When you’re trying to hire that one-in-a-million candidate, it can be tempting to rush through the process in an attempt to strike gold.
But just hold up a sec.
Candidate experience is an essential part of a good hiring process, both for employer branding and to make sure that new employees are set up for success from day one.
It covers everything from how easy it was to submit an application, to how candidates felt during interviews, to how supported they were during the onboarding process — basically, from the time the candidate finds your company to their first day on the job.
As a seasoned HR pro, you already know how important candidate experience is. But when you’re faced with an overflowing inbox and a backlog of critical hires, it’s easy for candidate experience to take a backseat.
Enter: Zinc’s candidate experience treasure map.
It’s not a map, really. And there’s no pile of gold at the end. But hopefully it helps you figure out what you need to prioritise, where your process is already strong, and what you might have missed.
And hey — isn’t the real treasure the candidates we meet along the way?
But first, the lore: Why candidate experience matters
Every good treasure map has a backstory. This one starts with a staggering statistic: 38% of candidates said they would share a negative recruitment experience with their friends or on social media.
Nobody wants to go viral for that.
Even in an employer’s market, where you might have thousands of applications coming through for one entry-level role, a bad candidate experience means you’re missing out on the most qualified candidates.
Let’s dive deeper.
It increases the chance candidates will accept your offer
According to a survey from SHL, nearly half (42%) of UK candidates have said no to an offer because they had a poor experience during the hiring process. On the other hand, a great candidate experience means that they’re far more likely to accept yours over a competitor.
It helps you cut time to hire
We’ve all been there: You have the perfect candidate in your pipeline. Everyone’s aligned, including the hiring manager. And then…they drop out.
There are a lot of reasons candidates drop out of the hiring process. But whether it’s a drawn-out interview process or a clunky application software, a poor candidate experience increases your time to fill and shrinks your talent pool.
When those are metrics that you’re getting measured on, you can’t afford to let them slip.
It boosts your employer brand
Employer branding lasts so much longer than market trends. Brand is long-lasting, and a bad experience now can have repercussions years down the line. Candidates who feel respected and valued during your process are more likely to refer colleagues, reapply, and strengthen your talent pool.
Plus, happy candidates make for happy customers. 73% of candidates say that a bad hiring experience would make them avoid a company in the future, either as a candidate or as a customer.
It helps your bottom line
Like we said above, the effects of a poor experience aren’t just limited to your talent pipeline — they’re business critical.
One famous example? Virgin Media took a good look at their hiring process and found that disappointed job applicants who were also customers cost the brand an estimated £4.4 million in lost revenue annually.
The treasure map of good candidate experience
Now that we’ve dropped the backstory, let’s go back to our map to find the milestones and make sure they’re optimised for a great candidate experience.
Every interaction during the candidate journey comes with opportunities and hidden danger. Where will you find yours?
Employer Branding Bay: How to make the best first impression
We start our journey here — before anyone even hits ‘apply’.
Employer branding is anything that influences how a potential jobseeker thinks and feels about your organisation before entering the application process. This includes online reviews, marketing, how clear your job ads are, and even social media.
Opportunities: A good employer brand helps you attract the best candidates who clearly align with your company’s mission. Be sure to:
- Write clear, realistic job descriptions
- Outline your mission and vision on your careers page
- Post salary and benefits information up front
- Share glimpses of what it’s like to work at your company across social media
Hidden danger: Employer brand is a tricky thing to get right, especially if you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to it. Focus on job descriptions and a clear careers page, and make a plan for the rest when you have time.
Application Canyon: Remove friction, get better options
During the application process, you have to balance getting the right information with making it as easy as possible for good candidates to apply. Speed and ease are the name(s) of the game.
Opportunities: Best practice is to keep application forms short, simple, and mobile-optimised. The longer the process takes to complete, the fewer applicants you’ll have — especially from qualified candidates with other options.
- Find an ATS with features that auto-save applications
- Make sure your platform is intuitive and easy to use
- Think carefully about the documents you’re asking them to provide (CV, cover letter, portfolio, etc). Are they all essential?
