Too often the term "recruiting" seems to involve collecting CVs, interviewing and selecting. According to Navigos Search recruitment experts, the war for talent has become more intense than ever before, and recruiting has evolved to embrace ‘experience improvement' as an imperative to attract top talent.

The overall candidate experience involves 5 main touch points where a candidate comes into contact with your company. Those touch points are: external touch points (like job ads, social networks, job fairs, career conferences); career sites; application process; interviewing and hiring process; and onboarding. You want to make sure that your candidates have positive experience at each of these touch points.

So why should you invest in candidate experience?

Let's focus on Nike and the power of their brand. There was an interesting quote by Forbes in an article in 2008.

"Anybody can sell a $30 pair of sneakers. To get $120, you have to forget about selling shoes and think about sports."

Nike is not selling just shoes but selling "the experience". This concept holds true for the employment arena. Every company wants to sell jobs. But if you want to attract talent, you need to forget about selling jobs and start thinking of selling experience.

Investing in candidate experience means you curtail any bad influence on your employer brand. Your organisation may be inundated with candidates asking for a job, but if many of these candidates are neglected during your recruiting process, they will develop a negative feeling about your organisation. There has never been a better time to spread a message, good or bad, through social networks, blogs and other viral marketing methods. A positive candidate experience can help you minimise this risk.

A positive candidate experience can allow you to effectively attract talent. If your candidates feel good during your recruitment process, they will talk with their friends about your company and what they have experienced. This means even if you do not have any openings available, viable candidates will still want to work for you when there is a chance.

Source: Navigos Search