viewed as the collective whole of a job seeker’s interactions with and perception of a company during the recruitment and hiring process. It encompasses every touch point the job seeker has with your company from learning about your company background, products, culture, and the job to applying for the job and going through your selection process.

Why Does It Matter?

With record low unemployment rates across the country, coupled with new job creation in many industries, the competition for talent is at an all-time high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ratio of unemployed persons per job opening reached a historic low of 1.1% in 2017. If you look at recruitment today through the basic principles of supply and demand, it is without a doubt a job seeker’s market. With a plethora of employment options, job seekers are being far more selective about their job and company choices.

Candidates are acting more like consumers – they research a potential employer similar to how they research products and services before buying. With more informed candidates, it’s all the more important for your company to have a well-developed brand and culture and to actively engage consumers and potential employees to ensure they have a positive experience with your company.

According to CareerArc’s candidate experience survey:

  • Nearly 60% of candidates surveyed said they have had a poor candidate experience.
  • 72% percent of those respondents said they shared their negative experience online or with someone directly.

Your brand integrity is key for both customers and job seekers. When either of these groups have a negative experience with your company and share it publicly, it can negatively impact your ability to recruit top talent and lead to loss of current/future customers.

Company Culture – What Candidates Want to Know.

In order for candidates to be excited to work for your company, they need to know who you are.  You can share about your brand and culture through the careers section of your website and social media platforms (i.e., LinkedIn, glassdoor, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Candidates Look For:

  • Candidates want to see a realistic picture of what it’s like to work at your company. They want to know about your company culture and how it is lived every day.
  • How are employees treated and what’s the potential for growth? This is your chance to give candidates a compelling reason of why they would want to work at your company and be part of your team.
  • Connection and commitment to community. What role does your company play in the local or broader community and why?

If you’re concerned that your company culture is contributing to fewer applications, applicant drop off rates, higher turnover, and/or an overall negative candidate/employee experience, this is a critical foundational piece on which to focus your care and attention.

Using Videos to Promote Company Culture:

An effective way to share about your company culture is through videos, and the good news is that doesn’t mean expensive over-produced company videos. This presents a great opportunity to get your employees involved in telling their stories about what it’s like to work at your company. It’s also a way for recruiters and hiring managers to make a more personal connection with potential candidates early in the application/selection process.

According to a recent study by Lighthouse Research and Advisory:

  • 55% of active job seekers said employee-generated video would be more credible/trustworthy than company-produced video.
  • Candidates said that seeing the hiring manager on video would make them 46% more likely to consider the job and 30% more likely to respond to a recruiter or apply.

Communication is the Cornerstone of Candidate Experience.

We live in a world that expects immediate feedback, and the job search process is no different. Employers need to provide as much information as they can at every stage so that candidates feel that they matter. Put yourself in the job seeker’s shoes. Wouldn’t you prefer to know what to expect in the selection process if you were about to make a significant career/life change? You wouldn’t be alone – 78% of candidates report that their candidate experience is an indicator of how the potential employer values its people.

Also, choose your communication tools wisely. If you haven’t incorporated texting into your recruitment and selection process, you’re missing a huge opportunity to stay easily engaged with your candidates. If you want to incorporate texting in a broader and more consistent way, you may want to consider exploring a resource such as TextRecruit, which is a candidate management platform leveraging text, chat, and artificial intelligence in your hiring process.

If you’re not sure if your communication methods are currently working to your advantage, consider enlisting help from Hello Hire, a firm specializing in candidate experience solutions. They can conduct a candidate experience audit to help you identify your strengths and create an action plan to address any gaps.

Bottom line, be responsive and keep candidates informed in a timely manner if you want to continue to keep them engaged in your process. Remember, there are plenty of other employers out there who are also trying to get their attention. You risk losing candidates to a competitor if you don’t keep the lines of communication open.

How to Evaluate Your Candidate Experience.

According to Glassdoor, an average of 74% of candidates drop off during the application process. Have you looked at your current application and selection processes through the lens of providing an exceptional candidate experience? If not, below are some questions to ask yourself:

Job Application Phase:

  • Company Careers Website: Is it easy to navigate? Does it tell the story about what it’s like to work for your company? Can a candidate submit their resume even if there isn’t a current open job in their field? Does it explain your recruitment/selection process so that candidates know what to expect?
  • Job Advertisement: Is it a quick/easy read? Is it candidate-focused answering “what’s in it for me?”
  • Application: Is it quick and easy to apply? Is it mobile friendly? Have you tested it out yourself for ease of use?
  • Candidate Communication: Do candidates know where they stand in the selection process? Is there someone they can reach out to for answers? Do they get responses to their questions? How long does it take for them to receive responses? Do they get informed when they are no longer being considered for a position?

Selection Phase:

  • On-site Interviews: Are candidates prepared for what to expect in their on-site interview? (i.e., Who will they meet with? Where? For how long? What’s the typical attire at your location?) Do they get a chance to meet some of the people with whom they would work?
  • Staff Interview Preparation: Is training/preparation provided to interviewers and anyone with whom the candidate might come into contact to ensure the optimal on-site experience?
  • Candidate Communication: Do candidates know what to expect after the interview? Do candidates know where they stand in the selection process? Do they receive feedback? If the selection process takes longer than expected, is it communicated to all candidates?
  • Assessments: Are pre-employment assessments used appropriately (regarding time to complete and point at which they’re required in the process)?