Hidden danger: If you don’t put enough checks in place, it’s easy to get flooded with low-quality applications. Consider implementing tools that help flag AI-generated CVs, or specific questions that help you measure aptitude for the role.
Back-and-Forth Path: Human communications and connection
In an overflowing inbox, it’s easy to miss emails or run out of time to reply to every single one. And with more applicants for fewer positions, the problem just gets multiplied.
But ghosting candidates, or making them wait ages for a reply, is one of the fastest ways to tank an employer brand and build a bad reputation for your company. So what can you do instead?
Opportunities: There are plenty of ways to automate the painful parts of candidate comms while still finding opportunities for human connection.
- Use an automatic calendar booker like Calendly to let candidates self-schedule or reschedule interviews
- Set up email workflows for key moments in the candidate process, including application and initial screenings. Use them to clearly explain timelines, company culture, and what you’re looking for
- Block out specific times to respond to candidate queries, instead of just hoping that you’ll find time during a busy day
- Offer clear and actionable feedback to final stage candidates who didn’t get the role
Hidden danger: Over-personalising takes too much time, and automating can take away too much personality. Automation is best for the early stages of the process, where you need to communicate a lot of the same information to a wide pool of candidates. It can help free up time to focus on more personalisation towards the end stages, where you have more meaningful touchpoints.
Interview Point: Build a candidate-centric experience
Interviews are the make-or-break moment when it comes to a candidate’s impression of your organisation. It’s important to respect your candidate’s time, while also getting the information that you need to make an informed decision about their ability to do the job
Opportunities: Your candidate is a person, and so are you — proceed accordingly. Clarity, organisation, and respect are key.
- Consider sending interview themes or even questions ahead of time so candidates can prepare
- Make sure interviewers are well-prepared, trained, and not distracted
- Actively listen and ask questions that turn the interview into a two-way conversation
- Clearly communicate timelines and next steps so candidates always know what’s coming next
Hidden danger: Trying to cram an entire interview process into as short a time as possible is a great way to turn off qualified candidates. Think hard about who you really need in the room during the process, and what you’re assessing candidates for.
Background Check Coast: Transparent, fast, respectful
Screening, assessments, and background checks can be one of the most time-consuming parts of the interview process. So it’s no surprise that if it’s not fast and easy, this is where qualified candidates are also likely to drop out.
To avoid losing your top candidates at the finish line, use a screening provider that prioritises ease of use for you and a delightful experience for candidates. At Zinc, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to build the best candidate experience possible.
Opportunities: Background checks are best when they’re automated and hassle free. Going back and forth with candidates, uploading documents manually, and waiting weeks for results just won’t do.
Working with a third-party provider is the best way to take work off your plate and make sure that candidates stay informed on the progress of their checks. Obviously, we think the best way to do that is by using Zinc, but you can also check out our guide to choosing the right background checking provider.
Challenges: The wrong process won’t just leave your candidates frustrated — it’ll make more work for you. Communicate upfront about what candidates will need to provide, and then make it as easy as possible for them to track results and troubleshoot without sending you a dozen different questions.
Decision Mountain: Offers and rejections
You’ve found the perfect candidate — hurray!
But now you have to let the other ones know they haven’t got the job. This stage affects all the candidates in your pipeline, not just the successful ones, and taking the time to treat everyone with respect is key.
Opportunities: For the chosen candidate, present the offer as quickly as possible to prevent them from getting snatched up by a competitor. Make sure you:
- Call the candidate with the good news to make a special moment, then follow up with a written offer
- Clearly outline the compensation package — including salary, benefits, and other details — and the next steps
- Give them time to consider but stay in touch
Hidden dangers: No one likes to be the bearer of bad news. But a rejected candidate could just as easily be a perfect match for another role down the line (or know someone else who is). Give prompt, honest feedback to close off the conversation warmly and professionally.
Onboarding Valley: Setting them up for success
By now, you’re probably celebrating your win and looking ahead to the next role. But your journey isn’t done until the candidate is up and running.
