We collaborated with Gerry Crispin and Elaine Orler from TalentBoard to host a live panel webinar featuring key talent acquisition leaders: Jen Powell of Deloitte, Stefanie Thornton of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Katy Jones of PepsiCo, Marvin Smith of Lockheed Martin, and Chris Hoyt of CareerXroads. It was a real crowd pleaser, attracting over 500 registrants.
We often hear about the importance of creating outstanding candidate experiences, but we rarely get to hear practical insights or key steps organizations and HR managers have taken to continually improve the candidate experience.
Considering the large amount of insight shared within the webinar, I’ll be sharing the questions asked which provide an in-depth recap with key examples and experiences from the HR leaders.
Q1. When you first decided to make the candidate experience a top priority, what was the first thing you changed, added or improved, and why?
The general theme amongst the panel was the importance of recognizing candidates as more than just a candidate. More often than not, candidates are customers, potential customers, or customer influencers and their experience with an employer brand has a direct business impact.
Gerry & Elaine additionally pointed out that the annual TalentBoard survey is showing increasing numbers of people applying for each available job; for every successful candidate, there is a longer and longer list of unsuccessful people. With that, companies are starting to do the math in terms of the business impact. They are starting to really listen and understand their target audiences, communicate on a more personal level and ultimately treat all candidates as customers.
What the panel had to say….
Stefanie Thornton, Director of Talent Acquisition, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan:
“Candidate experience was not just a HR imperative, but a business imperative for us. Of all the candidates coming to our website, we suspected that 65% were either current members, potential members, or members coming up for renewal. So we thought, if we are giving them a really bad experience, what does that do, and how does that translate when it’s time for them to renew their insurance? So we turned this into a business proposition. So when you’re talking about market share, the sales and marketing teams pay close attention. We really recognized this as not only a HR imperative but as an overall business imperative.”
Jen Powell, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager, Deloitte:
“Despite all the candidate experience data we had, we didn’t really know exactly what was motivating our candidates. We anticipated what freshmen wanted was quite different than a more seasoned professional… And so we carried out further research with different types of candidates that were our top hiring profiles to really understand better, what were their motivations, what did they value in an employer, what were the channels they were using to learn more about different companies, and so we were able to use that persona research very similar to a consumer marketing approach to then tailor our messages a bit more to the specific needs to various target profiles that we were recruiting.”
Katy Jones, Global Talent & Engagement Manager, PepsiCo:
“The thing for us was recognizing that with the size of our company and the number of candidates that we have on a monthly basis globally, we wanted to make sure that everybody was getting a touch point during the process and not falling into the black hole, if you will, that can often happen with larger companies. So we looked at how we could open up different lines of communication for our candidates, so when they had questions or who hadn’t heard back from somebody they could get in touch. So we went out and shared that with our talent acquisition team. So through twitter, through LinkedIn, giving them other opportunities to engage and really just a different way of going back and forth with them, giving them those channels and helping them with their questions. That was one of the first things that we did, and it made a big difference.”
Chris Hoyt, Partner, CareerXroads:
“I think many organizations realize that with all of their brands, their products, and the audiences they have, they know that a large proportion of candidates are actually their customers. So they really start to change their head in terms of how they are treating candidates. So when they start to do the math on hearing back that, while it may only be 4 or 5% that say they may reduce their purchase power, that adds up pretty quickly, particularly with sizeable organizations that are getting 10 to 50,000 applications monthly. That quickly adds up to a loss in the millions annually.”
Q2. What specific things – actions, activities channels, and technology – have you found that consistently produce a positive impact on the candidate experience?
It’s clear that for all the panelists, communication and the quality of communication has been paramount when considering the candidate experience. Opening up more channels and opportunities to engage with candidates, providing insight and transparency to the application process, letting candidates know if they are successful, and building positive on-going communications – all these actions consistently prove to have a positive impact on the candidate experience.
What the panel had to say…
Marvin Smith, Strategic Sourcing, Talent Community Strategist, Lockheed Martin:
“One of the basic things that we did was to begin with the recruiter scorecard that we were revising. In other words, hold folks accountable for their experience with the candidates. If we wanted to make candidates our customers we had to start there, and so when you tie that to compensation it starts to make more sense to people. Another thing we did was we expanded the use of live chat to the various recruiting areas of the business. So that when people had questions, they could easily get in touch and that turned out to be really valuable. We also leveraged technology to provide more information about the company that wasn’t specific to a job, so further information about our services, other areas of the business to help their curiosity.”
Jen Powell, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager, Deloitte:
“We are doing lots of cool things with technology and trying to make it easier for candidates to find opportunities and to understand better our culture. And that worked great. But what keeps coming back through feedback about what makes a difference to our candidates is the people that they are interacting with. So the recruiters and client service professionals undoubtedly are getting the most feedback, and generally positive from the open comments that we get. There are many other ways we can use technology, but what it really comes down to is how we are holding our recruiters accountable, just like what Marvin spoke about, but really engaging our professionals and helping them to understand that they are our brand and they are what is making a difference for our candidates.”
