The candidate experience is crucial to recruiting and hiring success. From the initial contact through interviews and the hiring decision, candidates should feel valued, informed, and supported. Recruiters should communicate professionally, provide helpful interview preparation, and give thorough feedback. Even in rejecting candidates, recruiters should offer kindness, career advice, and follow up to foster goodwill. Creating a positive candidate experience at every step helps build a strong employer brand and supports future hiring needs.

1. The Candidate Experience
The candidates experience is one of the most important parts of recruiting and staffing. You must
remember the experience a candidate has interviewing(this includes phone interviews) will go a
long way in determining whether the candidate would accept an offer. The key is to remember as
much as we are interviewing the candidate, the candidate is also interviewing us. Of course we
must also remember that the candidate will tell others of their experience, and those others will
tell still others and so on. A bad candidate experience can go a long way to defining what the
reputation a company will have with regards to recruiting and such.
It all starts with the first call or email. You need to be sure you are polite, professional and
positive, or as I call it the 3 P's of first contact. Be sure to not read from a script, ensure you
make the candidate feel you are thrilled to talk with them, genuine and excited about your
company. Make sure you find a connection with the candidate, this will help you gain their trust
and make asking questions so much easier.
The next step in the candidates experience is either next interviews or having to tell them no:
If you have to tell a candidate no, be sure to try and do it over the phone not in email. Try to not
do it on a Friday or a day before a holiday. Wait till the following work day. Trust me telling a
candidate no, will bring them down, the last thing you want to do is ruin their weekend or
holiday. Believe me they will appreciate it. Make sure when you tell them no, you give them as
much info as you can. Of course some things you cannot and should not say, but you can let
them down gently. Of course here is where you can really score some major positive candidate
experience points. Besides just telling then no, and telling them as much as you can. Go a step
further. Answer any questions as best you can, even go so far as to help them with career advice,
resume writing, interviewing techniques. In other words put on your career counseling hat. It
may sound like a huge investment in a candidate you turned down, but trust me "what goes
around, come around". I have done this allot and have been rewarded in allot of ways for it.
anything from, just knowing you helped someone, to a nice thank you email or card, to being
recommended to other candidates, and more. Remember treat everyone the way you would want
to be treated. Above all make sure you get back with the candidate. Do not just let them hang,
thinking they will figure it out. Even in this economy with so many candidates you want to let
everyone you interview know their status. If not it will come back to bite you. The economy and
candidate pool , are like the tide, there is high tide (lots of candidates), and there are low tides

2. ( few candidates). Trust me candidates will remember and will talk. So when low tide comes, if
you treated them bad, you will struggle to get them willing to interview.
Now on to the next step candidates. The candidates that come in for face to face interviews
require the most amount of attention. Prior to actually coming in you should , provide them some
interview coaching, as much info on the job, team, interviewers as you can. In other words set
them up for success as much as you can. Make sure if they are from out of town, their
transportation, rooms, etc.. are all taken care of. Whether local or out of town ensure they have
their schedule in advance. Try to be the first person on the interview schedule. Be sure to try to
relax them as you interview them. remind them to turn cell phones off, see if they need a drink or
anything. As I said earlier treat them the way you would want to be treated. Tell them what to
expect from their experience. Make sure when it is time you walk them to the first interview and
introduce them. Ensure that each interviewer will do the same for the following interview and
that at the end they are brought back to you. When they are brought to you at the end of the
interviews, ask them how it was? Alleviate any fears or concerns they might have. Make sure
you let them know what comes next and when they might hear from you.
So you have a decision. If it is a no, follow the same guidelines as what you did for a no after a
phone screen. If it is yes. Then you need to make the offer and again, just treat the candidate the
way you would want to be treated.
Now every company should have an on-boarding process(see blog on subject). A recruiters
involvement varies, but remember at a minimum you should check in with your new hire with in
the first 90 days.
Follow these guidelines and you can count on your candidate having a great experience.
Remember the key with the candidate experience is to "treat each candidate the way you would
want to be treated", do that and you will be golden.