Candidate experience is the process of candidate introduction to your company from the beginning to the end of an executive search. The candidate experience should be seamless and the process should be fine-tuned to ensure that all interactions represent a positive experience for the “A” talent community that you are seeking. Listed below are 6 signs that your candidate experience may need improvement.
1. Your company is not attracting enough “A” candidates interested in your opportunity
Whether you are sourcing candidates or using inbound marketing for candidates, or both, your company may not be attracting the best candidates. If your brand is not that well known, but has a good story to tell, using a retained executive search firm to communicate your brand story can be a key differentiator in getting the best executive talent to your company. There are numerous factors that may be affecting your employer brand which in turn affects your candidate experience. If you have negative brand recognition, a retained executive search firm, can engage talent on your behalf that may have a negative perception of your brand and potentially convert that talent to an interested candidate. This is accomplished through providing a more thorough understanding of what may have caused the negative brand perception, that the leadership team is aware of the brand perception, and has a strong commitment to Impacting the negative brand perception.
2. Your recruiter/hiring manager does not have a strong enough grasp of the role and is losing candidates in the initial conversation
Unfortunately some companies will partner an inexperienced recruiter/hiring manager with an executive level search opportunity. This can result in an internal recruiter “being set up to fail”. It takes experience in business and executive search to achieve a global perspective of how a role interfaces with the rest of the organization and what DNA a candidate must possess to be successful within the organization.
3. C level candidates are frustrated by the lack of gravitas displayed by the recruiter/hiring manager
We hear this a great deal from “A” candidates, that if the recruiter/hiring manager had not focused on the “HR” part of the conversation and had ignited their passion about doing the job itself, a better candidate impression would have been made.
4. Candidates drop out before the 2nd interview
The lack of understanding of the role itself can be a large part of why the candidate does not proceed to the second interview. Understand the role that you are sourcing for very thoroughly, otherwise you may lose top executive talent.
5. The candidates don’t make it through the process
For experienced retained executive search professionals, they know the process/methodology is the key to the search success. If candidates are not making it through, you need to understand why and then adjust your process accordingly to minimize further fall out in the future. One of the common mistakes made here is interview fatigue and the executive teams need to have everyone that is part of the decision interview the candidate. The perception here can sometimes be that the leadership is too collaborative and not strong enough when tough decisions need to be made.
6. The candidates get down to the final offer and declines
When this happens, retrace your steps through the candidate experience and find the areas where you fell short. If all the pieces of the recruiting puzzle are done correctly, the offer acceptance should be a natural progression of the process itself. If not, you will need to return to the areas of the process that did not work and build an improved candidate experience.