First published on LinkedIn
At the core of an engaging, connected and personal candidate experience is the respectful treatment of the candidate, treating them the same way that we treat our customers. Indeed, for many businesses, candidates are also customers – or at least potential customers.
Take for example Virgin Media. It tracked the consumer behavior of rejected candidates. It estimated that 18% of their applicants were also customers. Among those who applied for jobs, 123,000 applicants were rejected, of which 6% ended their Virgin Media subscriptions. At $60 a month, this amounts to $5.4 million a year loss in revenue. Virgin Media dug deeper into the cause of candidates terminating their subscriptions and found it was largely due to poor candidate experiences, for example candidates being received by grumpy receptionists, having bad interview experiences, and experiencing lags in response times (Steiner, 2017).
Increasingly, candidate experience is measured through the development (and monitoring) of Candidate Net Promoter Scores (NPS®).
If you are starting out in this area, seeking to measure and collect data about how candidates perceive your hiring process, there are three key things to keep in mind.
Take a long term view
If you’re going to get real benefit from the data you collect and the Candidate NPS scores you obtain, you need to commit to the long haul. If you dip in and out of the project, it will be hard to track your progress and see the difference you are making with each tweak to what you do.
Start with an initial benchmark and then make tweaks to different aspects. Once you have established your initial score, analyze the impact of the improvements you are making as you collect new data. Dedication to collecting and consistency in how you collect the data is key. If you collect data in fits and starts, or for some campaigns and then switch to others, the value of that data will start to diminish. Quite simply, the larger the longitudinal set, the greater the value.
Monitor what is being said
There is no single place that a disengaged or disgruntled candidate shares their negative perceptions of your hiring process; it can be across many platforms. Where they post might vary, but there is no question around if they will post! You need to be on top of this, monitoring the places that candidates post and share their thoughts. Websites such as Glassdoor are popular, but also track social media, company name hashtags and other review sites depending on your industry. A strong NPS program monitors these risks.
Invest time to decode
You have the opportunity to capture and generate large volumes of data through your Candidate NPS program. This can lend amazing insights, if approached with purpose and a plan to understand and learn from the data. Be prepared for this, and define the way in which you will capture, analyze, and review this data. In the wrong or inexperienced hands, this can be misrepresented, misunderstood or manipulated. With the know-how, the processes to track the impact of changes to the hiring activity and the time to get under the skin of the data, you can filter out the noise and tune into the effectiveness of your strategy.
Reference:
Steiner, K. (March, 2017). Bad Candidate Experience Cost Virgin Media $5M Annually – Here is How They Turned That Around. Available at: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/candidate-experience/2017/bad-candidate-experience-cost-virgin-media-5m-annually-and-how-they-turned-that-around
NPS is a registered trademark of Bain & Company, Inc.
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