Candidate experience is a major metric in measuring success rate as a recruiter. This is why recruiters work hard to make sure every interaction makes a lasting impression to boost their recruitment brand value.
In hindsight, a positive candidate experience is all about a positive perception, and that perception starts with expectation. This is where managing candidate expectations play a crucial role: overpromising and unrealistic expectations are a potentially disastrous recipe for bad reputation, while expectations that are clear, realistic, and most importantly, measurable will yield consistent positive results.
From the job posting to the interview, each interaction plays a part in setting expectations. Overselling a position will just result in disappointments and, eventually, turnovers. Poor job fit is one of the top four reasons for poor employee engagements and why new hires jump ship in less than 28 months.
It all starts with setting the right expectations. In reality, managing candidate expectations is hinged on accuracy. The amount of authenticity and transparency at play during the hiring process will determine the depth of your candidate’s expectations. That’s why your recruitment brand must represent the company as accurately as possible.
But first things first: Why is it important to manage expectations?
Candidate experience is essentially the interaction between the recruitment company, the recruiter, and the applicant. As the candidates go through the recruitment process, they develop expectations. These expectations can be based on a company profile advertised on social media, company culture communicated during the application, or a promise of timely updates during the waiting period.
When the recruitment process doesn’t meet the candidate’s expectations, it leaves a bad impression towards your recruitment company. Ultimately, unmet expectations are potentially damaging to your brand value as candidates leave a negative review or share their experience within their professional networks.
If there’s anything we’re sure of, it’s the fact that candidates talk. Whether on social media, review websites or within their professional networks, they will most likely share their experience. For your brand value, a negative candidate experience can be detrimental. All of these go back to managing their expectations.
So, when you tell a candidate that you will update them on the status of their application, make sure that you see it through. Most importantly, take the initiative to be ahead of the game and capture their thoughts to know what they think and how well you deliver candidate experiences. You can’t manage what you don’t know. So, capturing your candidate’s thoughts is vital in understanding how to meet candidate expectations better.
Great Recruiters is the first experience management platform designed specifically for staffing firms, and we understand the importance of managing candidate expectations. That’s why we’ve made it our mission to equip you with the insights you need to optimize your recruitment process and showcase your brand reputation using one of the greatest assets available to you — your candidate testimonials and reviews.
Here are three ways you can take advantage of experience management platforms like Great Recruiters so you can enhance your brand value easily and more efficiently.
1. Automate candidate reviews and get access to real-time data.
When it comes to candidate engagement, reviews can provide you with the insight you need to measure both recruiter performance and the efficiency of the hiring process. This is a major point that most companies overlook, with 66% of managers reporting that online reviews don’t affect their brand value, while a whopping 57% of candidates say they won’t even consider a company that has negative online reviews.
When you don’t proactively source candidate feedback, they put it someplace else on the internet. In this digital world, all it takes is one click to have a potentially damaging review displayed for all the world to see on Glassdoor or an online review platform.
Here at Great Recruiters, we let you get ahead of the game by capturing candidate feedback automatically and providing you real-time reports. Proactively sourcing candidate feedback provides a two-fold benefit: it gives you more control over your online reputation and increases your candidate engagement.
You don’t have to wait for reviews to show up online when Great Recruiters can capture them for you easily, efficiently, and consistently. The best part? Candidates feel reaffirmed when they feel that you value their opinions and contribute to making their candidate experience better.
2. Increase your transparency to help you deliver beyond expectations.
One of the main elements of managing candidate expectations is transparency. Most of the time, recruiters will paint a cloud-covered picture of work experience or culture just to win over a candidate.
These non-transparencies will lead to unmet expectations that will, in turn, produce a negative impression about your recruitment brand. The power of first impressions is lasting, and with 24% of candidates reporting that they left negative reviews online, it’s only a matter of time before a bad review shows up on the world wide web.
With Great Recruiters, you can have your reviews speak for you. Reports show that 41% of candidates prefer to see reviews and testimonials prior to sending in applications. Candidates want to see a glimpse into your company culture and have a better picture of what they’re getting into before even making a move, and there’s no better way to do this than to share feedback from previous candidates.
Let your candidate reviews talk for you, and let Great Recruiters capture the testimonials that show what your brand truly represents.
The best way to fully capitalize transparency through candidate reviews is by coupling it with the power of authenticity as a recruiter. As your candidates’ reviews do the marketing for you, it is your part as a recruiter to establish a strong and truthful connection during the application process.
Veer away from disingenuous recruitment marketing and opt for realistic connections meant to inform and guide the candidate in the right direction. What makes recruiters truly GREAT is when they provide long-term value. Such actions don’t go unnoticed in the competitive world of talent acquisition, and it’s a sure-fire way not only to set your recruitment brand apart but also to boost its value.
3. Stay on top of your team’s performance and identify mistakes before they escalate.
Feedback matters. In fact, it is more than a gift—it is an asset for recruiters. It shows you exactly what needs to be fixed and what needs to be repeated. Managing candidate expectations starts with knowing what you can deliver in the first place, and without a clear picture of your current team’s performance, insightful foresight would be difficult to achieve.
Great Recruiters know that it is important for every single touchpoint to be meaningful. That’s why we’ve provided a tool to help you see the performance of your individual recruiters based on candidate feedback all in one place. You can’t measure what you don’t know.
This is why with Great Recruiters, all it takes is one click to get a full view of how your team is doing and what areas need to be improved. Spotting mistakes before they turn into issues is made possible when your team is equipped with the right tools.
Learn how a recruitment firm started resolving issues faster with Great Recruiters.
And this isn’t just for your team; it helps you improve your recruitment process too. You can also easily review your recruitment process and optimize where needed to deliver faster, more efficient hiring steps that are more candidate-friendly without compromising the quality of hire.
Managing candidate expectations is made easy with accountability at center stage.
The truth is, experience management doesn’t have to be hard.
Great Recruiters makes managing candidate expectations easy by helping you increase transparency and credibility. Because it is designed specifically for staffing firms, it is meant to give a high degree of control over your interactions with applicants. It ensures they understand exactly where they are in the hiring process and what is being done by the recruiter on their behalf.
The best way of recruitment is the authentic way, and with Great Recruiters, accountability takes center stage, allowing you to deliver long-term value and achieve successful job placements without the risk of overpromising and underdelivering.
Our experience management platform can help your employer brand and your teams become the GREAT recruiter you’re supposed to be and boost your brand value by helping you deliver a consistent, positive candidate experience.
Take the first step in boosting your brand value. Request a demo today.
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