It’s 2020 and it’s hardly newsworthy to report that the balance of power in recruiting has shifted dramatically from employers to candidates. We operate within a candidate-driven market, established in part by the US unemployment numbers seeming to reach new record lows with each passing month. 

While it’s wonderful to think of a country where fewer and fewer people are out of work, this climate makes acquiring talent extremely difficult today. 

No longer are candidates falling over themselves to be the first to knock on your door. Today, you have to go knock on theirs—and the odds are, you’re not the only one. 

In most industries, this historically tight labor market has made qualified candidates the market’s most rare and valuable commodity. Software developers, for just one example, consider a week in which they’re reached out to by recruiters or hiring managers three separate times as relatively slow. 

Because leading candidates have little trouble garnering job offers (even when they’re not looking for them), a new differentiator has emerged that separates the organizations that acquire these candidates from the ones that don’t: the candidate experience. 

Over the past several years, candidates have steadily begun to hold more and more cards in the recruiting process. Where once HR departments could luxuriate in a hiring process that could stretch anywhere between 3-6 weeks, new data shows that candidates are rarely willing to wait more than two weeks to receive an offer before they move on. 

Good recruiting is now inexorably linked to a good candidate experience marked by communication, convenience, transparency, and expediency. We’ll share some insights and statistics on why this is more important now than ever before below. 

What is the Candidate Experience?

You probably already have a good idea about which components make up the overall candidate experience. Still, it’s important to hammer out the details to make sure no stage is being neglected. 

The candidate experience includes the entire hiring process from the job search and application to the screening process, interview(s), onboarding, and all of the communication and scheduling in between.

Candidates begin developing an impression about an employer long before they walk through their doors—every touchpoint throughout the hiring process contributes to this perception. And this perception is essential for your recruiting efforts as only 2% of candidates indicate they applied to an organization about which they held a negative impression.  

More importantly, even if they do have a positive perception of an organization, 83% of talent say that a negative experience can change their mind about a company they once liked. However, a polished, hassle-free candidate experience can be just as powerful in helping establish a positive impression and attract talent—87% of candidates report a positive candidate experience can change their mind about a company they once doubted. 

Coming off the heels of a year in which the number of job openings exceeded the number of unemployed Americans by the largest margin in history, many differentiators like salary, benefits, perks, and company culture have leveled out as employers compete in an arm’s race to entice top talent. All things being equal, the power of a simple, clear, communicative, and timely candidate experience can have a tremendous influence on job seekers. 

Regularly evaluating your hiring process and devoting real, meaningful time into developing a personalized candidate experience that engages and informs job seekers every step of the way and isn’t bogged down by unnecessary or complicated steps can be a huge differentiator in today’s ultra-competitive hiring landscape. 

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