Friends. We talk about candidate experience all the time, but where is the love for recruiter experience? How do recruiters experience your hiring process? We know that satisfied candidates typically cost less to hire, take less time to hire and make better employees. But what does a satisfied recruiter give you?
Quite likely, a satisfied recruiter will give you higher candidate Net Promoter Scores, a better hiring process, technologies that seamlessly support the goal of hiring better employees and hiring managers that are better at interviewing and evaluating candidates. And here’s why.
The Intersection of Recruiter Experience and Candidate Experience
I think we have all patronized businesses where it is obvious that the employees are not happy to be there. Be it a restaurant, a rental counter, or a retail establishment, you get a sense right away that your interaction will not be happy, efficient or otherwise satisfying.
While it’s not quite the same dynamic in the recruiting environment, it’s just common sense that if a recruiter is “happy,” most interactions will be more positive. But in the case of hiring, the specifics matter.
They matter because recruiters and candidates share a lot of tools and participate in the same process – just on opposite sides of the equation:
- Career sites answer a lot of the questions a recruiter might otherwise have to answer and they (should) make it easy for candidates to learn about the company and position.
- Job boards and sourcing tools help recruiters and candidates find each other and communicate (effectively) about an opportunity
- Applicant tracking systems (should) support the candidate in providing their information and applying for the job. Those same systems should easily present candidate data to recruiters for managing, evaluating and communicating with candidates.
- Assessment and Scheduling systems automate the process of determining which candidates should be advanced and (should) make the scheduling process easier for both candidates and recruiters.
- Phone screens and hiring manager interviews give both the recruiter and candidate a (respectful) way to learn about each other and determine what value they place on the job and candidate.
- Offers provide candidates with reasons to either take or decline the job and they (should) represent the recruiters best tool for “closing the deal” and meeting their goal of filling another open position for their company.
Given that recruiters and candidates share a common process and common tools for achieving success, it only makes sense that both sides of the equation should be delighted with the process.
Optimize ALL Experiences With Data
So just flip that candidate experience coin over and you can see recruiter experience is inextricably tied to it. This presents an amazing opportunity to many organizations. By gathering experiential feedback from both candidates and recruiters, you expose all the aspects of your recruiting process that frustrate both candidates and recruiters.
Is your career site raising more questions than it answers? Could you reduce the load on recruiters by tweaking content and/or navigation? Ask the questions.
Is that ATS configured properly to engage candidates as they navigate the process? Is it serving recruiters with simple intuitive options for managing and evaluating candidates? Is the application quick and easy, while providing enough useful data? Ask the questions.
And on it goes. By breaking down each phase of the hiring process and asking key questions of candidates and recruiters, you will not only find myriad ways to improve satisfaction for candidates, but you will also find ways to increase satisfaction for your recruiting team.
And most of the changes you make to increase satisfaction will also increase efficiency, reduce friction and positively affect hiring outcomes.
Here is a case study about UiPath that shows the value of candidate, recruiter and hiring manager feedback during the hiring process. Don’t sleep on recruiter experience!
