Candidate Experience E-Book New Edition

Posted on 02-27-2023

We’re pleased to announce that our previous “Blueprint for Delivering an Exceptional Candidate Experience” E-Book has been revised to reflect the hiring trends we are seeing today.

About the Candidate Experience E-Book

This 16-page resource guide includes tips on:

  • What not to do
  • Why candidate experience matters
  • Defining the optimal experience
  • Nine essential strategies
  • A video interview checklist
  • How to court out of area candidates

Candidates who have a great experience interviewing with your organization tell others. They’ll be more loyal to your organization and will likely stay longer. Over time, more great people will want to work for your organization.

In contrast, poor candidate experience:

  • Costs you top talent
  • Harms your reputation as an employer
  • Increases your cost to hire
  • Increases your offer turn-down rate
  • Leads to lower referral rates
  • Weakens your brand
  • Can cost you business

Read an Excerpt from the E-Book

Defining the Optimal Candidate

Step 1: Understand how you’re perceived in the market

Before you start crafting the optimal candidate experience, understand where you are today. What is your reputation as an employer?  What is the current perception of your employer brand in the market?  

Resources you should use include: 

  • Employee surveys 
  • Sites like glassdoor.com which can provide valuable insights into how your organization is perceived as a whole 
  • In-depth interviews with past candidates to understand how well you met their expectations and where improvement opportunities lie
  • Exit interviews with employees leaving your organization

Step 2: Determine how you want potential hires to perceive your brand

  • What is unique about your organization?
  • What perceptions about your organization need to be overcome? 
  • For what reasons would a candidate want to work at your organization versus your competitors? 
  • What is your culture like? (E.g., formal versus casual, strict versus flexible, family-friendly, etc.,)
  • Why do employees stay with your organization? Why do they leave? 
  • What does the community have to offer prospective candidates? What would entice someone to move to the area? 
  • How do you want job candidates to feel about the way your organization treated them throughout the hiring process?

Download the free e-book here.

Candidate experience e-book cover from Kirby Partners
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