Why You Should Go All In on Candidate Experience (Not Gamification)

What memory do candidates keep of your recruitment process? The answer lies largely in the candidate experience, which is not an isolated event. For a candidate, your recruitment process says a lot about your internal organization and whether the employer brand you project externally truly matches your practices.

A recruitment process focused on people.

It starts much earlier than you might think... The candidate experience is built through every interaction between a prospect and the company. Even if the job interview could benefit from being less rigid, gamifying the recruitment process alone is not enough to attract quality prospects and identify their soft skills. In the age of online reputation, let's consider the candidate experience as cyclical rather than confining it to a fleeting encounter with a beginning and an end. What impression do you leave on those who applied to your company? What will they say about you? When in doubt, let's review the key factors and strengthen your candidate experience—an essential element of your employer brand.

Polish your showcase

Without hesitation, any savvy candidate will type the company name into their search engine. A true showcase for prospects, the career site highlights the professions, achievements, and the atmosphere within the offices (or on Slack—to each their own workplace). Dynamic right down to its recruitment, Decathlon pushes its storytelling to the point of linking sports and careers. What image do you offer your prospects? Are you doing justice to your employer brand? In addition to a brief introduction about the company's history, departments, and teams, a video testimonial from employees currently in high-demand positions certainly doesn't hurt! A well-stocked career site sets the stage for initial contact. If they've done their homework, candidates will be better informed and ready to get straight to the point during your meeting.

Dear prospect, if you're reading this

Once upon a time, there was a job posting that nobody wanted to apply for… Written without flair, the job listing drove away every prospect who read the few lines—a mix of copy-paste and impossible qualifications to find in a single person. Too demanding, not engaging enough, you might as well throw a bottle into the sea. Sound familiar? Unlike an employment contract, the job posting should be at least pleasant to read and make people want to move to the next step. Drawing from marketing principles, let's refocus this listing on its objective. What type of person is it trying to attract? What differentiating benefits can it highlight? No, the ping-pong table and the free fruit basket no longer count! Instead, speak realistically about the atmosphere within your company or the teams eagerly awaiting this person (without exaggeration). Finally, enough with prerequisites worthy of a Nobel Prize profile. When writing a job posting, you need to have a sense of priorities!How do you write a job posting that will resonate with the right people? Have you heard of candidate personas? This marketing-inspired exercise helps you better understand your prospects by studying their habits, priorities, and motivations. Because not all candidates have the same expectations and goals—that would be too easy! A recent graduate will look for a different candidate experience than a seasoned executive, for example. Work-life balance preferences, appetite for remote work, or management style preferences—these insights will help you deliver a compelling candidate experience. The goal of learning more about a candidate? Personalization! Make the recruitment process better suited to your target audience. Where many companies opt for a fun and digital experience, simply reconnecting with good old human contact gives candidates what they're looking for: a real sense of the daily interactions they'll have. Some candidates may not be comfortable with digital formats and won't be able to showcase their strengths, while others avoid video interviews. Personalizing the candidate experience means seeing applicants as human beings, not just a number—from this perspective, you'll be able to make a complementary choice that suits the position.

Striving for a stress-free candidate experience

There's no need to ask candidates to repeat all the information already on their resume or LinkedIn profile. A good employee experience keeps things simple. Making candidates go through countless steps before even reaching the interview is so outdated. Saving time during the application process is crucial, as a recruitment process that demands a lot of time from the start can deter candidates who are currently employed and short on time. Consider the option of including a link to their LinkedIn profile or auto-filling from an uploaded resume. Simplifying your recruitment process means clear and effective communication. Well-thought-out communication also helps reduce tensions. Automated emails can save you time and keep the candidate informed of upcoming deadlines—just make sure to personalize them a minimum. An email sent before the first interview informing about materials to prepare, whether there will be a personality or skills test, or simply putting them at ease. This attention to detail, still too rare, will certainly leave a positive impression. Make every talent assessment more enjoyable. A successful candidate experience can combine a digital recruitment tool with human contact—a personality test completed remotely beforehand prepares both parties for interviews so the magic of human connection can work. Finally, make sure to close the interview or exchange with an approximate timeline for the next step or a response deadline. This information will help the candidate manage their expectations.  

The candidate experience opens a window into company life

The interview is over, you think you've found the rare gem, but how do you convince them without being overbearing? Help the person envision themselves in company life and offer shortlisted candidates the opportunity to connect with an employee who is satisfied with their experience. It's an opportunity for them to chat with someone they'll be working alongside and ask their questions openly. You'll also be able to gauge their interest in the company and the position afterward.

Every response can be positive

Nobody likes delivering bad news, but enough with the ghosting! Please, spare candidates this uncertainty. Despite a negative response, candidates can still have fond memories of their experience with the company. A well-written email informing them of the rejection, explaining the reasons behind your decision with care, is far better than silence. Better yet, if it was a lengthy recruitment process and they made it to the end without success, call them back or write them a personalized email. This way, you'll maintain a virtuous cycle. Even if the candidate wasn't the right fit this time, who knows what tomorrow holds? That's why the candidate experience should be enriching. As you can see, the candidate experience goes hand in hand with the employer brand. It's not just about making a good impression, but about showing that the positive culture continues daily within the company and its values.