A Recruiter’s Guide To Improving the Candidate Interview Experience

It’s no secret that a candidate-first recruitment strategy is the key to winning talent in today’s competitive landscape. And to make a strong impression on candidates, the interview is one of the most important parts of the hiring process. Read on to learn how to improve candidate experience during interviews.

During the interview process, candidates work hard to make a positive first impression—researching your company before meeting, taking time away from a current role, preparing interview materials and more. As an employer, are you putting in just as much effort to offer a positive candidate experience?

“We consistently expect more from candidates than we are willing to give them as employers. It’s not only absurd, but hypocritical.”

— Tracey Parsons, Should You Expect Candidates to Send You a Thank-You Note?

An engaging interview experience is essential to attract top talent and develop a strong employer brand. Candidates are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them, and the interview is one of the last opportunities in the recruiting process to sell job seekers on open positions.

What is candidate experience?

Candidate experience is how a job seeker perceives your company across every stage of the hiring process, from the first job description they read to the final offer or rejection. The interview carries more weight than any other stage because it is usually a candidate’s first extended conversation with your team. A well-run interview signals an organized, respectful employer; a slow or scattered one sends strong candidates to competitors.

How to improve candidate experience during interviews

To improve the candidate interview experience, communicate clearly and often, respect candidates’ time with fast scheduling, prepare interviewers before every conversation, and follow up quickly with feedback. The interview is one of the last chances to sell a candidate on the role, so treat it as a two-way experience. 

Five practices consistently separate the employers candidates praise from the ones they quietly leave. Each one is within your team’s control:

• Set expectations before the interview: tell candidates how many rounds to expect, who they will meet, what each conversation covers, and when they will hear back. Candidates who know the road ahead stay engaged between rounds.
• Schedule quickly, then stay quick: the National Association of Colleges and Employers found candidates waited an average of 25.1 days between a first interview and an offer or rejection. Every one of those days is an opening for a faster competitor, so automate scheduling and confirm next steps within 24 hours.
• Run structured interviews: ask each candidate consistent, role-relevant questions and give every interviewer a distinct area to assess. Structure keeps evaluations fair and spares candidates from answering the same question three times.
• Make it a conversation, not an interrogation: leave time for candidate questions in every round, and prepare interviewers to speak to the role, the team, and the growth path. Candidates are deciding on you too.
• Close the loop after every round: share a decision or an honest status update within a day or two of each interview. A prompt no preserves your employer brand better than a slow maybe.

Here’s an event more extensive set of candidate experience best practices and insights all talent acquisition professionals should keep in mind during interviews: 

1. Interview Scheduling Statistics and Trends: A Nationwide Recruiter Survey

Interview scheduling is by far one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive aspects of the hiring process, which leaves a huge amount of risk for losing candidates to other employers. We surveyed talent acquisition professionals from around the country to gather interview scheduling statistics, gauge just how big a burden it is for today’s recruiting teams, and learn how innovative companies are solving the problem. 

2. #AskaRecruiter: Top 7 Unconventional Questions That Should Be Asked in Every Interview

You likely have a list of common interview questions that you use frequently. But how do you know if they’re the right ones for the candidate you’re interviewing? Here are a list of unconventional questions that gauge behavior patterns, personality and work style — and will ultimately lead to a better conversation for both you and the candidate.

3. Research: Candidates Say Waiting to Hear Back After the Interview is the Most Frustrating Part of the Hiring Process

According to research from Robert Half, six in 10 workers say the most frustrating part of the job search is waiting to hear back from recruiters after the interview. Here’s what might be holding your team back, and how to speed up the hiring process — before your candidates move on to a competitor.

4. What is Automated Interview Scheduling, and Why Do Recruiters Need It?

Learn how automated interview scheduling can drastically reduce the time it takes to set up meetings with job applicants — ultimately improving your candidate experience and speeding up the recruitment process.

5. Why Video Interviewing Software is a Must-Have for Recruitment Teams

Top talent lives all over the world — not just in the city where you’re headquartered. And like recruiters and hiring managers, candidates have busy, complicated schedules that make it difficult to schedule an in-person interview. That’s where video interviewing software comes in. Here’s how technology can improve your interview candidate experience. 

6. A Recruiter’s Video Interviewing Handbook

Once you’ve decided to invest in video interviewing to provide a more positive candidate experience, study up on a few best practices for incorporating this tactic into your recruiting strategy.

7. Anatomy of an Ideal Interview Process

Many candidates know common interview questions and have their responses perfected. This can lead to hiring a great interviewee, but a less than ideal employee. Avoid this mistake by including these seven questions in every interview process.

8. What’s Going Wrong with Your Interview Process and How You Can Fix it Today

Candidates invest time and effort into interview preparation, and when they arrive to discuss why they’re the best person for a job opportunity, the stakes are high. If your interview process is broken, you not only risk losing talented candidates–you risk diminishing the quality of your recruitment brand. Here’s a list of what could be going wrong with your interviews and the fixes you need to get back on course.

9. How to Reduce Employee Turnover Beginning with the First Interview

Taking precautions to reduce employee turnover starts before the first day of employment. Reduce your company’s turnover rate by carefully vetting candidates early in the interview process. Follow these steps to increase employee tenure, before the first day.

10. 6 Candidate Scheduling Hacks Every Recruiter Needs to Know

In between setting up phone screens, attending college recruiting events, moving candidates through the interview process and sourcing new candidates, time is a valuable commodity for recruiters. Streamline your workload by automating candidate scheduling, so you can spend more time sourcing candidates and making offers. Here are six scheduling hacks every recruiter needs to know.

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