How Do Candidates View Your Hiring Process?

Your company’s hiring process is one of the first impressions you make with candidates. It can be the foundation upon which they determine whether you fit into their vision as to how their career should go. To attract the best talent, you need to make sure your hiring process is sending the right message. While you can’t get directly into the mind of an applicant, there are key points to which they will be paying attention.

How Do Candidates View Your Hiring Process?

Perceived Company Culture

When an applicant interacts with anyone representing your business, they begin to formulate ideas about the culture of your workplace. The way an employee introduces themselves when scheduling an interview, the appearance and branding of a company’s website or overall online presence, and the look of the environment when they arrive all help paint a picture of what it is like to work with your company.

While the particular culture of your workplace is hard to define, candidates will take note of these details to determine if the position seems to feel right. Starting with a big piece such as the company’s values and mission statement or looking at a smaller (but still important) aspect such as the employee dress code all make an impression for the talented candidate your company wants to add.

Managers and Co-workers

Similar to culture is the instinctual idea of working with the people the candidate encounters along the way. We all want to work in an environment where we can flourish and feel (reasonably) socially comfortable. Interactions with potential managers, and co-workers all factor in when deciding if a work environment is ideal.

While hiring managers and recruiters make the strongest impressions simply due to the higher level of interaction, every encounter matters. Just as businesses enlist the help of receptionists and other employees to vet an applicant, candidates make judgments based on those interactions as well.

Open Communication

Many job seekers have come to expect a level of communication throughout the process. Whether these are automated status updates on applications or follow-up calls and emails, how information is (or isn’t) conveyed to candidates will impact their perception of your company.

Failing to meet communication expectations, especially when specific timelines are provided to the candidates, can cause many to reconsider accepting the position, as well as apply to other openings. It can damage the reputation of the business and has even been shown to lead candidates to bypass company offerings in the consumer market.

While it is understandable that timetables may shift, keeping candidates informed of progress regularly will make a more positive impression. This can appease an applicant’s need to feel in the loop and helps them leave the process with a more favorable impression – even if they are not selected.

Future Potential

Applicants care about the future in two ways; they want to understand the future of the business and how their career can develop within that future. If a candidate gets the impression that either the business or their career will stagnate, they may be less inclined to accept a position. Similarly, if growth in the organization does not help their personal goals, they may choose to pass.

Help candidates understand how the business’s future success translates into personal improvement. This creates a bigger picture and shows there is a long-term plan for the position.

Proven IT Staffing Model

If you want a hiring process designed to attract the best candidates, Validity Solutions can make the impression you need to find the ideal applicants. Contact Validity Solutions today and put our experience to work for you.