Why startups should invest in candidate experience

This is when you will probably start to notice friction in your hiring processes and the candidate experience will decline. You were able to provide personalised feedback and give everyone an equal chance previously. But now, interviews are becoming less personalised as the company struggles to determine who is the right fit to come on board.

It is definitely not an easy thing for startups to focus on and invest in their recruitment. However, this is no reason for recruiting to slip to the bottom of the priority list. Here are three reasons why providing a good candidate experience during your recruitment process will help.

1) It strengthens your employer brand

You are starting from a clean slate and this is your one chance to do it right. More and more companies are focusing on their employer brand. It is definitely easiest to build a strong employer brand before any negative rumours exist about your company.

Regardless of whether or not you end up hiring, candidates of all backgrounds and abilities deserve a positive experience with your company. Furthermore, candidates are probably part of a community where sharing their experiences and thoughts are very common. This means sharing both the good and the bad. Studies have shown that negative experiences are far more likely to be remembered than positive ones.

Also, thanks to social media, Google and Glassdoor, your employer brand can be ruined quickly since words travel fast. People share their experiences far and wide on social media, so provide a good candidate experience to make sure candidates tell their story to others. Treat them well so that even those you rejected say good things about your company.

2) You get to recruit the top talents

It is definitely not easy to recruit top talents as a startup since many talents would rather work at large corporations. Therefore it is critical that your startup is known as one of the better companies to work at. In a competitive employment market, if you lose sight of how the candidate feels about your company, you might lose the candidate completely. There are two things that can entice top talents to work at your company other than the remuneration and benefits: a good employer brand and candidate experience.

Candidate experience is often overlooked but it might be the very thing that your startup needs to differentiate itself from its competitors. For example, why does everyone want to work at Google or Facebook?

Companies need to understand that even if you are interested in hiring a candidate, the candidate has to want to join your company as well. And this decision is influenced by many factors. By providing a good candidate experience, the candidate will be able to make a better decision when deciding if the company is a right fit for them and whether they want to work with you.

3) You get to streamline your recruitment process

What better time to execute a perfect recruitment process other than in the formative stages of your business? You should take this time to align your recruitment process with your company goals. If you are able to provide a great recruitment process as a startup, you will be able to expand the process using resources you have in the future. This way, you can ensure a fuss-free recruitment process that everyone is familiar with.

As a startup, you should ensure that there is a proper structure in place for your recruitment process. If your company advocates a high quality customer experience, you should ensure that the candidate experience is consistent as well. You should provide candidates with the level of attention and personalised experiences that you want your company to represent. You should give each candidate the respect and sense of value they deserve.

Over the years, your startup will be able to create a framework that promotes a good candidate experience and ensures a smooth hiring process. You can also improve the process over time based on candidate feedback. Your startup can use the data available to understand better what improvements can be made.

Creating a positive candidate experience needs time and thought, but it pays off when you build a good employer brand and are able to hire the best talent for each job. It is better to start early than late. Remember to make it clear from the start that your candidates are important to the company and you will be heading in the right direction.

TalentAdore is here to solve your recruiting problems related to candidate experience and employer brand. Download our Definitive Guide to Candidate Experience.