Hire/Close:

  • Communicating the Hire: How quickly is the hire decision made and communicated to the selected candidate? Who is responsible for making verbal and written offers? Do you call runner-up candidates with personalized closure? Do you notify all candidates when the position is filled?

As you can see from the evaluation questions above, with some simple tweaks to your processes, you can make a huge impact on the quality of your candidate experience. In this tight labor market, now is the time to differentiate yourself from the crowd.

 

Melinda Canino, MS, CIR is an HR Consultant at strategic HR inc.  If you have any questions or would like to share your comments, contact Melinda@strategicHRinc.com.

 

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New Year’s Resolution: Make Life Happen!

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By Robin Throckmorton, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

With the beginning of a new year, reflecting on the previous year’s accomplishments and challenges, let’s us get set for a fresh start for 2018.  As I was reflecting on 2017 myself, I ran across my notes from a very inspirational keynote at my son’s college graduation at Mount St. Joseph University by Wendy Lea, CEO at Cintrifuse.

As the new grads were about to embark on a new chapter of their lives, she encouraged them by sharing a variation of the following messages.  You need to…

  1. …accept responsibility for your own life;
  2. …define what drives you – what is your North Star?;
  3. …identify a strength of yours and immerse yourself in it;
  4. …embrace the power of relationships;
  5. …respect the impermanence of it all; and
  6. …keep your windows open and wind in your face by saying yes to new opportunities.

As we begin a new year and another chapter in your life, don’t forget to be in control and make your life happen rather than waiting for it to happen. Make this the year that you benefit from the opportunity in front of you.

What goals are you going to set for yourself for your New Year’s Resolution? I’d love to hear.

 

Robin Throckmorton, MA, SPHR, SCP is the President at strategic HR inc.  If you have any questions or would like to share your comments, contact Robin@strategicHRinc.com.

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Happy and Positive Thinking Is a Choice

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By Cathleen Snyder with strategic HR inc.

For many of us, the holidays bring times when we spend additional time with family that we might not normally spend.  This can present joys as well as challenges.  After the Thanksgiving holiday, several on our team were talking about some “interesting” interactions we may have had with some family members.  Complaining or “quirks” (generously labelled) were often mentioned.

With this, I can’t help but think about my own approach to life in general.  What do others think of me, after I’ve left the room?  Do I add significantly more positive than negative?  Am I the one that others have to tolerate?

While the holiday season may shine a spotlight from a family perspective, these issues also impact the work environment.  How do my behaviors impact my work environment?  Do I leave others feeling positive and uplifted, or down and negative?

Recently, in a company staff meeting, I did a presentation based upon Erika Oliver’s book, “Happy Crap”.  She is an amazing, energetic speaker that I would highly recommend.  Erika offers some wonderful insights of how the choices we make can impact daily life.  We choose our thoughts, and our responses to certain prompts and situations.  The quality of our thoughts, negative or positive, determines the quality of our experience and our lives.

As we go through life, the choices we make reflect assumptions we make regarding people, things and situations.  Further, these assumptions impact how I feel, talk and act.  According to Oliver, we have between 40,000 and 60,000 thoughts per day.  Of those, 80% are negative!  When we choose negative assumptions, i.e. traffic will be bad, I’m going to get yelled at, my customer will never be happy, this can’t help but impact how we approach our day.

It has been proven that the overall workplace attitudes impact the results of the business.  Oliver says, if the prevailing attitude is negative, an announcement of a drop in revenue is met with doom.  Conversely, a workplace that has a prevailing positive attitude is more likely to approach such news from a perspective of “what’s not working, and how can we fix it?”  An overall sense of optimism, in the face of bad news, will help the team pull together and overcome these challenges.  A positive or negative attitude can also impact Creativity, Competition, and Retention.

Bottom line, we have a choice.  The quality of our thinking does make a difference.  Our own actions, positive or negative, affect others’ attitudes and actions.  Negative thoughts impair problem solving and communication skills.  A positive approach to a problem will inherently result in others being more willing to help.  Positive thinking is linked to decreasing depression, improving communication, enhanced creativity, increasing happiness, even losing weight.

We can change the choices we make, although it may not be easy at first.  We may need to, literally, reprogram our responses.  It may be uncomfortable, but realize it’s worth the effort when we consider how it impacts others.

Don’t get me wrong, no one expects that every day will be roses, unicorns and rainbows.  We simply need to do enough to tip the balance to the positive.  For some of us, this may mean reprogramming our default response to lean more positive than negative.

I encourage each of you to take a minute to do an honest self-assessment – How am I perceived by others?  Do I have a positive impact on others around me and my work environment?  Anything less than a resounding “Yes!” means there is some work to do.

Erika Oliver is definitely on to something.  If we put more energy to a positive outlook than we do negative, the impact on our work environment can’t help but improve.  We’ve all heard the buzzwords – culture, engagement, inclusiveness for all.  It starts with some basics of a positive attitude.  Our daily challenge is to ask ourselves, “How did I positively impact my work environment?”

