This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
Each time you hire a new employee, do you collect feedback from both the new hire and other candidates on the overall hiring process and experience? According to a survey from Future Workplace, 78% of job seekers indicate they’ve never been asked for feedback on the candidate experience, and only 25% of employers regularly request feedback from candidates.
Collecting – and acting upon – candidate feedback can offer a variety of benefits for for your business, which we’ve outlined below.
Improve Your Hiring Process
Candidates are your best source when it comes to collecting actionable feedback to improve your hiring process. When you hire a new employee, always ask them to share pros and cons of the candidate experience. And consider doing the same for candidates who made it far in the process but didn’t quite make the cut to get hired.
If a new employee says a specific step – or the entire hiring process – took too long, your business can identify next steps to speed up your hiring process. For example, if a candidate didn’t hear back about potential next steps until several weeks after he or she applied, you can make it a goal to review applicants in a more timely manner. Or if a new employee thinks filling out paperwork for the entire first day takes up too much time, you can consider implementing digital onboarding, so all employees can complete HR-related paperwork before the first day. Not only will addressing this feedback lead to a better candidate experience, but it can also help your HR team streamline the hiring process, and save time and money that can be reallocated to other parts of the business.
Build Your Best Team
By improving your hiring process and creating a better candidate experience, you’ll increase your likelihood of securing quality employees. In the absence of candidate feedback, you might be unaware of why certain quality candidates are dropping out of the hiring process. Perhaps your strongest candidates have waited around too long for an interview to be scheduled, only to be snatched up by a competitor with a quicker hiring process. Or an employee who was hired might indicate that your job descriptions and career site don’t include enough information about key benefits and what it’s like to work for the company. Given these examples, you can work to improve your scheduling process for interviews and update your job descriptions and career site to get candidates excited about the possibility of working for your company.
Improve Your Online Reputation
Job candidates often leave reviews about the hiring experience on Glassdoor, Facebook and other channels. But many employers don’t notice these reviews until they turn negative. For example, candidates might leave reviews saying communication throughout the hiring process was disorganized or they didn’t hear back from the hiring manager one way or another when they didn’t receive an offer. It’s important to respond to this feedback so candidates – and others considering applying for your company – understand you’ll act on the feedback to improve the candidate experience in the future.
In addition to responding to negative feedback, if you receive positive feedback about the candidate experience, make sure to encourage candidates to share this feedback on Glassdoor and other related sites. This way, candidates who are interested in open roles in the future will see the positives of your hiring hiring process and be more willing to apply. And positive feedback about the candidate experience can also help you build your customer base. Potential customers will see how much you value your employees, which means you also prioritize building a great team to provide top-notch customer service.
Build Relationships with Quality Candidates
Your business can’t hire every great candidate who comes in for an interview. In some cases, you might have two great candidates make the final round of interviews and have to choose one over the other. Or, you might simply keep open roles posted on your career site to build a pipeline of potential candidates, but don’t have the resources to make an immediate hire. Either way, if you’ve been in touch with a quality candidate who could be a great fit for your company down the road, always ask if there’s anything you can do to improve the candidate experience. Doing so will let the candidate know their opinion is valued. Then, when you reach out about an opening that aligns with his or her skills and experience down the road, he or she will remember the positive experience and likely be interested in the role.
Collecting and addressing candidate feedback is critical to improving your hiring process, hiring quality employees and improving overall efficiency at your company. To create a great candidate experience, it’s also important to follow each step of the hiring process every time you make a hire. For more information on building your best team, download our eBook, “The 9 Elements of a Well-Oiled Hiring Process.”
