As a topic in the Talent Acquisition world, there aren’t too many more popular subjects than that of the “Candidate experience”, how your corporate and employment brand is affected by the Recruitment lifecycle and subsequent employment lifecycle experienced by the individual.
The majority of the time, the lens of this experience, starts as an applicant enters your process. However, there is an argument that we don’t go far enough. When does the actual candidate experience start? When a candidate applies for a role? When they enter your ATS? That’s when your business (and Talent Acquisition function) can start having impact right? However, there are many instances when you don’t have control of your candidate experience, of your brand reputation, it can be either polished or tarnished even before you as a Corporate Recruiter or inhouse Talent Acquisition team are even aware that an applicant is an applicant and interacting with your brand. When you use Recruitment agencies or third party Recruiters, there is an extra layer of complexity added to your branding exercises and controlling that narrative can be challenging.
A lot of the time, you can just hope that those representing your business to the market are doing so in a way that you would deem appropriate and putting you and your process in the ideal light. But, you cannot be sure. Focussing on the quality of those representing your business is imperative. Are you getting what you pay for? There is a lot of competition in the market, a lot of noise, of which any number could harm your brand.
In a hot market it is not unusual for external recruiters drowning under the weight of volumes of roles. Remember the majority only get paid upon successful placements so take on as much as they can to ensure success. This, whilst a (sometimes) effective strategy for that business, dictates that your brand will be just the “one of many” being represented to a candidate in the push for placements. If this is the case, we’ve often seen that the person who deals with the corporate from the agency, the person who wins the business to fill the requirement, is not always the person “working the brief” and representing your business to the market. You need to know who is responsible for the well being of your brand from the agency point of view and ensure you brief the appropriate person. The person being the voice or face of your organisation needs to be credible and have the ability to “talk to talk” to potential customers, especially in the technical areas or more senior roles. If the Recruiter talking to the market is just pushing word matches on a job brief, what kind of light does that shine on your company? If the person working your roles is weighed down by the load of excessive requirements they are trying to fill, the potential to forget about candidate experience and to “ghost” or just not respond to candidates (in your name) is high. This will affect your brand too.
Even more worrying for your brand are those agencies, that just “hear” that you’re hiring and start pitching candidates to you “that will be perfect” who is a great “cultural match”. Without even speaking to anyone from your business. Advertisement chasers, who, whilst hustling really well are just throwing mud against a wall to see what sticks. Candidates being shopped around and potentially being rejected because of a lack of understanding or poor pitching by the Recruiter will feel like they’ve had a poor experience, not from the Recruiter, but from the brand (your brand) they were representing.
So many areas outside of your control that can affect the candidate experience, your employment brand, it’s scary. Making it imperative that corporately, you need to expand your notion of candidate experience all the way back to when interactions actually begin, not just when they enter your ATS.
There will be areas that will naturally stay outside of your sphere of influence, but at TalentVine, we help you control the narrative. By utilising our portal you get control over who represents your brand (and when) in the marketplace. You can ensure that they are specialists with bonafide credentials or experience in the roles you need to fill and check that they can talk the talk when it comes to the technicalities of your job, or be credible enough to deal with the appropriate level of experience you need in a candidate. Our portal allows you to look beyond just a competitive price model, but to really focus on the quality of the Recruiter and what they will add to your process and prospective employees beyond. How have they sourced your types of roles in the past? At what level? How was their performance ranked by other employers?
We take the unknown out of the equation. Our portals allow you to show all the agencies you are working with, what you need them to know about you, your roles and your culture, as well as showcase the “What’s in it “for the candidate without having the same conversation a thousand times. We help you control the narrative to ensure the right things are being said about you and enhancing your brand awareness (in a good way) and candidate experience.
Partnering with the right agencies, the right way is what we help you to do. It will not only enhance your ability to attract and hire the right people, but also ensure that the candidate experience is something you are proud of and uplifts your companies reputation in the eyes of the market.
