“The candidate experience is closely tied to the customer experience. We often try to keep our professional lives separate from our personal lives, but you can’t do that during the job application process. You can’t think business to business; you need to think business to consumer.”
During the last Employer Branding Summit, a lot of you asked questions in the chat room. Of course, we want you to have your questions answered! First up is Fredrik Mellander from Teamtailor.
Do you have any tips on how to measure candidate experience data?
You can measure candidate experience data in many ways. To measure the full extent, you need to track before, during, and after. The easiest way to see how you’re performing is to look at the candidate drop-off rate, meaning counting how many candidates view your job ads/application forms but don’t follow through with their application. Most Application Tracking System providers will supply this data.
During the process, there are a lot of ways to measure the experience. For example, sending out surveys and measuring NPS are great ways to collect feedback. However, having a continuous dialogue with your candidate and clear communication will help you out – often candidates will let you know how they feel. Some ATS providers have built-in tools for surveys and NPS, but if not, you can always use Google Forms or tools like Talenthub or Trustcruit.
Surveys and NPS are great afterwards as well, but understanding your reject reasons is an excellent way to see what’s working . When you combine the three, you get a pretty clear overview. There are more ways, but these are the easiest and best ways to implement and start tracking today!
Here’s a tip for when to send out surveys!
Send out the surveys a few days after the rejection, not the same day. Let those emotions cool for a bit and you’ll get a much better response.
How can a small company best make a footprint with culture and strategy?
Dare to be different is the easy answer! Smaller companies can usually be more agile with their culture and their communication. The process of change customarily doesn’t require 15 people’s approval. Many prefer working for a small company with a familiar culture rather than a large corporate organisation. Highlight the values of joining a small company, the familiarity, the chance for growth and career development. It’s easier to include everyone on the culture train at a smaller company, but the management is always essential for success.
As I mentioned during Summit; dare to be different and unique, and maybe not to please everyone. If you have a nerdy/sporty/collaborative/solo culture, you highlight that to the world and make it the essence of your branding because it will attract like-minded people. It may sometimes even be simpler to spoil employees. Not with benefits or gifts, but with a great culture.
Here’s a tip for small companies!
It’s more important for smaller companies to have a sound career-site and regularly communicate through your employees – candidates looking at your company usually know less about you.
You spoke about a narrow view of the candidate experience. How can you use data to create a positive experience, especially if a candidate gets rejected?
This question ties a lot into the first question. Ensuring a positive candidate experience during the recruitment process matters a lot to the candidate’s experience after being rejected. Communication and transparency are vital to ensure a fair process. Let your candidates know what’s happening and make sure you are personal – giving feedback on why they didn’t advance, communicating if it takes too long or in what stage of the process they are.
Expectations matters a lot. You need to, at an early stage, communicate how the process looks. Sharing when they can expect to hear from you will help out a lot as well.
After a rejection, communication is critical. It might be easy to forget that all of these candidates who’ve applied to your company are real people. Being personal will help to keep the experience pleasing. Make sure candidates get personal feedback about why they didn’t proceed.
Here’s a tip on how to ace that rejection email!
Don’t just reject everyone with the same generic email template. Instead, have templates for various purposes and tailor them to the people you’re rejecting, especially if you’ve already met the person for an interview. Take your time to give them a call or be even more personal.
Do you think that campus events will go digital to a higher degree post corona?
I think many Campus events will go back to face-to-face meetings immediately post corona and transform further into digital over the coming years.
Some companies have been doing well, but the zoom fatigue and the fact that digital events often are less personal than meeting and talking in real life are things that speak against it. Directly post corona, I believe there will be a combination of the two. The physical ones will be more digital than they were in the past. Large events will remain physical, and smaller will go digital.
So, my guess is that campus events will return in physical form because of zoom fatigue.
Does Teamtailor share some reports about the data you gather?
Historically we haven’t done a lot of reports. We’ve done a few white papers, but we will share more data in the future. We’re fortunate to be right in the middle of recruiting and get a lot of data from candidates, recruiters and companies. We want to use this data to help recruiters become even better and make the overall recruiting landscape more enjoyable for everyone.
What candidate experience stood out from the crowd and made you smile during 2020? Why?
This question is difficult because a lot of companies did well this year. However, this year feels like it’s been the longest year in my life and the lines get blurred about who did what and when they did it. I don’t think any company has perfected candidate experience, but companies who have a great recruitment process from the first impression to onboarding tend to do well.
Here’s a tip of a good role model!
A company I’ve heard and read a lot of positives about is Airbnb. This year has been though on them with limited travel. Yet, their candidate journey ticks many boxes of a perfect candidate experience – genuine content and communication, clear expectations, and efficient recruitment process based on their methods.
About Fredrik
Fredrik Mellander is Head of partnership at the fast-growing Swedish startup Teamtailor – a career platform and applications tracking system used by over 3500 companies worldwide. Positioned amid the employer branding tech scene, Teamtailor focuses on employer journey. Since their start, Teamtailor has teamed up with several employer branding companies to create the best experience possible. Oddwork is proud to be one of these companies.
During the Summit, Fredrik spoke about creating an optimal candidate experience based on the latest data and trends.
Click here to watch the full recording of the summit
Save a seat at Employer Branding Summit
Fill in your info to save a seat for September 22nd. Re-watch the previous summit here and listen to speakers like Linus Jonkman, Pernilla Fischione from Saab, Fredrik Mellander from Teamtailor and Vasco Castro from IKEA.