Candidate experience is everything. It's the first thing that potential employees will see and it can make or break your recruitment process. That's why businesses are always looking for ways to optimize their candidate experience, and there are more creative ways than ever to do this! In this blog post, we'll be discussing 5 easy ways to improve the candidate experience with a little creativity and a lot of success.

1. Make the application process as straightforward and easy as possible. Nobody likes to be redirected to a load of different pages when applying for a job, try to minimize any unnecessary steps that job-seekers have to take to submit their application. Improving this activity will not only make the candidate experience more enjoyable, but it will also reduce the administration time and help you find talent faster. Here are some ways to streamline this process: Reduce the number of fields in the application form (don't ask for too much unnecessary information), Don't use a CAPTCHA, and avoid asking candidates to upload a portfolio. Although it may feel like widening your net to let in less relevant applicants, you may find the ideal person was dropping off and quitting partway through before.

2. Send a confirmation email thanking people for applying, and make it personalized. This is important because a candidate may have applied through your website, but they didn't receive an email to confirm. This could lead applicants to doubt themselves if there was any submission causing them to go back and check. This is such a simple and easy thing to do to relieve a great deal of self-doubt and time.

3. Mobile optimization should be a priority in any case, especially in the hiring process. Searching and applying to jobs via your phone is becoming normality, if your site is not mobile optimized, then you're missing out on a lot of potential candidates who would have otherwise applied.

It's possible to do this by either setting up an app or hiring someone to develop one for you and if that isn't possible just make sure there's a responsive design to the page so it will adjust accordingly, nobody like to pinch and zoom to find buttons and text boxes, it's a hassle!

Another tip to increase your mobile-friendly hiring is to set up a text message alert for when there are new positions available, that way people can apply at any time and don't need to worry about checking your site so often.

4. Make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes on your website, job descriptions, social media posts. This is simply because the candidate experience is about making your company seem as professional and polished as possible.

Also, if keywords are spelt incorrectly, then they're not contributing to your SEO strategy, which is another way to reach a wider audience.

This is really easy to avoid by using the spell checker on a computer or phone before posting anything, but if you've missed something then there are many online tools that can help, it's worth checking out what suits you best!

5. Provide feedback on the interview and offer an explanation why the candidate didn't get the job because if they know how to improve, there's an increased chance they'll reapply in the future.

By providing feedback despite not making the hire, it's showing that you're willing to help people become more employable without getting anything out of it yourself, and will really set you apart from the competition.

Some examples of interview feedback can be in the form of written bullet points, a follow-up email, or text.

There are many more complex methods to improve the candidate experience, however, these are some of the easiest and quickest ways to quickly optimize your processes. Overall, the candidate experience is an important thing to think about and tweak regularly to see in which ways you can optimize the process. As long as the applicants can easily apply with clear messaging, guidance, and gets constructive feedback out of the experience then the foundations of a successful candidate experience have been laid.

Over the years, we've developed our core value of Investing in Partnership™ – with both our clients and the talented professionals we place – fostering teamwork, transparency and open dialogue. This philosophy empowers our recruitment specialists to work as an extension of our client’s team, ensures we develop meaningful relationships with prospective candidates and leads all sides to long-term success. We’d love to hear and tackle any hiring challenges your currently facing, get in touch for a chat!