References:

Oliver, E. (2011). Happy Crap. Portage: In The Affirmative Publishing.

 

Cathleen Snyder is the Director of Client Relations at strategic HR inc. If you have any questions or would like to share your comments, contact Cathleen@strategicHRinc.com. 

 

HRIS Software – What Does “Determine Your Needs” Mean?

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By Clay Scroggins with CompareHRIS.com

If you have read any articles on selecting an HRIS, HRMS or HR software programs, they all say you first have to determine your needs. The phrase is used so often it’s almost a cliche. I am not saying that people who say this are wrong; far from it. I am just amazed at how little depth is behind the words. Determining your needs for a human resource program is extremely important and it’s no easy task. In order to find a system matching your needs, you need to be as detailed as possible with creating them. The better the job you do on this step of the process, the more successful you will be with your final decision.

Why is determining needs so important for HR Software?

In my research, there are over 60 US or Canada based companies that offer an HRIS or HRMS software application. If we include human resource outsourcing and service bureau companies in this list, you might very well be talking about over two or three hundred companies. Your job with determining your needs, as I see it, is to narrow this list from several hundred companies to a handful and then, following your evaluations and research, find the system that offers the closest match to your needs, requirements and budget. When you look at “determining your needs” in this way, it sure sounds like more than a simple cliche.

As someone who has sold HR information systems for more than fifteen years, my first meeting with a prospect was to determine what their needs were for an HRIS application. Most had something written down but rarely provided enough detail. Following, is a typical needs list from one of my customers.

Looking for an In-house or hosted HRIS application that meets the following needs:

  1. Tie to our outsourced payroll application 
  2. Windows based 
  3. Easy to use 
  4. Salary History 
  5. Track dates for review, birthdays, and anniversaries 
  6. Salary Grade Analysis 
  7. Benefits information 
  8. Custom fields or custom screen options 
  9. Affirmative action tracking 
  10. Track training information 
  11. Employee Self Service Option 
  12. Easy to use report writing with the following standard reports:
  13. Turn over reports
  14. Birthday reports
  15. Anniversary Reports
  16. New Hire Reports
  17. EEO Reports
  18. OSHA compliance reports

Does this list look familiar? I am willing to bet that this list is very similar to your own. I’m going to let you in on a little industry secret. All of the vendors who have sold HR software systems have heard this exact list of needs hundreds, if not thousands, of times before. So it’s not surprising that almost all of them offer these exact capabilities. Some meet each need easier or in greater detail but on the surface they meet all of these capabilities. Your list of sixty HRIS vendors is still pretty much at sixty vendors.

Going to an HR software vendor with the list above is sort of like going to a car dealership and saying you want a car with an engine, seats, four tires, and that runs on gas. They all do it.

So how do we narrow down the list?

Step One – Determine if you are looking for hosted HRIS solutions or in-house HRIS programs. Actually, under hosted HRIS there are really two options, subscription and hosted HRIS.

Subscription Service solutions (also referred to SaaS or PEPM) are sometimes referred to as multi-tenanted, as many companies share a system that has been configured for general use. The software and the data reside on servers in a secure facility, managed by the Vendor, where you access it from a Web browser. These solutions do not require IT support on your part. They usually require a set-up fee and you typically subscribe to this service on a month-to-month basis based on your employee population for a minimum term.

Licensed/Purchased solutions are sometimes referred to as In-House or On-Premise solutions. You pay a one-time license fee and your IT department installs and maintains the solution on your hardware using your network. Licensed software is configured to your particular needs. There are implementation fees to set up the software. Ongoing annual Support fees are a percentage of the original license cost.

Licensed/Hosted solutions are the same as Licensed/Purchased with the software being configured to your particular needs. The difference is, however, the Vendor hosts your software in its secure facility and provides the back office I.T. support. There are still implementation and Support fees. There is usually no minimum term as you own a license.

Step Two – How much money do you have to spend? HR software varies widely in price. You need to determine how much budget money you have to spend before arriving at your short list of vendors to review. You will waste your time if you have People Soft needs on a Microsoft Excel budget.

Determining how much you can spend is, not surprisingly, a little tricky. With the hosted or subscription vendors you are going to spend less up front but so much per month or per payroll cycle. In this case, you would need to find out how much you can spend per month or year. With a licensed in house application, most of your investment will be up front but you will have annual support costs going forward. Even with licensed options, you can spread the payments over a period of time by leasing the software.

Step Three – Increase your HRIS or HRMS IQ. Before deciding exactly what capabilities you are looking for with an HR software application, it’s obviously important to understand what your options are.

Clay C. Scroggin has over fifteen years experience in the human resources software industry. Clay is President and Owner of CompareHRIS.com, a web site dedicated to assisting HR professionals with their search, selection, implementation and use of HR systems. CompareHRIS.com offers an extremely comprehensive HRIS selection tool to assist you with your HRIS, HRMS, or Human Resources software selection process. Make sure to download CompareHRIS.com‘s free HR and Payroll Software Buyer’s Guide.