Report on Candidate Experience

Is candidate experience important?

Candidate experience refers to the interaction a candidate has with a potential employer throughout the hiring journey, spanning from job posting to job offer.

Many businesses have encountered numerous hiring challenges this year, including reduced applicant numbers, evolving job seeker expectations, and heightened competition for top talent.

In addressing these challenges and ensuring optimal team recruitment, how crucial is candidate experience? Does every aspect of the hiring process significantly influence your ability to secure the right individual for your team?

To answer these questions, we conducted a survey of 500 recent job applicants, analyzing their feedback on their hiring process experiences. Our goal was to determine one fundamental query: Does candidate experience truly make a difference?

The conclusion is clear: yes. The candidate’s experience during a company’s hiring process profoundly influences their decision to accept or decline a job offer.

What are job seekers seeking when they apply for jobs?

In the past year, 49% of job seekers have contemplated leaving their current job, with dissatisfaction over pay being the primary reason. Therefore, it’s not unexpected that when asked what influenced their decision to apply for a new job, the top response was “the job posting listed the compensation I was seeking.”

Do job seekers truly care about the hiring process?

We asked job seekers to rate the importance of the hiring process to them. The overwhelming majority gave it a rating between 7 and 10, indicating that most candidates pay close attention to how a company conducts its hiring process. Very few considered it of low importance.

Regarding their current or most recent employer, 83% of employees rated their candidate experience in the hiring process as positive. Additionally, 76% of candidates stated that a positive experience influenced their decision to accept a job offer. Explore to find the most in-demand jobs in the Netherlands.

What are the consequences of negative candidate experiences?

Our findings reveal that 53% of job seekers have encountered at least one negative experience during the hiring process in the past year, and 52% have declined a job offer due to a poor experience.

Consider the countless hours your business invests in hiring and recruiting. If you’ve created a negative candidate experience, half of your offers will be declined. As a result, employers often have to settle for their second or third choice for a role, leading to the biggest challenge businesses face today: making the right hires.

What contributes to a negative candidate experience?

When we looked at the reasons job seekers classified those experiences as being negative, here’s what we found:

The top two reasons candidates turned down job offers were “the compensation and benefits not meeting expectations” and “the role and responsibilities were different than I expected”

How does the candidate experience affect your employer brand?

The impact of a poor candidate experience goes beyond the disappointment of a declined job offer—it has serious consequences for your employer brand, or your business’s reputation as a workplace.

• 35% of candidates reported leaving a negative review online after a negative experience.
• 60% of candidates reported leaving a positive review online after a positive experience.

This is significant because more than half of job seekers abandon their interest in a company after reading negative reviews on employer review sites like Glassdoor and JobSage. Don’t let negative candidate reviews define your employer brand and cause you to miss out on top talent.

Candidate ghosting 

Candidate ghosting refers to the increasingly common issue where a candidate suddenly stops responding during the hiring process. This can manifest as a candidate not showing up for a scheduled interview or abruptly ceasing all communication after initial contact. It’s always frustrating when a candidate ghosts, but our findings show that 45% of ghosting incidents occur after the interview stage.

However, it’s important to recognize that ghosting isn’t one-sided—employers have also been guilty of this behavior. In fact, 53% of candidates reported being ghosted by an employer. Additionally, 31% mentioned that after receiving an initial response to their application, the employer then ghosted them before scheduling an interview.

Employer ghosting can significantly harm the candidate experience and potentially damage your employer brand. Even if you decide not to hire someone, the impression you leave with them could affect your ability to attract other top candidates in the future.

Ways to enhance the candidate experience

Here’s what we found when we asked job seekers to identify what employers could do to improve the hiring process that would have the most impact on candidate experience. 

1. Enhance transparency in the hiring process regarding compensation and benefits.
   Job seekers seek comprehensive details about a position earlier in the hiring process to make informed decisions. For instance, 38% of job seekers anticipated being informed about compensation from the outset of the job posting. This presents a significant and straightforward opportunity for employers to improve the candidate experience while also enhancing the effectiveness of their applicant screening process, as candidates will self-assess suitability based on this information.
   • JobsReach fosters transparency between job seekers and employers, keeping applicants updated at every step. 
     Even if a candidate isn’t selected, employers can provide constructive feedback to help them improve.

According to a job seeker we interviewed, “Compensation and benefits are seldom discussed until after a rigorous and inconvenient interview process. Employers should prioritize upfront communication about what applicants care about most—salary, benefits, and working conditions, including career advancement opportunities.”

2. Ensure job postings provide clear and accurate information about the role and its responsibilities.
   Take the necessary steps to ensure that your job postings are comprehensive and accurately depict the responsibilities of the position. Candidates rely on these postings to envision themselves working for your company. If they discover later that the information is inaccurate, they will feel their time has been wasted.
   • In JobsReach, job postings are clearly and accurately describe the role and its responsibilities.
3. Enhance communication between interviewers and job applicants.
   Prompt and frequent communication with potential employers is highly valued by applicants and contributes significantly to a positive candidate experience. It’s crucial to maintain this throughout the entire hiring process, not just with selected candidates.

Here are some strategies to improve communication with candidates:

• Respond to all applicants promptly after they apply—Consider automating this process with email templates or using text recruiting.
• Clearly communicate the steps and timeline of the hiring process upfront—32% of candidates expect to receive information about the next steps during the initial interview. Provide candidates with a clear understanding of what to expect.
• Keep candidates informed about their status in the hiring process—If a candidate reaches out to you for an update, it’s a sign that communication could be improved. Remember, candidates often pursue multiple opportunities simultaneously, and keeping them informed can help you retain top candidates and avoid missing out on your preferred choices. Explore Remote Work Statistics & Trends In 2024.

Conclusion

𝐉𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 is a next-generation platform for jobs that directly connects ideal candidates with relevant job opportunities and completely removes the need for intermediary staffing and recruitment agencies to find new job opportunities.

JobsReach engages with ideal candidates wherever they are, promotes job opportunities, raises awareness of their future potential, and transforms them into prospective candidates.

𝐉𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 allows employers to request feedback and recommendations from candidates’ former colleagues to verify their qualifications and experience.