So, why bother investing in your candidate experience? Not only will it help you hire top talent, but it will boost your organization’s reputation and help you cut costs in the process.
Do you know what happens when a candidate has a particularly frustrating application experience? They share that experience with others! Maybe they tell their friends and family or share this publicly through social media. It has never been easier to share poor experiences – there are so many social media platforms available, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit, that candidates can use. According to a 2024 report, 72% of candidates with a bad employer experience will tell their friends, colleagues, and family about it (StandOut CV) (Joveo).
You can make your candidate experience more positive by providing a beautiful career site, a user-friendly apply flow, and following up with candidates after they submit their applications. Candidates will certainly take note if you show them consideration at a time when they are particularly stressed.
Moreover, many candidates believe that companies that treat their candidates well also treat employees with that same level of respect. In fact, a study noted that 79% of job seekers consider the overall candidate experience as a crucial factor in deciding whether to accept a job offer (Joveo). There is no doubt that a candidate will view an organization in a more positive light if it provides a delightful candidate experience.
Many candidates will abandon the application flow if they have a poor experience. No one wants to contend with a process that is time-consuming, dated, or confusing. They will move on to other organizations where the experience is better. This means that the money (and time) you spent on marketing activities to attract them to your career site and job application ends up going to waste.
What's the financial consequence of losing candidates? Well, organizations often feel compelled to increase spending when they realize they are losing candidates early in the process. After all, they have critical roles to fill and targets that need to be met. According to Glassdoor, the average U.S. employer spends about $4,000 and 24 days in the process of hiring new employees (Springworks HR). Recruitment technology, job sourcing, and referrals are just some of the costs associated with this.
By investing in your candidate experience upfront, you can reduce costs over the long term as you boost your candidate conversion. Companies with a strong candidate experience strategy enjoy a 70% reduction in cost per hire (Joveo).
There will always be top talent open to new employment. They won’t think twice about leaving their current job if they are frustrated or looking for further career development. Since they are consistently in demand by employers, it’s not hard for them to find a new job.
However, recruiters need to be extra thoughtful about the application experience they provide to these professionals. These individuals are less likely to contend with frustrating, time-consuming, or confusing application processes. If this is the case, they will simply turn to another company. After all, they are in demand—they have plenty of opportunities.
If you want to attract the best talent, then make sure that you have a streamlined application process. This includes having a beautiful career site, avoiding redundant data entry during the application, and having good follow-up practices with candidates. One of the reasons InFlight partnered with RChilli was to ensure its candidate experience overlay could leverage the best resume parsing in the world because if the most in-demand candidates experience frustration at any point, they will abandon their job application.
Investing in your candidate experience is a good practice regardless of market conditions. Your company will have a better reputation, cut costs, and obtain higher-quality talent.
Fortunately, providing a good candidate experience doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. With an Employee Experience Platform, such as InFlight, you can create a world-class candidate experience using your current ATS and career site investments – you don’t have to migrate to new platforms.
An Employee Experience Platform will make your existing applications user-friendly, in line with your employer brand, and optimized for use on any device, in any location. This will help your company provide the best candidate experience with the least amount of effort.