It’s a candidate-driven market, which means jobseekers are in the driver’s seat and demanding more than just a higher salary. Jobseekers expect their employer to provide personal fulfillment and meaning. If your employees do not feel supported, aren’t learning new skills for the future, or are disengaged with their work, they will seek employment elsewhere.
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According to research highlighted in staffing solutions firm, The Execu|Search Group’s latest report, 95% of professionals are open to new job opportunities, despite not actively looking for a new job. Furthermore, 66% of professionals aren’t planning to stay long at their organization. With 62% of employers planning on hiring new staff in 2019, this is the last thing you’d want to hear.
What’s causing employees to seek out new opportunities? The Execu|Search Group finds that there are a multitude of reasons, but it all boils down to the same thing: a poor employee experience. According to the report, “employers are struggling to understand how engagement throughout the entire employment experience is critical to attracting and retaining talent. Poor experiences can have a ripple effect throughout an organization, bleeding into every facet of hiring and retaining employees.”
It Starts with the Hiring Process
The employee experience starts from the minute a jobseeker finds your job ad to the day that person is hired and starts working for your company. Jobseekers are doing their homework before applying to your company. According to The Execu | Search Group’s findings, 59% of jobseekers spend 30+ minutes researching a company throughout the hiring process.
“As the first introduction a prospective hire often has to a company, your online presence is far more important than you may think,” says The Execu|Search Group. “Not only can it help you build a connection with a prospective hire, but it helps them learn more about who you are, what you do, and why you’re a great place to work.”
When was the last time you’ve checked your company’s reviews on websites like Glassdoor? Research finds that 73% of professionals have stopped applying for a job because of poor employee reviews they saw on career sites. By seeing what others have to say about your company, you can get a sense of where you need to improve, experience-wise. Once you’ve improved your shortcomings, you can focus on highlighting what makes you stand out.
“Employers need to turn inward and focus on their ability to differentiate themselves and promote [the company’s] unique identity,” says The Execu|Search Group. “Since these first impressions with prospective hires often become lasting ones, employers need to set the stage for an exceptional candidate experience well before an application is even submitted.”
Improving Candidate Experience
When a candidate has a poor experience with your company, you run the risk of losing business to not only the candidate, but his or her friends and family as well. However, on the flip side of things, a great first experience with your company can leave a candidate excited about working there and more productive once he or she is hired.
The Execu|Search Group says a good candidate experience can also lead to higher quality applicants, more hires, and new referrals. So, how do you go about improving your candidate’s experience? It starts with a speedy hiring process.
According to the research findings, 75% of jobseekers said that the hiring process for their current job, from scheduling an interview to receiving an offer, took under 4 weeks. By dragging out the hiring process, you run the risk of losing high-quality candidates to the companies who don’t take as long.
The Execu | Search Group’s research shows that 55% of professionals are interviewing at multiple companies at the same time, which means it’s more important than ever before to make sure your company stands out among the competition. One way to stand out is to have a strong company culture—which will also help improve the overall experience.
In part two of this article, we’ll cover more strategies for improving your overall employee experience to help you retain talent in a candidate-driven market.
Learn how your company’s current recruiting practices are helping or hurting your goal of attracting talent when you attend the session, “The Rules of Engagement for Candidate Attraction: How What You’re Doing—Or Not Doing—Could Be Sabotaging Your Recruitment Efforts,” at TalentCon 2019 on March 12—13, 2019, in San Antonio, Texas. Click here to learn more or to register today!
