The recruitment process is the first touchpoint between potential employees and the company. During the pre-employment phase, job seekers shape the view about their future employer. Especially in today’s candidate-driven market organizations often struggle to attract the greatest talents. Thus, companies should make sure that they do not only grab job seekers’ attention with interesting job advertisements but have built a long-lasting and positive brand image as well.
Related post: Employee Experience – when the employee becomes a customer
Writing CVs, sending applications, and coming to the interview is stressful for people seeking employment. So, to make the entire recruitment process easier and maintain a good relationship with candidates, it is worth taking care of the positive candidate experience.
How to implement a candidate-focused hiring strategy? Here are 5 effective ways to improve the candidate experience:
1. Candidate experience journey map

Candidate journey map lets you better understand the experiences and expectations of people who apply for a position in the company.
To better understand the experiences and expectations of people who apply for a position in the company, you should look at the entire recruitment process from their perspective and create a map called “candidate journey”. It is a helpful tool that allows analyzing the path a person applying for a job follows. When each step taken by the candidate is properly considered, all complicated, discouraging, or unnecessary phases are easily eliminated.
2. Analysis of the company’s website
The company’s website is one of the crucial points of contact between job seekers and the employer. Is it transparent and understandable for people outside the company? Easy to navigate? Remember, ‘Careers’ and ‘About us’ tabs where candidates learn about open recruitments and find interesting facts about the company should be especially intuitive and have relevant content.
3. The right job advertisement: appropriate benefits and no generalizations
Candidate-driven market leads to a situation where candidates looking for a job are guided not only by the financial factors but also by the benefits offered! Thus, adjusting the advertisement to meet market expectations or proposing some extra benefits are key in attracting the best talents. When writing a job offer, remember to avoid using vague statements such as “development opportunities.” Instead, it is better to provide real examples of non-financial factors the organization offers such as language classes or internal training.
4. Feedback
New hires are a great source of information about the way the company is perceived by outsiders. Their suggestions regarding the interview or the onboarding process may prove to be critical in improving the recruitment process. So, do not hesitate to ask!
5. Employer branding
Activities related to employer branding are fundamental in HR strategies. Candidates looking for a job are eager to learn more about the potential employer in social media. Use internet tools to show your company “behind the scenes” – from the employees’ point of view. That is how applicants get to know the goals and values their potential colleagues represent and have a chance to assess whether they want to join and identify with the company’s culture. Also, the process of adapting to the team could be way easier when they already know internal traditions or behaviors.
Employees are the foundation of every company and the recruitment process is the first step in acquiring them. A positive relationship with candidates formed during their first point of contact with the organization has a long-lasting impact on their approach to the future employer. Therefore, make sure to take care of it!
A Point of View by:
Aleksandra Kowalczyk – Marketing Specialist at Enxoo
Looking for an employee-friendly tool that will support you in building an engaging bond and help you stay in touch company-wide? Contact our experts to get to know Skilo – a comprehensive solution and tips on how to start creating effective employee experience in your company.
Skilo is a Salesforce native app which provides a ready to use talent management solution. It streamlines, simplifies, and unifies the end-to-end process of talent acquisition, development, and retention. Skilo also provides performance management, competency frameworks, along with skills development, career planning, training management, feedback, reviews, and social employee engagement. For more information, please visit www.skilohr.com, Skilo Linkedin profile, or Skilo Facebook page