Candidate Experience

Why Candidate Communication Matters

Communication is vital in any relationship. It helps build credibility and trust between the parties, no matter in which area of life: with your partner, friends, family, professional colleagues and customers. As a basis for fruitful human interactions, the same principle applies to any business when it comes to attracting new talents.

Unfortunately, employers have ignored that basic element of talent engagement: meaningful and transparent candidate communication. I have heard this story so many times from my different social circles in Latin America, Europe and Asia. It is a bad practice worldwide.

Job candidates feel like employers do not take them seriously

When applying for a job, it is quite common that candidates barely know any details about the recruitment process. Some companies tend to operate like “black holes” possibly due to lack of resources. This makes job candidates feel like employers do not take them seriously. Similar stories are constantly shared on websites such as Glassdoor or Quora.

But candidates are enthusiastic! They bring fresh ideas and expertise to organizations. They put huge effort into making job applications, and they might spend hours creating their CV or writing a covering letter. Those talents want to contribute to the organization’s success. Sometimes they fill in extremely long application forms with multiple questions, skills, experiences and expectations. For what result? Nothing but total radio silence.

Candidate communication matters

How do you think those potential talents feel when they apply for a job and never hear back from the company? Candidates feel discouraged and hurt! Since we are talking about people, emotions like frustration and anger can come out easily as a result of a terrible candidate experience. Such emotions will inevitably be shared with their social circles. Or even worse, if the company they applied to is a consumer brand, they may start boycotting their products. Acting in this opaque way can destroy a business.

Nowadays some HR professionals send automated messages at the initial phase of the recruitment process. But then suddenly, the communication stops. Thus, the candidate has two options:

Play the waiting game around the hiring decision (one, two, three months, eternally?)
Forget that job and keep looking for great employers who value their expertise.

Employers cannot take that risk given the increasing talent shortage out there. To reject candidates, some employers send automated emails. For instance, a widely-used template is this one: “After reviewing several qualified applications, we have decided to move forward with other candidates. In the meantime, we wish you success”. Full stop. Sadly, these are just empty words for a talent who might not be prepared to join your organization now but in the future.

Candidates deserve feedback

This is a call to action. Whether talents are qualified or not (at this point in time), they need and deserve to know their strengths and weaknesses from the employer’s perspective. A paradigm shift in recruitment methods is needed to re-humanise the whole experience. In today’s modern world, a recruitment strategy should contain the human touch and clear action points to guarantee a great candidate experience. Recruitment must be a two-way process where both the employer and potential talents exchange constant feedback. Mutual benefits result from this approach. It is all about building relationships with people. Business success depends on people.

By keeping communication transparent with candidates throughout the recruitment process, employers not only build a positive employer brand, but also make a positive impact on society. Meaningful feedback nurtures candidates and helps them develop themselves, personally and professionally.

Nevertheless, re-humanising the recruitment process is not just an ideal anymore. With the help of technology, TalentAdore has developed a fantastic online tool to help recruiters communicate transparently with a large number of potential talents during the recruitment process until the hiring decision is made. The candidate can now receive status updates and meaningful feedback!

How to improve the candidate experience? Download our Definitive Guide to Candidate Experience.

TalentAdore touches people’s hearts

Let us look at some candidates’ testimonials. After receiving detailed feedback on their application with TalentAdore’s online too l, one candidate shared:

Thanks for an unusually varied feedback! Thank you for taking the time to look at my application.

Another candidate expressed:

Although I was not accepted, the response I received was constructive and I recognized myself in it. Now, I know what I can do better. Thanks!

As stated by Saku Valkama, CEO of TalentAdore, we have created a tool that touches people’s hearts.

We now live in a transparency economy

Although some of those candidates have been rejected, they are very grateful for such transparency. The company brand is reinforced, talent attraction is secured and employers help talents in their job-seeking journey. If companies want to survive, they should start taking action on how to make a positive impact on society.

A great candidate experience and particularly meaningful candidate communication brings benefits not only to businesses but to society. Here is where HR professionals play a fundamental role. If you are a modern recruiter or a visionary leader, once you’ve started the recruitment process, make sure you keep track of the candidate’s journey from beginning to end. Meaningful communication and transparency will add great value to your work. Do you want to become a superstar in recruiting?