How to Improve Candidate Experience

Across all recruitment stages, one key priority is how to improve candidate experience.

Candidate experience highlights how candidates perceive the hiring process and how respected and informed they feel through their journey.

All the recruitment expertise and best practices can be undermined if candidates end up feeling mistreated. Moreover, candidate experience isn’t just “nice to have” – it has real impacts on employer brand and even the business.

Studies show that 77% of candidates with a negative experience will share it with their network (damaging your reputation). Also, about 50% would be less inclined to buy your products if they feel you treated them poorly in hiring.

On the flip side, a great experience can turn even rejected candidates into ambassadors who might refer others or apply again.

10 Ways To Improve Candidate Experience

1. Communication and Transparency

Clear, frequent communication is the backbone of positive candidate experience. Throughout the recruitment process, leading firms keep candidates informed about what to expect and where they stand.

For example, after each stage, companies like Google send update emails. Microsoft’s recruiters make a point to respond to all email follow-ups from candidates promptly.

They also provide hiring timelines which helps set expectations. Even if there’s a delay, informing candidates that “You’re still under consideration, we’ll have an update next week” prevents anxiety.

Meta’s recruiting team often provides candidates with a single point of contact whom they can reach out to with questions at any time.

2. Respect for Candidates’ Time

Efficient scheduling, minimal rescheduling, and not making candidates jump through unnecessary hoops are important. Amazon and Google use scheduling tools and dedicated coordinators to streamline setting up interviews. They often giving the candidate some choice of slots to accommodate their schedule.

They also try to consolidate the hiring steps. Microsoft might arrange a full loop in one day rather than making a candidate come back repeatedly, when feasible.

Of course, they ensure tech support is available for virtual rounds.

3. Candidate Preparation

As mentioned earlier, providing guides or at least tips for interviews is a practice at Amazon, Apple and Google. Amazon have an “Interviewing at Amazon” page with advice on how to approach behavioural questions. Apple’s careers page gives interview tips like “Be yourself, and share what you’re passionate about”.

This not only helps candidates perform their best but also demonstrates that the company cares about setting candidates up for success.

4. Fair and Consistent Process

Candidates, especially those interviewing at multiple top firms, talk to each other or share online (Glassdoor reviews, etc.). They will notice if a process is disorganized or biased. By implementing structured interviews and standardized evaluation, companies project (and practice) fairness.

Google’s finding that candidates prefer structured processes bears repeating – it made even rejected candidates happier by 35%. Fair treatment leads to candidates feeling the decision, even if not in their favour, was merit-based and unbiased.

Fairness is shown by answer each candidate’s questions with the same depth, giving all a similar opportunity to showcase skills.

5. Timely Closure and Feedback

One of the biggest complaints candidates have is not hearing back or being left in limbo. All our exemplar companies strive to avoid that.

Even candidates who make it far should be informed of rejection because they “could be future employees or customers”. Some companies go further and offer feedback to candidates.

For legal reasons, many US companies give only generic feedback (if at all). However, in Europe it’s more common to give brief constructive feedback.

For instance, a candidate might be told:

We were looking for more hands-on experience with Azure cloud deployment, which another candidate had. We were impressed with your presentation skills though, and we encourage you to apply again in the future.

This kind of insight, if delivered tactfully, can leave a positive impression. Even if detailed feedback isn’t given, a heartfelt thank you and encouragement to keep in touch goes a long way.

6. Candidate Experience Surveys

To really nail candidate experience, some companies measure it. Uber, for example, implemented candidate experience surveys at every stage of the hiring process, even for those who were disqualified or rejected. They ask candidates to rate their experience and provide comments.

Importantly, they don’t wait until the end. They gather feedback from candidates right after, say, a phone screen or on-site, which allows them to identify pain points promptly. This is innovative because many only survey those who got hired (which skews results).

By surveying everyone, Uber could pinpoint the exact challenge, and then fix it. A good metric used is the Candidate Net Promoter Score (NPS). This involves asking “How likely are you to recommend our company’s recruitment process to others?”

This distilled feedback can be benchmarked and improved.

7. Personalized Candidate Experience

While the process is standardized, the experience can be personalized.

For example, during on-site interviews at Meta, if a candidate mentioned in earlier talks that they love a certain product the company makes, the coordinator might arrange for them to get a small swag related to that product or meet someone from that team.

If a candidate is flying in, companies often accommodate by offering travel arrangements and perhaps a nice dinner. Meta reportedly would sometimes have a new hire’s laptop and desk all set up with a welcome sign on Day 1 (these are onboarding touches, but the impression starts from the offer acceptance).

8. Maintaining Professionalism

All interviewers are instructed to treat candidates professionally – that means being on time, not asking inappropriate or illegal questions (like those about family status, etc.), and maintaining a courteous tone.

Companies train interviewers on what not to ask to avoid any disrespect or legal issues. A slip by an interviewer can severely tarnish an otherwise good experience.

9. Candidate Perspective

Some firms walk through their own process from a candidate’s perspective to identify pain points – e.g., how long does it take to fill out our application? (If it’s an hour-long ordeal, many good candidates may abandon it).

In fact, simplifying the application is a recommended practice. For example, allowing LinkedIn profile submissions or not asking people to re-type their entire resume.

Amazon, after feedback, streamlined their online application for certain roles to avoid redundancies. Small improvements like these at the start of the process can significantly enhance experience.

10. Candidate Experience at Scale

When dealing with massive volumes (like Tesla’s 5.9M applicants/year or Google’s pipeline), companies use automation to keep experience high.

For instance, auto-confirmation emails, chatbots on career sites to answer FAQs, and portals where candidates can self-check their status.

However, the best implementations ensure these tools still feel friendly and helpful, not just impersonal. Meta (Facebook) is exploring using AI to answer candidate queries promptly and guide them through next steps, freeing recruiters to focus on personal touches that AI can’t do.

In summary, candidate experience is woven through each step.

This starts with clear job ads and responsive applications in sourcing, respectful and timely screening interactions, well-organized and fair interviews, and courteous offer and rejection communications.

Companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc., recognize that today’s candidates are often tomorrow’s customers or even future candidates for other roles, so they treat them with the same care as they would treat an internal colleague.

Leading organizations also view candidate experience as a competitive advantage in the talent market. A smooth, positive hiring process can sway a candidate toward accepting one company’s offer over another’s.