Why Good Leaders Care About the Candidate Experience

The candidates you want to hire have options

It makes sense that you want to learn as much as possible about a candidate before deciding to hire them. You may be sharing the office next to them for years to come, you’ll depend on their work to be quality, and they will represent your company and further its culture. You’ll want to figure out how they respond to tough situations, how they respond to certain asks, and what other people in your company think about them. You’ll be testing for mental abilities, analytical skills, and EQ.

Unfortunately, the process of learning all of these details can be very unpleasant, if not handled deliberately. Be sure to be respectful of the candidate’s time, and know that, if they are someone you think is great, other companies think that too. Be wary of scaring candidates away.

The candidates will get a sense of how your company operates

A candidate’s first sense of the culture of a company, and how well the company is run, comes during the interview process. If scheduling interviews is difficult, messaging is unclear, and interviewers are late to calls, a candidate will get the impression that your company is disorganized.

Try to have the interview process reflect the process and culture of your company as closely as possible. It is one more way for both you and the candidate to gauge fit. If your company has a “straight to the point” attitude when it comes to meetings, skip most of the small talk in the interview. If the first 5 minutes of every meeting in your company is spent catching up with colleagues and talking about the weekend, bring that energy to the interview.

Speed and efficiency are important

Your candidates likely have demanding jobs and finding time in the day to carve out 30 minutes or an hour can be tough. Be sure to only have as many interviews as necessary for a position. If your interview process is not efficient, the companies you are competing with for talent might be faster, and they will likely get an offer in front of the candidate before you.

If there are several stakeholders, consider conducting panel interviews to save time and scheduling emails. If your interview process includes a final in-person visit, entertain the idea of making an offer but having it be contingent upon an on-site visit. This will let the candidate know you are serious and may save you from losing them in the one to two weeks it takes to schedule a flight, hotel, etc.

Steven Haug, Ph.D. is a Project Manager of ECA Partners. He can be reached at [email protected].