Everyone knows the phrase, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” But what you don’t know about your company’s candidate experience can hurt your company.
That’s why it’s so important that companies are paying attention to candidate experience. After all, the candidate experience can positively—or negatively—affect revenue. But what can your company do to learn more about what candidates are experiencing?
One of the most crucial elements of employer branding is your company’s online reputation. It’s critical that you’re responding to both good and bad reviews. According to Inc., companies that address negative reviews can see the perception of their business improve by 62 percent.
And that’s not all. Glassdoor notes that (unsurprisingly) candidates are more eager to apply for jobs at companies with positive online reviews. Candidates are also more likely to accept a position and recommend a company to friends if it has positive online reviews.
But you need to do more than just manage your online reputation. You need to apply what your company discovers about its candidate experience (and company culture) to your business. Because getting more positive online reviews means having a positive company culture.
Sadly, your online reputation doesn’t tell the full story. If your company doesn’t have any negative reviews about its candidate experience, this means it’s a positive one, right?
Wrong.
In order to ensure your company is providing a positive candidate experience, ask all of your candidates to fill out a survey. Request that candidates share what they liked—and didn’t like—about the experience with your company. However, don’t just limit the survey to two questions. SHRM suggests that interview surveys contain four or five questions. On top of that, you should survey candidates during each step of the hiring process. This will give you invaluable feedback about your interview process by helping you pinpoint where your company can improve.
If there’s a golden candidate experience rule, it’s this: What you don’t know can—and often does—hurt you. So, learn all you can and work on providing a positive one to all your job candidates. In this case, information (not ignorance) is bliss.