18/10/19

Do you provide candidate feedback within 24 hours of reviewing an application? Well, this may surprise you, but research suggests how 39% of candidate participants expect this turn around in the current market; with 68% of participants following with the expectation of a 3-day turn around!

These statistics may shock you, especially if you lack a fixed candidate feedback process. You may believe that previous hiring campaigns have failed due to a handful of reasons. Yet it could be down to something as little as failing to feedback decisions to candidates in an efficient manner.

With these expectations set, without following an effective recruitment process, it could be bad news for your future hiring possibilities; after all candidate experience now has a large impact on the success of a hiring campaign. Once this expectation within candidate feedback has been broken, a negative experience is present, with the potential of damaging your employer brand image.

Yet, this major damage can be avoided by rethinking such a small step in your recruitment process; your candidate feedback timeline…

IS YOUR CANDIDATE FEEDBACK PROCESS DAMAGING BOTH YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND AND YOUR CANDIDATE’S EXPERIENCE?

The key factors resulting in a poor candidate feedback process and experience include…

  • Failing to acknowledge an application at all.
  • Failing to respond to candidates to advise on the outcome of their application, no matter the decision.
  • Poor communication throughout the whole hiring process.
  • Poor time management, including the time it takes to respond to candidates, along with arranging interviews and communicating offers.

The above factors may currently reflect your ways of working; yet these are major bugbears of active candidates in the current market. In terms of a live recruitment campaign, the time and speed of the process is a big factor. The longer the time passes without offering candidate feedback, the higher the risk of a candidate accepting an offer elsewhere or pulling out of your process.

Although this may not seem detrimental in the moment, the area which hiring managers may be less aware of is the long-term impact a delayed candidate experience can have on employer branding and future hiring potential. 50% of participating candidates (under 35 years of age) mentioned how negative candidate experiences and delayed feedback processes would motivate them to share this with others. As word of mouth advances, these negative comments could decrease your reputation, along with your value proposition.

Alongside effecting your future hiring potential, delayed candidate feedback can also damage your overarching company offering. 73% of candidates who were questioned in this research would be less likely to use the products or services of a company with which they’ve had a poor hiring experience.

Therefore, without a carefully thought out candidate feedback timeline, you could be damaging your company without even realising. Disengaging candidates through a negative experience will damage your company’s capability of hiring valuable employees, far into the future.

CANDIDATE EXPECTATIONS VS COMPANY PROCESSES

A further area to highlight is the gap between the expectations of candidates when comparing to the hiring companies’ processes. Of course, all expectations cannot be continuously met. Yet, in a candidate-driven market, it is important that candidate expectations are considered when managing feedback processes.

Unfortunately, without listening to the market’s demands, it is highly likely that candidates will go elsewhere when looking for an opportunity. Imagine the impact this could have on your hiring campaign? Viral negative backlash and a large quantity of candidates jumping ship will tarnish your future capabilities.

To overcome this gap between expectations, it’s important that we as recruiters/hiring managers communicate to candidates about what to expect from the process and candidate feedback timescales, while also sticking to them. Otherwise, expectations will be broken, trust will be diminished, resulting in a bad candidate experience.

Of course, some expectations set by candidates may feel unrealistic to you. Some days, a 24-hour turnaround may not be achievable. Yet by setting these expectations from the offset, candidates will feel less disappointed, while remaining engaged with your hiring process.

Therefore, the expectations you voice on candidate feedback timescales can maintain your image, even if timescales do surpass desires.

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU MAINTAIN A POSITIVE IMAGE THROUGH EFFICIENT CANDIDATE FEEDBACK PROCESSES

Here at Smartsearch, we appreciate how difficult achieving ongoing expectations can be with the hustle and bustle of in-house recruitment. With that said, if you’re a business leader or hiring manager that requires support or would alternatively like some guidance on how to implement an effective process into your business, we can help.

We provide advice, tools and support for our clients on the recruitment process, whether that’s managing and delivering this on their behalf or by providing the tools and steps for them to deliver this themselves.

GET IN TOUCH TODAY TO REFRESH YOUR CANDIDATE’S EXPERIENCE THROUGH FEEDBACK TIMESCALES AND EXPECTATIONS. 0333 939 0074 / INFO@SMARTSEARCH-RECRUITMENT.COM

LIKEWISE, WE’RE REALLY KEEN TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS, FEEDBACK AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES ON THIS FROM BOTH A CANDIDATE AND A HIRING MANAGERS POINT OF VIEW – SO FEEL FREE TO SEND US AN EMAIL.