82% of job applicants have already had a poor candidate experience (2024 barometer). These days, you can no longer ignore the fact that talent care about the experience offered by organisations and they are demanding.

When you think about it, it’s not surprising. The candidate experience is a mirror of the employee experience. If you don’t care about candidates, you don’t care about employees. But to find out where to start to build your candidate experience when you start from scratch, you have to understand the meaning of this overused, yet important term and understand the stakes in 2024.

What does a positive candidate experience look like?

What are we talking about when we talk about the candidate experience?

The candidate experience is an umbrella term for all the feelings, emotions and impressions that the applicant has throughout the recruitment process. More specifically, the candidate experience begins when the individual decides to engage with the recruitment process and is the result of the various interactions with the company. These interactions allow the potential employee to form an opinion about the employer’s behaviour, and then decide whether or not they would be willing to collaborate with that employer.

There are two schools of candidate experience. For the first one, it ends as soon as the employment contract is signed. For the second, it continues up to and including he employee onboarding.

What are the characteristics of a good candidate experience?

For a candidate experience to be considered positive, it has to meet several conditions:

●       It should be straightforward. Candidates should be able to understand the ins and outs of the position, the responsibilities, the application process, the recruitment steps, the terms of the interview or the people to contact. Generally speaking, any information that is useful to applicants must be easily accessible.

●       It must be smooth. It is essential for the recruitment process to smoothly, without any hitches, difficulties or bumps in the road. For example, for an online application, the candidate’s user experience must be easy, without duplicating steps.

●       It should be fast. The shorter the recruitment time, the better. So you need to optimise the steps by removing unnecessary ones and being responsive.

What are the challenges of the candidate experience for companies in 2024?

Taking care of the company image

58% of applicants say they share their negative experience ( candidate experience barometer 2024). In the digital age, the reputation of a company can deteriorate quickly. If you are careful about the candidate experience, you are also taking care of your employer image.

Take on your competitors by attracting talent

The current economic context is notable for recruitment difficulties: 57.4% of recruitments are considered difficult according to this survey and more and more experts are turning to freelancers. Companies have to make additional efforts to attract talent by meeting their expectations. It is therefore better not to add oil to the fire with a negligent recruitment path, because the consequences are significant: 57% of candidates say they would turn down an offer if the recruitment process is too long.

Recruit the right people

When a company has a good candidate experience, this limits recruitment errors. And to recruit the right people, the keyword is transparency. The idea is to communicate your corporate culture and values honestly, and have a clear managerial brief so that the responsibilities and missions described in the job offer match reality.

7 good practices to follow when you have never worked on your candidate experience

1) Carrying out an audit of the existing process is the first step

To identify the best practices to deploy for a good candidate experience, start by conducting an audit:

●       Internal survey of newly hired employees: what were their

impressions of the different stages of the recruitment process?

What did they appreciate? What did they like less?

Tools to carry out this survey are: collaborative workshops, anonymous surveys or

one-on-one interviews.

●       External survey of former candidates: what are their expectations? Their recommendations?

Use online satisfaction surveys or telephone interviews.

●       Identify the steps and tools of the recruitment process: what tools do you use (ATS…)? What is the average length of the recruitment process by job position? Who is involved in the process?

Use an audit carried out by the HR department.

2) Analyse the audit and write a brief for the ideal candidate experience in your company

At this stage, we recommend taking the following actions:

●       Company reputation audit: review sites (Glassdoor), social media, Google reviews…

●       Audit feedback: detailed report to highlight key areas for improvement.

●       Analyse the audit results in the light of the company values, corporate culture and HR practices.

Use an external firm, collaborative work with a member of senior management, the HR department, management and volunteer employees.

Once this step is completed, you are ready to write the ideal candidate experience for your organisation. To do this:

●       Define a HR objective to achieve: percentage of qualified applications? Engagement of candidates in the recruitment journey? Average recruitment time to reach? Candidate level of satisfaction?

●       List the main actions to implement: identify the first 3 to 5 actions to take in relation to available resources (budget, skills, time) and company ambitions.

3) Create or optimise your career site

One of the first things candidates do before they apply to a job offer is consult the company’s career site. It is in fact the no. 4 reason people apply according to the CCLD barometer in 2022. By sharing up-to-date information about your business and life inside your company, you give them an objective and accurate view of what their daily life would look like if they join your ranks.

What type of content should you highlight on your career site?

●       Job offers (up-to-date, it goes without saying!)

●       A presentation of your business

●       A video of the manager explaining the vision and ambition of the company

●       Your values and your corporate culture

4) A structured job offer is an attractive and easy-to-read offer

With 91% of candidates consulting ads to find a job, your job offer must be well structured and legible. To do this:

●       Draw up a portrait of your persona. In concrete terms, what doe their personality look like? What are their soft skills? What are their expectations in relation to the position and the working conditions? What are the main problems they encounter in their job search? What is their past experience?

●       Specify the recruitment context

●       Mention (if possible) a pay range . 9 out of 10 candidates want to know the salary before they apply to a job offer

●       Give details of the duties associated with the position. What are the goals/projects of the position? Which people will the employee be in contact with? What are the work tools and rituals?

●       Be dynamic from the get-go. Instead of starting with a presentation of your company, favour asking the candidates direct questions to help them understand the position and the company.

5) Remove unnecessary steps along the recruitment journey

Do applicants have to enter their personal data again to apply (professional experience, diplomas, etc.)? Remember to remove these steps! The best way to handle this? Set yourself up with an ATS (recruitment software) that will automatically classify personal information.

6) Integrate assessment tools

The company is not just there to check the candidate’s compatibility with the position and culture. Tests provide applicants with personalised information about their strengths, motivations, behaviour and soft skills. By interpreting their results, they can better direct their choice of company and highlight their strengths. In a perfect world, you should integrate these tools:

●       after CV selection and before the first interview

●       as the last step in candidate selection.

7) Communicate with the candidate throughout the recruitment process

60% of candidates say that "better communication, before, during and after the recruitment process" is what they need most (la superagence). For 62%, a complete lack of response to an application constitutes a poor candidate experience (Yaggo CAASK X IFOP 2024 study). To overcome this, provide systematic feedback to candidates at each stage of the journey. You can automate this task using recruitment software.

In conclusion, when you start from scratch, the goal is to take stock of your processes, practices and results in order to obtain an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of your candidate journey. This audit will then allow you to think collectively about the candidate experience you want to offer and then build the foundation for an experience that reflects your company’s DNA. And because you are building from the ground up, you will soon see the results!