Job searching can be a time-consuming process, both for the applicant and the interviewer. To ensure that both the job seeker and the company have a positive experience, we have a special guest and subject matter expert, Rosette Monell from Pinoy Jobs, to explain 5 pro tips on how to give the best applicant experience!
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About the Author
Rosette Monell works as a human resource personnel in a firm in Asia. Aside from her job, she’s also a freelance writer who talks so passionately about public relations, different work ethics, and culture. On her free days, she likes to spend time alone with a good book about career building on one hand and a warm cup of tea on the other.
When recruiting an individual to be a part of your team, the first thing you need to do is schedule an interview with them. From there, you learn about their skills, work history (if there are any), talents maybe, and some educational background. Not knowing that on the other end of the line, the candidate or applicant is actually observing for themselves whether or not the company is a good fit for the skills and qualities they possess.
This “observation” is commonly referred to as the applicant experience.
It’s basically how an applicant feels about a specific company once they experience the hiring process. Now, giving your potential employees the best recruitment process is as crucial as how they answer your interview questions. This will more likely be one of the primary elements they decide on whether or not to take the offer and go on with the recruitment process.
So, a good applicant experience will make the applicant feel good about your company right after they see how you treat them. But the best applicant experience might just make them eager to share their experience and your company’s values with other people. In turn, this helps you build up your reputation and possibly recruit qualified professionals into the organization. Meanwhile, a bad applicant experience will most likely make applicants lose respect and interest in you.
To keep bad applicant experiences from happening, here are 5 pro tips you need to learn now to give the best applicant experience:
Pro Tip #1: Hire Only When You Need To Fill A Real Need
Proper organization and planning of the entire process, and even your intent, will definitely breed good applicant experience. So make sure you only post job offers and hiring only when you need to fill a real need—being organized starts with how you plan the entire hiring strategy. Identify all specific gaps you need to fill.
To do this, you might want to perform a skills gap analysis first. Which skills do you still lack in one team or organization as a whole? Which skills are only present within the team or organization? Most of the time, performing a skill gap analysis makes companies rethink their hiring decisions. Instead, they learn the art of training their current employees rather than hiring new ones.
Next, choose a job title. When you finally arrive in a decision to recruit a new employee, make sure the job title you post is accurate and specific. Make sure to target a skills-first approach as this will improve the applicant experience since it focuses on finding specific people to make ends meet in businesses.
Pro Tip #2: Write Clear And Accurate Job Descriptions
If anything, you have to be completely honest about the type of job you’re looking for. Most Pinoy Jobs nowadays are commendable for how they post accurate, clear, and concise job descriptions when recruiting applicants. Don’t say you’re initially looking for a communications manager then, later on, add descriptions that are entirely unrelated to the job, like graphic designing or video production.
Also, you might want to use simple language. You want to be able to get the attention of possible applicants in an instant. Writing or speaking gibberish will not help you at all. Additionally, structure all your job descriptions to be easy to read. Highlight all important information in bullets.
Pro Tip #3: Make Them Feel Welcome And Value Their Time
On the day of the interview itself, make each candidate feel as if they’re already part of the company. Make them feel comfortable in your space. Here are some of the best practices you can do or prepare ahead of in making applicants feel welcome in your zone:
- Have a specific point person to greet the candidate upon entering your premises
- Offer beverages like water, tea, or coffee
- Show them where the bathroom or powder room is
- Ask easy questions first to make each candidate comfortable before jumping into the more complicated ones
Above all, make it clear to them that you value their time. Express gratitude to each candidate for actually showing up during the interview. More importantly, don’t make them wait for hours. If you need time to think about the process of hiring them, make them come back for another day.
Pro Tip #4: Make It Easy For Them To Apply To Your Jobs
In the age of digital, it has already become so easy to make digital ways and portals when it comes to the whole recruitment process. Your company should do precisely the same. Make it easier for applicants to apply to your jobs by doing any of the following:
- Make a careers page on your website, and make it easy to find
- Give clear and concise application instructions to follow
- Don’t make them log into your system to apply
- Make an entire application process visible on one page of your website
Oftentimes, many applicants get turned off with companies that require a staircase of processes before actually getting on with the whole application and recruitment process. Make sure that you keep your application and recruitment processes simple for every applicant, or else you lose the chance of hiring reputable employees just because you made things too complicated.
Pro Tip #5: Tour Them Around The Office
Show your applicants your workplace by giving them an office tour. This helps them be familiarized with the location of each department and under which team does each member falls into. In order for an applicant to get a good picture of themselves working at your company, you must be willing to tour them around, which will help them visualize where they may end up working.
This could be one of the most effective ways to give the best applicant experience as touring them around the office will initiate a friendly conversation. As a result, applicants wouldn’t feel as intimidated but rather comfortable when conversing and answering questions.
Wrapping Up
More than anything, it’s also useful to ask your applicants to give feedback about the recruitment process. Conducting this survey will significantly help and keep your business accountable for improving further on some points.
Now Let’s hear from you!
What has been the best or worse applicant experience that you’ve been through? What did you enjoy or what do you wish the company had done differently? Are you responsible for the hiring process? How do you help potential applicants feel welcomed? We’d love to read your stories in the comments below!
And as always, remember to live and learn from one story at a time!
Take care,
Kyndall Bennett from Kyrabe Stories
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