Katy Jones, Global Talent & Engagement Manager, PepsiCo:
“For us, I think one of the big actions we took was a rebuild of our career site. Over two years ago we had different career sites for different countries, the experiences were different, they were long, we were losing a lot of people during the process. So almost two years ago we launched a brand new careers site, and a couple of the key things were to allow for full mobile apply, which we didn’t have across the globe previously, it was only available in the US. And as soon as we did that we saw a huge jump in our international traffic, and we found that we were receiving 50% less bounce rate, we had people staying on our job descriptions 30 seconds longer and then also mixing in with local relevancy to the different regions and cultures, and to really give those candidates going on an experience that speaks to them and isn’t just US focused, which is what was happening in the past.”
“Also as far as different channels, we just really put more of a focus on the messaging that we were sending out on our site and through our social channels, and really shifting gears from just pushing jobs, but engaging in conversation, showing them the culture of PepsiCo and that has made a big difference. I know for us a new thing this year is to hold quarterly webinars, and bring in our business leaders and managers to hold discussions with some of our talent pools, again just opening up those lines of communications and giving more insight into what it’s like at PepsiCo, and that’s made a big difference as well.”
Stefanie Thornton, Director of Talent Acquisition, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan:
“So the black hole was something that we heard about over and over again. The biggest thing that we heard was ’it’s okay if you don’t want us, just tell us you don’t want us.’ So we did two things. One was on that initial kick out letter when someone applies: ‘gee, thanks, we received your application.’ We actually put the recruiters name and phone number and email, so that the candidate knew who the recruiter was and it really made it much more personal. The recruiters freaked when we said we were going to do this. But I will tell you, if anything, it has cut down on the amount of calls that come in about ‘can I get the status on my application?’ ‘did you receive my application?’ now they knew someone had it, the messaging was very clear, ‘rest assured, we will provide you with status updates.’ “
“The 2nd thing that we did was look at the disposition letters. We disposition along the way, and we reject along the way. We don’t wait until a position is filled to reject all the candidates that applied because let’s be honest, that could take months. So when we know all of the candidates that are progressing on to the hiring manager review, we let them know that they are not progressing. Same with interview steps. The other thing that we did was in the portal we activated a tool that would allow the candidates to log in and see their step and status of the application at any given time. So they can actually see they’re in hiring manager review stage. With that there is a lot of work on being diligent around dispositioning and communications.”
Chris Hoyt, Partner, CareerXroads:
“I love the live engagement we are seeing; a few companies have committed to and communicated the expectation to candidates that they will actually get back to them in one business day on social channels or via email. They are getting away from the idea that because we have some tools that can automate responses, doesn’t always mean we should. Additionally, organizations are really starting to embrace perception scores; some companies encourage candidates to visit Glassdoor after they have applied. Comcast now as a result of this effort, tells candidates how they did in their interview before the interview is over and explains why they may not be moving forward as a candidate. These are really big steps.”
Q3. What are your best practices when communicating with candidates?
Is it an organizational policy to maintain and build relationships with unsuccessful candidates? If so, how do you do so and what results have you seen?
Communication not only to successful candidates or candidates who are looking to apply is crucial when considering all the people who come into contact with an employer brand. While it’s essential to find the right person for the job, it’s equally as important to look after unsuccessful candidates, as it has an impact on the business in a variety of ways.
What the panel had to say…
Jen Powell, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager, Deloitte:
“That’s a really important population, it’s the vast majority of folks out there. The other thing that we are looking at is not just people that have already expressed an interest with a specific role, but people that are just keeping their feelers open, who may not be ready to make a move from their current job. We want to be one of the first to form a relationship with them so that once they have that day at work ‘I’m done with this place’ they already know Deloitte. We are really building these pools of talent communities where we are connecting with them and sharing thought leadership, our employees are connecting with them, so again when they are ready to make a move or there is that right fit that has come up, they are the first on our list. And vice versa.”
Stefanie Thornton, Director of Talent Acquisition, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan:
“We thought about the candidates that we are not moving forward with, and so we decided to set up job alerts within our systems. The system will ping you when those positions you have expressed an interest in become open so you don’t have to keep coming back to the site. We want to stay engaged with those candidates. We were also very careful about how we crafted our no thank you letter. We wanted to make it as positive as possible. There is not a lot you can do with the messaging, you know ‘you didn’t get the job,’ that’s very clear. But what we did was make every candidate communication positive. And so we focused on ‘hey, you didn’t get the job, but there are some really cool things happening in the city this weekend, and check this out.’ And so we have embedded our letters with hyperlinks to things that that are not about Blue Cross, but they might be about a jazz festival. The idea is to still have people feel good about the city that we work and live in, and not necessarily focus on the messaging that you didn’t get the job. We use lots of photos; images, hyperlinks and we’ve made it as a positive communication as we can.”
