Recruiting during a pandemic comes with many challenges, but that doesn’t mean the candidate experience (CX) should suffer as a result. CX is even more important now than it was in the candidate-driven market, and your peers agree.
New survey findings released by CareerPlug reveal 50% of respondents had declined a job offer due to a poor experience. CareerPlug recently surveyed 250 people who have applied for jobs within the last year to learn more about their experience during the hiring process. Some of the findings are highlighted in this article, but you can view the full findings here.
Jobseekers Reveal Negative Experience Factors
A negative experience for jobseekers can hurt your brand, and in these current times of uncertainty, the last thing your company needs is negative online reviews. Get ahead of these experiences by learning from your peers’ mistakes!
CareerPlug identified the factors behind negative experiences based on its survey responses, which include:
- Compensation and benefits did not meet expectations (24%).
- Negative experience with people in the interview process (22%).
- The role and responsibilities weren’t as advertised (22%).
- Jobseeker disliked the work environment (16%).
- Jobseeker was offered a job with better comp and benefits elsewhere (9%).
- Slow and disorganized interview process (7%).
- Jobseeker was offered a job he or she thought was better (1%).
How to Create a Positive Experience
As you can see from the results, comp and benefits are the leading cause of a negative experience, but what isn’t clear is whether the comp and benefits package was clearly explained to the jobseeker.
When jobseekers set their eyes on a certain salary, they may be unmoved by your benefits package. However, clearly communicating the breakdown of a salary and the cost of the benefits included in that salary can help clear up any confusion and show jobseekers how their benefits play a role in the grand scheme of things.
What I want to address here is the elephant in the room: 22% of respondents say the people they met in the interview process where the reason they had a negative experience. Your recruiting team and hiring managers are the face of your organization. Your hiring staff are the first people jobseekers come into contact with, and they should offer a great first impression.
One way to ensure recruiters offer a great experience is by providing them with customer service training. You wouldn’t leave your customers dissatisfied, so why leave jobseekers feeling the same way? Customer service training will provide your recruiters with the emotional intelligence they need to be friendly and courteous and able to make a positive, lasting impression on all jobseekers.
Quick Tips
As CareerPlug’s survey shows, some of the negative experiences simply start with the job posting itself. Be sure the roles and responsibilities are crystal clear so there is no confusion as to what the candidate will be doing once he or she accepts the job offer.
Also, be sure to include the compensation information in the job posting. This way, jobseekers will know what they can expect as a salary range before wasting your time in the interview process. And finally, given the current state of uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, one way you can put jobseekers at ease and create a positive experience (through the job posting alone) is to indicate the working environment in the job posting.
If your offices are all remote, be sure to include that information. Or if you have a partial in-house arrangement, make that clear, as well. For 16% of CareerPlug respondents, the work environment had a negative impact on their experience, and for some, remote work may not be their preferred work environment.
At the end of the day, all of these issues can be resolved with one simple trick: clear communication. Communicate with candidates at every step of the hiring process, and make sure your recruiting team is friendly and helpful to create memorable first impressions.