Candidate experience is so important, yet it can be easy to lose sight of the candidate's perspective on the recruiter’s side of the table. One example: 55% of applicants want to move from interview to job offer in under 2 weeks - but it usually it takes 5.
There’s a gap between what candidates are looking for and how most agencies work. Few put candidate experience first, but that means there’s a chance to differentiate.
Good candidate experience has a few main pillars: personalized and frequent communication, taking feedback into account, and making the recruitment process fast and easy. It’s challenging for consultants to stay on top of all of this, but candidate experience software can help.
To start, take a look at this guide to using your Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) to help out candidates. From automating comms to screening apps with confidence, the right rec tech makes candidate collaboration easier.
Why is candidate experience important?
Candidate experience is what makes the recruitment process pleasant for talent. The right Applicant Tracking System can help with that. It’s the sense that candidates get as they work with your agency, from application to interview to onboarding.
Bad candidate experience can make or break your agency’s reputation. One report found that 82% of applicants would share a positive hiring experience, but 69% would share a bad one.
And the worst candidate experience might make applicants drop out before they even finish a job application.
On the flip side, if your agency is standout in terms of candidate experience, it pays off:
- It improves your agency’s brand
- Candidates are more likely to accept offers and recommend your agency to other talent
- Good candidate experience at the start can help redeploy or renew Temp and Contract workers later
Make your recruitment agency a five-star experience for candidates, and you can bring five-star talent to your clients.
5 ways to improve candidate experience with your ATS
Simplify applications
60% of applicants will drop out if the application takes too long. So the easier the job application process is at the start, the better.
Posting jobs from your ATS to your website or job board gets the widest reach. Finding an ATS that autofills application forms from CVs is a bonus. Plus, this uploaded CV info will be available in your talent pool for later.
For candidates on the go, make sure that your application page is mobile-optimized. And if you have a video application system set up, candidates can record from anywhere and send in apps at their leisure.
Personalize communication
Lack of communication from recruiters is a common pain point, but ATS automation can help step it up.
Look for an ATS with options to automate email or SMS messages once a candidate’s reached the next stage in the pipeline. An ATS will import the right data (like names, start dates, and placement details) so that consultants don’t have to.
And many ATS platforms help set follow-up reminders to keep all candidates up to date.
Speed up screening
Candidates are in the dark once the application’s sent in. Minimizing their time spent waiting to hear about a role can be part of a good recruitment experience.
An ATS’s advanced search functionality gets the screening process up to speed. For consultants, just a few simple search terms gets them to qualified candidates quickly.
At the same time, an ATS can move things along with “kill questions” or other automated limits to remove unqualified candidates. It’s never fun for a candidate to hear that “no,” but getting it out of the way quickly respects their time.
Collect feedback
Candidate experience can’t improve if it’s not measured. One way to get around this potential for miscommunication is using your ATS to automate feedback collection.
Setting up an NPS survey for candidates to report back gives a more objective view. That anonymized data on how your candidate experience matches up is the first step to making it better.
Nurture candidate relationships
Any savvy recruitment strategy includes reaching out to rejected candidates. There’s also those who might not be quite ready to work with your agency, but will warm up after getting more news and opportunities.
Leverage your ATS to send out newsletters with fresh open roles to past applicants. You never know when one will come back and be the right fit.
How Vincere’s rec tech improves candidate experience
On Team Vinny, we like to be considerate of candidates. But our main mission is still helping recruiters. Here’s how we offer a great experience for recruiters (and by extension, a great candidate experience).
Our Core ATS is superpowered to help your candidate search:
- Source directly from LinkedIn
- Use Advanced Search and Geotagging functions to find candidates faster
- Send the LiveList™ as a candidate presentation dashboard to intrigue clients and make more placements
- Sync your email and calendar to the ATS for better task tracking and quick response times
And if you’re extra dedicated to candidate experience improvement, there’s even more options in the Recruitment Operating System universe:
- Use Vinneo video interview templates to make uploading a recorded application simple
- Set up a no-code Job Portal to let candidates view, filter, and apply for open roles easily
- Offer a Candidate Portal for a self-managed onboarding and compliance process
If you’re keen to see how Vincere’s rec tech can help your agency’s candidate experience, schedule a demo here.
Final thoughts
Putting candidate experience first helps set your agency apart. Your business’ brand, reputation, and even placement rates can be improved this way.
It’s not possible for consultants to know every detail about every candidate, but rec tech is there to help. An ATS keeps things consistent by simplifying the recruitment process for all sides. With centralized data to keep your teams organized, plus self-managed application and onboarding steps for candidates, it makes it that much easier to work better, together.