Marvin Smith, Strategic Sourcing, Talent Community Strategist, Lockheed Martin:
“For us it truly is a journey of the transparency and communication. We often hire before we need to, we call them ‘bluesky’ requisitions. Sometimes that has an impact on the candidate experience, but what we’ve been able to do is really focus on the people involved in the process, even the people that haven’t received an offer. We have been really diligent about making sure we are following up, holding people accountable for their actions. The folks have done a great job, if you look for example on Glassdoor, we are a category leader, and we weren’t before we started this journey. And not only that, we are probably the 2nd or 3rd company overall in terms of getting us accolades for the process, so our recruiters and sourcers are doing something right.”
Q4. The effects of the candidate experience can be wide-ranging. What areas do you measure, and how do you tie that back to your business results?
Critical to success is understanding the health of your candidate experiences, and being able to measure the impact of different activities to tie that back directly to business results.
What they panel had to say…
Jen Powell, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager, Deloitte:
“Whilst we don’t sell a consumer product, and sales are not directly impacted, all of those relationships that we have may refer in the future. We might have a candidate, or the son or daughter of a future client of ours who may apply, and they may choose intentionally or unintentional based on their child’s experience with Deloitte, which may affect decisions. Everybody is really a potential consumer influencer for us. We really look at the net promoter score. In addition to some of the satisfaction ratings during the different phases in the recruiting process we really look at the net promoter score to really understand the people who are coming through the process, how willing are they to refer to others in the future, based on the experience they have. That’s a really powerful measure that our business leaders can really understand and that will provide additional support for us as we try to do other things related to improving the candidate experience.”
Katy Jones, Global Talent & Engagement Manager, PepsiCo:
“We certainly leverage the candidate experience survey from TalentBoard. But beyond that data, we actually have our own survey that we launch, that ties into the net promoter scores as well. Around 29% of our candidates are our customers; so making sure that they are happy with us is important. The things that we ask within our own survey are not just about the ease of applying and what can we do to improve, but ‘would you recommend us?’ That’s always an important sign of how we are doing, based on the feedback we get from that survey. We also do a lot around our brand reputation, Glassdoor is a great place to see what people are saying, we also measure our sentiment on twitter and our talent brand on LinkedIn. There are a lot of things that we can rely on, but there is still a little bit of work to do on how we tie that all together. And what are the actions we are taking to change or improve where we need to.”
Stefanie Thornton, Director of Talent Acquisition, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan:
“We survey our candidates along the way, we don’t just survey our new hires which is what we traditionally did. New hires generally feel really good and positive and so are not going to say anything bad. So we decided to expand our survey to candidates as we are dispositioning them. Along with their letter they get a link to the survey where we ask them what they think, basically net promoter type questions, would you refer, would you recommend a friend, what was your application experience like. We actually received some really good feedback from candidates, and they fill it out. That was the other thing that we were shocked about. They actually take the time to give us their feedback.”
Q5. How can you leverage technology to bring candidates, recruiters and hiring managers closer together?
The panelists candidly shared their experiences and best practices, but when considering the amount of activities they are undertaking on a daily basis, the question arises: ‘how can you leverage the right tools and technology to enable you and your talent teams to deliver outstanding candidate experiences?’
Amy Schwenck-Lewis, Regional Sales Director, Avature:
“We’ve heard some great ideas here today, but the key is how we scale it. There are four key areas that recruiting technology should help with”:
1. Career Sites & Mobile Optimized
“We need strong authentic content, strong branding, enabled for video that’s engaging and action orientated, and making sure that’s mobile. Having separate experiences for PC and mobile is not ideal any more, folks are accessing career sites on their mobile, and when they go to their PC it should be the same.
Allow for talent networks to get rid of that apply or goodbye situation – folks should be able to express their interest in your organization, outside of seeing a job or applying to that job. Job alerts were mentioned earlier: that’s absolutely key. Allowing talent to engage with you outside of just applying is important, and then customizing the message based on what you know.”
2. True Recruiting CRM
“A true recruiting CRM such as Avature allows you to capture relevant info to start building a relationship with talent. For example, capture their favorite active gear, if you are an active retailer. Capture their favorite book, if you are a publishing house. Allow for notes tracking, reminders to call/email, allow for SEARCHABILITY. As Jen mentioned, it’s the people interaction that matters so much. It’s important to empower recruiting teams with the tools to scale this, and build a custom experience through true candidate relationship management.”
3. Collaboration
“Hiring is a team sport. Enable collaboration across the hiring team, so talent is properly informed and notified along the way. The black hole of communication isn’t serving anyone. Deploy real-time, actionable, mobile dashboards for managers and interview team members to feed info to the recruitment team. Tie the hiring team closer and the candidate and business wins”
4. Flexibility
“Allow for flexibility in your process based upon the type of hiring you are doing and the talent you are engaging. Avature allows for a custom data model and the necessary workflows to ensure your desired talent and end users get what they need when they need it, no sooner, no later.”
We would like to thank Gerry Crispin and Elaine Orler from TalentBoard for co-hosting this webinar. We can all agree the amount of ideas, experiences and best practices that was shared during the webinar was incredible.
