Fullerton
The candidate experience is a hot topic in recruitment circles. If you can improve the candidate experience, the level of candidate and future employees will dramatically improve. The process of advertising dental jobs to the public and the subsequent selection process needs to be done in such a way that is fair and transparent, making sure the process adheres to all the latest regulations. If the practice as a whole falls below these high standards, the candidates who took part in the selection process will be quick to convey their experience to their work peers, and even on social media. If this happens, it will probably discourage future candidates from applying, which may mean the practice will miss out on the best candidates in the future.
A survey conducted by UCLA found that three out of four candidates would communicate to others about their negative experience with the practice. This is quite a high number, so it shows how important improving the candidate experience is.
How to Improve the Candidate Experience?
Probably the easiest way to start this process is to chat with your existing employees to see if they can find ways how the practice could improve now and in the future. These employees may have identified an improvement that can be made through their own personal experience of the selection process, which would have been very difficult to identify if it wasn’t for their experience. To encourage honest replies, you could ask each employee to complete a form and drop it into a box anonymously. This should be seen as step number one.
When you begin the process, you should thank each candidate for their submission and say you will be in touch. Communication at all stages of the process is so vitally important, as failure to do so could mean that the candidate will already have a negative view of the practice before they have even began working (if they are selected). Candidates will have often spent many hours carefully crafting an application for the job, so the least the practice can do is spend a few seconds replying to emails and acknowledging their application.
In the UCLA survey, it was found that nearly every subject questioned said that the number one issue about a negative candidate experience was when the employer didn’t reply or answer questions in a timely manner. Even if they were not successful during this recruitment process, the subjects in the study said they would probably apply for the same job again if in the future it became available, if they were kept in the loop at every stage of the process. This could reduce recruitment costs for advertising in the future if past applicants would be happy to apply again.
These are only just some of the ways that the candidate experience can be improved. Check out our more in-depth look at the candidate experience https://www.dentreps.com/blog/improving-the-candidate-experience/ .
