Candidate experience matters: How assessment design impacts recruitment

Candidate experience in recruitment showcases how job seekers perceive the interactions with hiring managers of an organization. It is affected by every interaction that takes place between an organization and a candidate, from the time when job seekers read job listings and fill out applications to their interview experience. The effect on candidate experience does not end with the job offer being rolled out. It continues to pre-boarding and onboarding processes for candidates who have been selected. For candidates who have been rejected, the candidate experience ends with the rejection communication and post-interview feedback.

Good candidate experience includes a number of interactions to ensure that applicants feel respected and valued by the organization, regardless of whether they are selected or not.

• The job search: Strong candidate experience in recruitment begins with a job search. It is important that the organization has a user-friendly website and an easy-to-find career page with clear, detailed job descriptions for any openings.
• Job application: The application process must be simple and concise, and it should only ask for essential information. The process should also be optimized for cross-device accessibility. Complex application processes only discourage candidates from wanting to work with the organization.
• Interview rounds: Interviews are the first face-to-face interaction between the organization and the applicant, and they provide a great opportunity for strengthening relationships with candidates. Organizations must ensure standardized, professional, and fair interview processes are in place, which should also be followed by timely feedback for the candidates.
• Job offers and onboarding: It is crucial for organizations to incorporate onboarding best practices to ensure that selected candidates feel welcomed and are equipped with the information and tools they need to succeed in their job roles.

Today, there is a prevailing skills gap, increasing demands for talent, and an employee-centric job market. Additionally, with the rising influence of digital connectivity, more candidates are sharing their recruitment experiences with organizations online, on employer review platforms, professional networks, and social media. Poor candidate experience can lead to a ripple effect, making talent acquisition more difficult for the organization over time. These reasons have brought candidate experience to the forefront of recruitment strategies.

How a candidate feels after their interactions with the organization is of prime importance today. Organizations that ensure good candidate experience can successfully attract top talent. Additionally, candidate experience also sets a strong foundation for valuable employer-employee relationships, which contributes to enhanced productivity, higher retention rates, and positive employer branding.

• Relevance: All assessments that are included in the recruitment process should be tailored to suit the requirements of a particular job role. This means that it is crucial to take time to understand the core competencies and skills that are required to succeed in the job role before choosing assessments that effectively measure the required traits.
• Engagement: For good candidate experience, it is important to ensure that the assessments are engaging. Using a blend of assessment tools, like simulators, MCQs, challenges, etc., can help ensure that the assessments are interesting for the candidates without them seeming like a chore.
• Accessibility: When it comes to choosing the right talent assessments for enhancing candidate experience, accessibility and inclusivity must be ensured. Candidates should have the autonomy to take the assessment at their convenience, and the assessment should be accessible to all candidates, regardless of their abilities.
• Fairness: One of the most important elements of effective talent assessments is impartiality or fairness. Ensure that the assessments selected are free from discrimination and bias and provide candidates with an equal opportunity to showcase their skills.
• Clarity: Always keep candidate experience in mind while choosing the right talent assessments. Detailed instructions, time restraints, terms and conditions, proctoring information, scoring frameworks, etc. should all be mentioned clearly at the beginning of the assessment to ensure transparency. Timely feedback should also be provided to ensure a positive candidate experience.

· Put in the research

Understand the talent assessment requirements of the organization before comparing different types of pre-employment tests to find the best option. Mercer | Mettl offers a range of pre-employment assessments that can be customized to suit the needs of any organization. Mercer | Mettl provides different types of assessments, like culture fit tests, behavioral assessments, psychometric tests, etc., to evaluate candidates holistically.

· Validity and reliability

To ensure that the talent assessment has a positive impact on candidate experience, it is important to evaluate its validity and reliability. Validity will mean ensuring that the assessment effectively measures what it is supposed to measure. The assessment should be based on established psychological principles, and the provider should have empirical data to support the validity of the assessment. Reliability, on the other hand, requires that the assessment yields consistent results over time. Hiring managers can use statistical analyses and conduct pilot tests to verify the reliability of the assessment.

· Monitor the completion rate

Tracking the completion rate of the assessment can help determine the point at which candidates stop taking the assessment. This can help organizations improve their process, for instance, by rearranging the assessments or shortening their length. Keeping track of the completion rates can help organizations optimize their assessment process and make improvements to the pre-employment tests, making the process more beneficial over time.

· Human oversight

While pre-employment assessments can help enhance candidate experience, they should not be the sole criteria for making hiring decisions. Talent assessments should only be used as a starting point and not as the final decision. To ensure that hiring decisions are well-informed and unbiased, talent assessments must be used in combination with other recruitment techniques, like structured or unstructured interviews, situational interview questions, practical challenges, etc.

· Application drop-off rate

This is a metric that represents the percentage of candidates who started the application process but did not complete it. High application drop-off rates may indicate several issues in the application process, such as the process being too lengthy or complicated, technical issues, or a lack of information regarding the job openings at the organization. To improve candidate experience, review every step of the application process and come up with ways to optimize while ensuring that every question in the test is relevant.

· Offer acceptance rate

This metric refers to the percentage of job offers rolled out by the organization that are accepted by candidates. The offer acceptance rate indicates how successful candidate sourcing and selection are. Higher offer acceptance rates indicate the effectiveness of the recruitment process. On the other hand, lower offer acceptance rates can mean either that the organization’s job offers are not competitive in the market or that the right talent isn’t getting through the system. Try getting in touch with the candidates who did not accept the job offer and get feedback on their reasons for the same.

· Interview-to-offer ratio

This metric is represented as a ratio of the number of interviews conducted by the HR team per candidate before a job offer is rolled out. The interview-to-offer ratio shows if the organization is attracting qualified candidates, and the time invested in the interview process. An interview-to-offer ratio of 2:1 is generally considered to be ideal. However, remember that there are several external factors, like a need to interview more candidates to increase the chances of offer acceptance or a highly competitive job market, that can affect this metric.

· Time to hire

This metric is a calculation of the length of the hiring process, starting from when a candidate applies for the job role till the time when they accept the job offer. A lengthy hiring process can have a negative impact on the organization’s candidate experience, leading to job seekers losing interest or receiving a different job offer in the meantime. Time to hire is evaluated for a set period of time, like six months. An organization’s time to hire is calculated as an average of the sum of the total number of days between the job application and job offer acceptance of each new hire during the set period.

· Candidate satisfaction score

The candidate satisfaction score or the candidate net promoter score is a metric that measures how likely candidates are to recommend the organization to others based on the candidate experience offered. It offers an insight into how satisfied candidates are with the organization’s recruitment process. Try including a question in the candidate feedback survey, asking candidates to rate on a scale from 0-10, how likely they are to recommend the organization.

· First-year attrition rate

Candidate experience also covers the pre-boarding and onboarding processes; it is prudent to collect data on the percentage of new hires who leave the organization within a year of them joining. High first-year attribution rates may be indicative of inconsistent talent acquisition techniques, while high attrition rates over a longer time may reflect issues that are beyond the scope of the recruitment process.

Ensuring a positive candidate experience is a critical part of any strong talent acquisition strategy. Candidate experience is the foundation of the impression that applicants get of the organization, and consequently, candidate experience affects the business reputation and employer brand of the organization. While poor candidate experience may obstruct the organization from attracting and acquiring top talent, a positive candidate experience can bring immense benefits.