What does the experience of your ideal candidate need to be for them to want to work for you?

“We’ve never had a problem filling vacancies. Why does it even matter?” - anon, pre 2022

It’s true that there’s little consequence to not providing a good candidate experience if the people you recruit are easy to find and good enough for their jobs.

What happens when good enough isn’t good enough?

How do you attract better, best and right?

If you can’t even find good enough, do you assume it’s the market that’s difficult and not something you’re doing?

Can your candidates tell you what the vacancy means from the job description?

Is your job description suitable and sufficient, or have you neglected key context that should shape how you recruit?

Would you rather blame things you can’t control, than fix things you can?

Is there a point where the reputation you’ve developed leads to your recruiters talking to candidates that won’t touch you with a barge pole?

Is your level of attrition acceptable or do you have many people leaving within a year, because they were never right for the role?

Do your targets and objectives drift because performance isn’t as expected?

Do people advocate your business because of how you said No?

Did you know Totaljobs won’t even send your advert out as a job alert if there’s no salary, because it’s deemed a low-quality advert?

Do you advertise 28 days holiday because you know 20 sounds worse?

So many questions.

It’s the little things and the big things that make a difference. That’s the only reason to worry about candidate experience.

And that’s why I build it into every part of how I recruit.