How your candidates view the recruiting process matters. Hiring is one of the first real touchpoints your company has with prospective new hires. You as a recruiter should keep this in mind, and also think about the candidates themselves. This allows you to provide candidates with a better hiring experience and an overall positive image of your company. Therefore, keeping in mind how your recruiting process looks like from the candidate’s perspective is vital.

Recruiting process & candidate experience

Let’s get this straight out of the way: candidate experience is real. And yes, your company also has a candidate experience, be it either consciously or unconsciously. The point is: the way you treat your candidates matters.

This is candidate experience. If done correctly, it increases the chance that the candidate accepts your offer. Similarly, a negative experience pushes candidates away from your company. We can all agree that a conscious, positive candidate experience benefits everybody involved.

This is also what AIESEC strives for. For more information about our recruiting process and how we can help your company, visit our partnership portal.

Step into your candidate’s shoes

When you plan your recruiting process, think about how it looks like to an outsider. Ask yourself: if I were to apply to my company, how would I feel about the process? This is important because there are some things that cause a negative candidate experience more than others.

Imagine that you are an applicant. How would you feel about your communication with your company? What would you think about your hiring process? Would you still want to work at your company after the interview you had?

Candidates view these three aspects as the most common causes for a negative candidate experience. Luckily, you can easily fix bad communication, complicated hiring processes, and unpleasant interviews. Keep in mind that in hiring, the applicants themselves are in the spotlight.

Company reflection

Your recruiting process reflects your company itself. Going through the recruiting process makes your candidates think: is this how they run the company? Also: if they treat me like this during the hiring process, do they treat me like this when I work here?

The image you give of your company during the recruiting process is crucial. It can be the reason your candidates decide to either accept or decline your job offer. Moreover, the image does not only affect the hiring but all interactions the candidate has with your company afterward.

Final word

The recruiting process from the candidate’s perspective is an aspect that you should not take lightly. Candidate experience matters, and how your candidates view the hiring process can make all the difference. Keep this in mind, and view the process through the applicants’ eyes. After all, it is the candidates’ decision to either work or not work in your company – and we both know what you want the outcome to be.