In part one of my three-part series, I covered personal brand from a candidate’s perspective. Now let’s cover external employer brand. The disclaimer here is that the majority of my working life has been in agency recruitment, so that’s the lens I’ll be looking through.
Employee experience - once a new employee is through the doors:
This is something I think a lot of businesses do extremely well. As with candidates, this starts at the very beginning of a recruitment process - the advert, physical application process, acknowledgement, lead time, the interview process, feedback and lastly, onboarding.
- How hard or easy are you making it for candidates to apply?
- Do they get an acknowledgement? And how long does it take?
- How many stages are in your process and is this clearly communicated?
- Does your ATS support all of this?
Problem: The number one thing we hear from candidates is about...
...the lack of feedback!
This includes an acknowledgement of their application and an update on the process or feedback from a face-to-face interview.
I could write a whole other article on the horror stories from candidates attending five or more interview rounds, and going through testing and presentations, only to get an automated ‘reject email’.
We must remember that most candidates take time to put in a really good application, a tailored cover letter and a CV. They take annual leave to attend interviews and time away from their families to prepare business cases and presentations.
Solution: I personally believe every candidate that’s been invited to attend a face-to-face interview deserves a personal phone call from the hiring manager or recruitment team, with honest constructive feedback.
Six years ago, Virgin Media looked at job applicant survey data over a 12-month period. It showed that six percent of job applicants were customers who, as a result of their recruitment experience, chose to unsubscribe. The lost revenue would equate to more than £4 million.
Your candidate is your customer, and your customer experience has a direct impact on your bottom line.
Fast forward six years and candidates/customers are better informed, have higher expectations and have more choices! They also care more than ever about what all organisations are doing from a social and environmental perspective. This is now one of the top driving forces for candidates when deciding their next employer.
Part three is where I come in. I will talk about my role as an extension of both your employee brand in the market and the candidate’s personal brand. The magic formula to a winning combo.
Read:
