Candidate experience is a hot topic in the staffing industry today. We certainly talk about it a lot here on the Sense blog. That’s because it matters, a lot. Today’s top staffing firms are winning in part because they are focused on creating a positive candidate experience, engaging talent wherever they are in their funnel.
From texting candidates to leveraging AI and automation, and many more, we’ve touched upon several components of a positive candidate experience recently. One of our biggest goals is to empower you to create incredible experiences for your talent!
One area we haven’t talked about much yet, but that is still extremely important, is candidate user experience (UX) with your technology. And it’s a big one.
Ever open an email and click a link, only to get a 404 message? Or go to a website and submit a form, only to get an error message? Or - ugh - apply using a clunky ATS that doesn’t remember your job history, or even your name?! Those types of gaffes can completely wreck your customer experience, or in this case, your candidate experience.
But these are just a few real-world examples of poor customer UX. Let’s talk specifically about staffing firms and candidates. Because the success of your candidate engagement strategy will rely on candidates’ experiences with your technology.
To illustrate the importance of streamlining candidate UX with your staffing tech, let’s take a look at two situations: 1) Typical candidate UX for a staffing firm that doesn’t prioritize candidate experience, and 2) Candidate UX from highly engaged talent with a firm that uses streamlined tech.
Here’s a common scenario that befalls staffing firms that haven’t invested in streamlined technology to prioritize candidate engagement:
Candidate A is unhappy at her current job, and decides to quietly take a look at the opportunities that are out there. She finds a posting from a staffing firm on Indeed, and decides to apply through the staffing firm’s ATS. 👍
Recruiter Z gets a notification from Indeed and scans the resume to see if Candidate A has the required skills and background for the job. Determining she might be a fit, Recruiter Z calls Candidate A to schedule a phone interview. 📞
Except, Candidate A is working at her current job and can’t answer the phone. She doesn’t check voicemails very often, so she doesn’t call Recruiter Z back until a few days later, while she’s on her lunch break. 🌯
D’oh, Recruiter Z is on lunch too, and misses Candidate A’s call. 🤦♀️
Candidate A tries to call back after work, but gets Recruiter Z’s voicemail again. She decides that maybe she’s better off sticking with her current job, and decides not to leave another voicemail.
Recruiter Z decides to try texting Candidate A, and sends a message the next morning...without a response.
Okay, now that we see what can happen when staffing firms fail to invest in a streamlined candidate UX, it’s time to see the other end of the rainbow. What can go right!
Let’s use a Delorean to go back in time a bit and take a mulligan on Candidate A…
Candidate A is not thrilled at her current job and decides she’ll leave if she finds something better. She finds a posting from a staffing firm online, and decides to apply through the that firm’s ATS. 👍
Once Candidate A submits her resume through the ATS, it also triggers Sense Engage to get to work. The staffing firm has invested in a robust candidate engagement platform (ahem, that would be Sense 😬), which consolidates staffing technology to create a seamless candidate experience while simultaneously freeing recruiters to focus on more people-centric tasks. 💻
So, Candidate A submits her resume, Sense Engage automatically sends her an email confirmation that her resume was received. Her skills are on point for the job opening, so Sense also sends her a text message asking to schedule an interview. 📲
This all happens automatically. 🤖
Candidate A is thrilled. She replies and sets up an interview for the next date and time she can get away from the office. She’s super busy, and can’t wait to learn more about this opportunity. 👩💻
The day before her interview with Recruiter Z, Candidate A receives a personalized text with a link to directions for the interview. With so much on her calendar, she had forgotten -- good thing that reminder came through! 👍
Candidate A makes a great impression and subsequently also impresses the client. She lands the role, receiving another personalized communication from her recruiter to keep her informed and engaged throughout the process. 👏
Candidate A is so happy with her experience at this staffing firm, she sings their praises to Glassdoor and Yelp and tells all her friends. She didn’t realize that finding a job and working with a staffing firm could be so easy!
Sense empowers staffing firms and recruiters to create better experiences and fill more jobs. And our team of Customer Success Managers is here for the long haul to help you take advantage of our powerful platform to continue to grow. To see Sense in action, schedule a demo with a member of our team.