The onboarding process is a great way to make sure that new hires are set up for success and feel welcomed at a new company, and can either confirm or contradict the initial impression they had during the interview process.
Opportunities: Onboarding new employees well is the best way to make sure they’re happy, productive, and eager to stay at your company for the foreseeable future. Best practices include:
- Building a well-structured template you can roll out and customise based on the role
- Making sure that IT basics (laptop, software access, workspaces) are available on day one
- Sending over a package ahead of their first day with everything they’ll need to know, from dress code to office location to cultural expectations
Challenges: Assuming someone else will handle the onboarding, or worse, not thinking about it at all, risks second thoughts and early turnover. Working closely with your hiring manager and people team will make sure everyone’s on the same page.
How to make the journey smoother: 8 best practices for a great candidate experience
The journey is over, and you’ve found your treasure…erm, candidate.
You’re going to have to do it again, though, and every time you repeat the process is an opportunity to level up. Here’s how to make sure that your candidate experience is always top-notch:
- Keep it simple: The more you cut out for your candidates, the less you have to keep track of. Experiment with mobile-first applications, chatbots, ATS features, and removing steps to see what works best.
- Communicate early and often: Even a quick email to say, “Hey, we’re still working on a decision,” goes a long way with candidates — and means that you’re less likely to have an inbox full of requests for updates.
- Move quickly (but don’t rush): Speed matters, but that doesn’t mean pressuring candidates. Sending out offers quickly = good. Not giving candidates enough time to make a decision they feel confident about = bad.
- Provide feedback and closure: The best candidate experiences are the ones where they feel heard and respected. Even if they don’t make it all the way to the end, providing feedback is a great way to turn a negative answer into a positive experience.
- Make sure it’s fair: Candidates want to know they have an equal shot. Use your hiring process to demonstrate your commitment to diversity and inclusion, especially by accommodating special needs or being mindful of communication.
- Personalise the journey: The small things matter, whether it’s using a candidate’s name in comms or referencing earlier conversations. As the old saying goes, they might not remember what you said, but they will remember how it made them feel.
- Showcase your culture and values: Candidates want to work somewhere that aligns with what they care about. Highlight any professional development, well-being initiatives, or community impact that sets your organisation apart to help them make a decision.
- Don’t go quiet after the offer: There might be months before your new hire starts, so keeping them engaged is essential. A quick check-in email or a pre-onboarding information package can help solidify a positive first impression.
How to measure candidate experience (and make it matter)
What gets measured gets improved. And chances are, your boss is asking you for numbers anyway.
The most popular way of measuring candidate experience is with a Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS), which adapts the classic customer NPS for recruitment.
cNPS is measured by asking candidates — usually during a post-process survey — how likely they are to recommend your application process to others. Candidates who rank you highly (9 to 10) are “promoters”, those who give low scores (0 to 6) are “detractors”, and the difference in percentage between the two groups is your cNPS.
Some companies also use open-ended surveys to collect qualitative data on the experience, and take feedback on where they can improve.
Other metrics to consider measuring include:
- Application drop-off rates
- Time in each interview stage
- Offer acceptance rates
- Why candidates withdraw from the process
These metrics will help you build a plan for continual improvement, whether it’s FAQ updates, hiring manager training, or a new background checking provider (once again, that’s what Zinc is all about).
Final thoughts: When to follow the map (and when not to)
Staying updated with wider trends, whether it’s putting salary information in job postings, or a smooth video interview experience, can also help you avoid pitfalls before they become problems.
We’ve covered the basic checkpoints on our treasure map, but HR innovation doesn’t stop.
Keep revisiting your candidate experience to make sure you’re always up-to-date. It’s one of the best ways that your company can build a workforce full of talented, engaged professionals who are excited to show up to work everyday.
Taking care of your candidate = taking care of your company. Making candidate experience a priority is a goldmine of opportunity that you can’t afford to miss.
Want to learn more about how Zinc can help you improve candidate experience with instant, easy, and even delightful background checking? Talk to our team today.
