By Melissa Hamilton-Reddy, Senior Consultant at Hustle Co.

Why Candidate Experience Matters

In today’s highly competitive job market, companies are spoiled for choice when it comes to good-quality talent. I mean, there’s a reason why international companies choose to employ South Africans, and it’s not just because of the favourable exchange rate and the cost of labor! It has long been known that South Africans are not only hardworking with a coveted work ethic, but we have an education system that rivals some of the world’s best-known “Ivy League” schools. With all that incredible talent available, it’s becoming clearer that a top-notch candidate experience isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore; it’s an absolute game-changing must.

Think about it—the recruitment process is the candidate’s first impression of a company and influences how potential employees perceive it. One could even liken it to dating, as it is a matchmaking process, after all. If your hiring process is slow, clunky, or leaves candidates feeling like an afterthought, they’ll move on (and probably tell others about it too), leading to a loss of talent and a fickle reputation. A smooth, respectful, and engaging process, however, not only boosts your employer brand but also keeps top candidates interested and increases offer acceptance rates. Your recruitment process sets the tone for what it’s like to work at your company—so why not make it a great first impression?

It should also be highlighted to companies out there that talent talks—the number of times that I’ve had candidates tell me that they need to do their own research on a company before committing to moving forward with the recruitment process is something to take note of. Glassdoor is a highly utilized source in the employment-seeking space. Luckily, we work with some awesome clients 😉

Through our own experience and feedback from candidates, we’ve put together some common mistakes that companies make when formulating and implementing their recruitment process, and how this could affect the candidate experience and outcome:

Slow & Unclear Communication

Many job seekers complain about the lengthy recruitment process with little to no feedback given. Candidates apply, attend interviews, and then hear nothing for weeks—if at all. Granted, if a job ad is getting hundreds of applications a day, realistically, one cannot go through each one and provide personalized feedback as to why they were rejected. In this initial application phase, however, even an automated email update or rejection will be better than the ghosting that so many receive, so that a candidate is aware that they will not be proceeding further.

The further along in the process a candidate is, however, the more effort needs to be made to give solid feedback as to why a candidate will not be moving forward—especially if the candidate has made it to the interview stage.

At Hustle Co., we aim to deliver feedback timeously to our candidates, as we understand the importance of regular updates and timelines. If this is something that we don’t have from our clients, we communicate this to our candidates as well and follow up until we do have some feedback, either positive or negative. When regretting a candidate, we try to get as much detail as possible for them as to why they are rejected, so that we can give them some closure or potentially improve their chances for future applications.

Overly Lengthy or Complicated Application Process

The hoops that candidates have to jump through sometimes require the expertise of a trapeze artist! The extensive online forms where one has to duplicate the contents of their CV (and upload their CV), upload every document known to man, write a personalized essay as to why they want to work at a company (never mind that sometimes just needing a job to pay for your fur child’s vet bills suffices), and then a recorded video that you have to submit answering a hypothetical problem that you have to navigate… And all of this is just for the submission of your application for the job. Don’t say I’m being dramatic; the above process is one that I personally had to go through when applying for one position.

It’s one thing to have qualifying questions in an application process that sorts through unqualified candidates. It’s another thing entirely to ask a candidate to complete an obstacle course just for their profile to be seen by a potential employer.

These overly complicated application processes discourage qualified and awesome candidates from completing their application, and you end up losing what could be a game-changer of an employee. I should know. By the time I reached the video section of the application process in the above-mentioned scenario, I was jaded, fatigued, and left the process. And I’m a kick-ass, awesome employee that any company would be lucky to have.

I also feel as though it’s become a status thing, having these never-ending and in-depth application processes. “If you complicate the process and make it a challenge to get through, then only the strongest will persevere, and we will have the best talent out there that will make us invincible!”—Like a drama out of Fourth Wing. It’s rubbish—I promise, you’re not that cool. Uncomplicate your processes, and you’ll get even more top talent to choose from.

Poor Interview Experience

This mistake isn’t just something that potential employees make. As mentioned before, this is a matchmaking process. And sought-after talent has just as much power as the company when it comes to moving forward with the process. An interview process can be as short as two interviews (normally HR/culture fit interview and Hiring Manager interview) to as long as five interviews with an outsourced psychometric test where candidates have to take a half-day from their current job that pays their bills in order to complete it. Again, this is from our experience.

What some companies fail to recognize when insisting on a long, complicated interview process is that the majority of applicants (especially the top talent you want!) are employed already and have to take time off from their current job in order to attend these multiple interview stages. And if they work in-office, this complicates things even more. Yes, your time is important and you want an applicant to want to work for you, but their time is just as important. And if you aren’t flexible regarding interview methods, then there’s a very real chance that you will miss out on a wonderful candidate when they inevitably withdraw their application.

Another thing to note on the subject of a candidate’s time is respect for it. Cancelling or rescheduling an interview can be an inevitable hazard from time to time, but this should be the exception and not the expectation. We’ve been in situations where we’ve had to reschedule an interview with a single candidate three times…. This is not okay and gives the most awful impression of your company. This is an instance where we would step in and not just advocate for the candidate, but firmly discuss with the client that this is unacceptable. We are there in partnership with our client, yes, but we’re also there to champion our candidate. Us having these uncomfortable and tough conversations with clients is not only part of the job, but could be the difference between candidates walking away or saving the recruitment process.

The Takeaway

Finding the right talent is tough enough—why make it harder by alienating great candidates along the way?

A bad hiring experience doesn’t just affect unsuccessful applicants; it damages your employer brand, making it more complicated to hire in the future. If a candidate walks away from your process feeling respected and valued, they’ll be more likely to speak highly of your company—even if they don’t land the job. On the other hand, a bad experience? That spreads like wildfire, and in today’s digital world, reputations are hard to rebuild and easy to tear down.