So often the reality of the job is very different to the fantasy sold to us during the recruitment process. The candidate experience is the first interaction a potential employee has with your organisation and its culture. When candidate experience is designed skilfully, top candidates get the impression your organisation cares about its people even before they’re on the team.
That’s an extraordinarily powerful (and positive) signal to send—not just to candidates, but to new hires and longstanding employees. You’re reinforcing the importance your organisation places on its people at every level. You’re also providing a behavioural standard for other employees to emulate throughout the hiring process.
If their experience with your organisation is exceptionally positive, even candidates who aren’t accepted will still have great things to say about engaging with you.
A poorly-designed candidate experience will invariably leave a sour taste, not only for the candidate who came in to interview, but also for the employee who made the referral.
It doesn’t matter how much you’re paying, or how great the projects you’re working on are: if you fail to treat candidates with the same esteem you’d treat a longtime colleague, you’re doing the organisation a disservice.