Five companies that offer strong candidate experience (5 Min)

The companies which are succeeding in this tough and highly competitive market understand very well that it all comes down to good candidate experience. It’s no longer sufficient to simply move the candidates from one stage to the next stage during the interview process, but being thoughtful and planning every interaction they have with your company  is also very critical as that provides a great candidate experience. Our earlier blog about 10 questions which interviewers should never ask candidates can also be useful for you. 

Listed here are five companies which have taken the candidate experience to another level:

1. Airbnb: The recruiting team of Airbnb turned to a design practice which had worked well for their other departments in the company i.e. using storyboards to visualize each and every  step of the candidate’s journey. Their founders engaged an artist to help them visualize both the host and guest experience at Airbnb and they used those frames to think about how they can simplify, improve and streamline the experience for the candidates. They applied this method to their interview process and shared the frames as those frames represented what they thought about recruiting. Those frames comprised a holistic picture which was much greater than the sum of the each frames.

By this process of empathizing with their candidates radically, the team identified many areas to focus on and improve, including how to celebrate the company’s culture, set the expectations about the timings, branding through their communication and the overall candidate experience. 

2. Booking.com: The talented team at Booking.com has put together a fun filled and interactive multimedia experience on their working at the booking.com website. The candidates can explore their career options and watch the videos which introduce their prospective teammates. They can also check out a day in their life at their different offices, and even learn about how some product decisions are taken. There are photos, videos, blog posts, infographics on their site. Moreover, booking contents are also available on many other social media platforms which you can think of. There’s also an option to create a job alert so that a candidate who doesn’t find the role open right now can be notified when something relevant comes up later on.

Further, booking’s candidate focused content doesn’t only live on their website. In addition to that they also put together in person events, like the Recruiter Hiring Day which are hosted to give the candidates an opportunity to meet the team and take a tour of the entire office and go through the interview.

3. DigitalOcean: The team at DigitalOcean prioritizes transparency at each and every stage of the candidate experience which establishes trust and builds a very strong relationship between the candidates and the recruiting team which they come in contact with.

Most of the candidates tend to have quite similar questions about what to expect during the application and the interview process, when it comes to the onsite interviews. DigitalOcean’s recruiting team has created a central hub of resources for the candidates, which not only shows the candidates that they care for their experience, but it can also save a lot recruiters’ time on the other hand. 

The recruiting team is also transparent with those candidates who don’t receive the offers after they’ve gone through the onsite interview. The recruiters make themselves available over phone to provide the valuable feedback to the candidates on why they weren’t selected for the role. This practice also shows their commitment towards the candidates and a desire to help them prepare better for the subsequent interviews.

4. Slack: Slack has made a name for itself in the tech world and beyond, when it comes to diversity and inclusion at the workplace. Slack’s candidate experience were retooled to promote their hiring practices which benefit candidates from all backgrounds. Candidates were given the option to perform their assessment onsite, which is a practice that’s more inclusive for the people who care for their family members at home.

Slack has a very structured interview process having consistent questions which are designed to assess the candidates on their specific skills and characteristics. Anyone who conducts interviews at Slack also goes through a series of role plays with the coworkers. This enhances the interviewers’ skills, raises their awareness of how bias can arise during the process and ensures that the candidates are treated equally during the interviews.

5. DocuSign: DocuSign values and recognizes the relationship between the candidates and the recruiters as interdependent: When the recruiters are happy, they can provide a better candidate experience and on the other hand when the candidates provide any feedback, those can also help the recruiters get better at what they do. This is why they introduced a standardized survey on the candidate experience.

The survey goes out to all the candidates irrespective of they are selected or not and asks them to rate the recruiters against some statements like “The recruiter gave me a good overview and the value proposition or “The recruiter provided me with timely updates on the status of my application” or “The recruiter treated me with respect throughout the process.” This also included the standard Net Promoter Score question like “Based on your experience, how likely are you to recommend our company to others.” After collecting data for one year and assessing the recruiters through this survey, DocuSign found the candidate Net Promoter Score go up by more than 50%.

CONCLUSION: The strategies and the stories mentioned here just show how broad the concept of a great candidate experience is and how great an impact it can have on a company. It’s not just about the brief visit when a candidate comes to your office for an onsite interview, but rather it’s about all the touch points they come across with the recruiters, hiring managers and the other team members in your company. You need to look at the bigger picture carefully and see how your company thinks about the employees and which values matter the most to you and the candidates too. Looking at both the candidates and the employer too will help you create a game changing candidate experience.