Whether they were hired or rejected, talking to your job candidates about the entire recruiting process can help you to gain valuable insights into how the process looks from the candidate perspective. It can allow you to see trends and perhaps shed light on things the organization could be doing differently to improve the candidate process or to get better response rates to job postings or job offers.
In addition, there are some clear benefits to getting candidate feedback:
- Getting feedback directly from the candidates who have been through the recruiting process with your organization can give you information you may not have otherwise realized.
- There can also be a benefit in asking for feedback because it gives an outlet for candidates to talk about any negative experience—which may mean they’re less likely to do so on more public forums. This could also give you a chance to correct any immediate problems.
- It may mean that candidates will reapply in the future because they see you’re invested in the process. Individuals who were highly qualified but ultimately not selected end up applying again because they felt their opinions mattered.
- Candidates may be more likely to tell others to apply, even if they personally were not successful.
- Candidate experience affects your employment brand and, over time, can impact the number and the quality of applicants you get for any given role.
- It allows you to compare candidate experience across different parts of the organization and see where you’re improving and what can be learned or shared.
With all these reasons, it’s easy to see why employers would want to have this type of feedback. But getting it may seem easier said than done.
Getting That Feedback
Here are a few ways employers can solicit feedback from candidates:
- Ask directly. Reach out to the candidate the same way you’ve been communicating previously (e.g., e-mail, text, online software) and ask him or her for his or her thoughts on the process. The advantage here is that this method allows you to get in-depth responses.
- Send surveys to all candidates. The advantage of surveys is that the answers can be easily compared, and you can see trends. They’re easy to put together, and the process can be automated and kept anonymous.
- Use a third party to reach out to candidates and get candid input.
- Ask the others (internally) who were involved in the process what they would do differently and why.
- Solicit feedback socially, such as on social media.
- Use artificial intelligence (AI), such as chatbots, to engage with candidates and get information. This can be incorporated during the actual recruiting process rather than, or in addition to, using it after the process ends. Candidates can both ask questions and give input to the chatbot.
- Create a contest online. This could be as simple as a random drawing for a prize, selected from everyone who gives an honest review during a set time frame.
- Consider making it a two-way street. Use the opportunity of asking for feedback as a place where the candidate can also ask for feedback on his or her interview performance and why he or she wasn’t hired, if applicable. Most candidates say they rarely hear anything more than a generic “we found someone else for the role” response when rejected, so this may encourage replies.
- Consider adding a couple feedback questions as part of the application process. If you opt for this, of course, keep it very short—it’s critical not to negatively impact the process here. Alternatively, alert candidates early on to the fact that follow-up and feedback are part of the process—which could encourage participation later.
- Consider offering some form of compensation, such as a gift card (even if small) to encourage participation.
In part two of this article, we’ll continue talking about candidate feedback by giving tips for employers implementing a candidate feedback process