CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

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93 items in CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

Cord have been consistently producing great data driven insight pieces. This latest blog post outlines tech candidates main issues when it comes to recruiting processes - it’s nothing we don’t know: overly long process, too high a demand on time, lack of interview feedback. What is interesting is why these challenges are so persistent? We clearly have a gap between employer and candidate optimums. H/T to brainfooder Tom Woods for the effort and the share.
Issue #388 published 17 Mar 2024
One of the great annual surveys, which I am glad is going to continue even after the Starred / Talenthub get together last year. What’s great about this report on Candidate Experience? Provision of economic context, benchmarking by recruitment stage, segmentation by country, company size, company type. It’s the high water mark for CX reporting - download it here. H/T to brainfooder Lars van Wieren for the share.
Issue #384 published 22 Feb 2024
Job seeker commentary on the state of recruitment has become one of my favourite genres of literature. The author here is a highly skilled, in-demand AI researcher, which makes this piece very much a first world problem, but additionally gives great insight into the AI labour landscape, the cultural expectations of different employers and what actually makes an attractive job opportunity for this type of worker. Great read for anyone interested in candidate experience and employer branding. And of course, for any recruiters hiring for AI.
Issue #369 published 5 Nov 2023
Where are we at with candidate experience? I think we have definitely improved, but these improvements have been recently overwhelmed with the increase in applicant flow + reduction in capacity due to RIF. We need more operators thinking about how we can make a difference - great post here from brainfood Andreea Lungulescu on how to step up.
Issue #366 published 15 Oct 2023
More research on CX, this time survey work from our friends at Cronofy who polled 6000 job seekers on what causes them to drop out of recruiting processes. The results comply with my own LinkedIn poll from a week ago - process, process, process folks - we must get more efficient on process. And update candidate. No registration wall on this report, so have a read directly here.
Issue #364 published 1 Oct 2023
‘Candidate perspective’ blogging is a POV which provides a shortcut for us recruiters to better understand the UX of the job search. We sort of know it’s terrible but always useful to have some experimentation to give some ballast to the theory. Particularly like the ‘application time by ATS’ metric. Must read
Issue #364 published 1 Oct 2023
Product designer writes a short post ranking ATS’s from a job applicant perspective. The most astonishing misstep the industry has made is requiring account creation for job applications - this fellow reckons he has 209 separate Workday accounts, due presumably for having set up a new one for every application he’s made. Some familiar tools in the list, read through comment thread also. H/T to brainfooder Oscar Mager for the share in the online community.
Issue #362 published 17 Sep 2023
Brainfooder Kevin Grossman has been doing some of the most important work on the candidate experience for the past decade. These pulse surveys provide immense value in helping us understand the general sentiment of job seekers - and no surprise in this tough market of 2023 - that job seeker resentment is on the rise.
Issue #361 published 10 Sep 2023
I have been admonished for not covering early career hiring enough, and I think that is 100% correct critique. As part of a corrective on this, have a look at this excellent and pragmatic talk on how to reduce student reneges. H/T to brainfooder Vicki Saunders for the share.
Issue #359 published 27 Aug 2023
Lots of things to think about in this online conversation between a disaffected candidate who took to LinkedIn to describe in exhaustive detail how bad TestGorilla’s recruiting experience was and TestGorilla’s rather exceptional response by Loom video. All of it is worth a read / watch for three reasons: as an example of CX, a description of TestGorilla’s assessment methodology and finally, as an reputation recovery technique. H/T to brainfooder Oscar Mager for the share in the online community
Issue #359 published 27 Aug 2023
Speaking of canonical earlier, this screed from a Redditor criticising Canonical’s interview process is a wonderful example of how we can get insight into how candidates feel when we put them through a hiring process. Some great comment replies too, including one insight about lowering the cost of bad hire, rather than lower the rate of bad hire. Final bit of fun, Canonical’s CEO chimes in with a lengthy response confirming the accuracy of OP’s post and defending the hiring policy. It’s an education folks.
Issue #357 published 13 Aug 2023
How many of us use commercial grade interview scheduler? I have a worrying intuition that it might be significantly less than we might hope. Some useful research from our friends at Cronofy on how interview inefficiency impacts candidate experience, usually report to forward to your boss if you need to make the business case. PS: Webinar with Cronofy later this week on the 25th July - How to Measure Recruitment Efficiency - register here
Issue #354 published 23 Jul 2023
Fascinating report from our friends at Starred, on candidate / new hire response rates to surveys. Trying to understand the quality of your candidate experience starts with understanding how many of the people you ask to respond actually do so. What else can we learn? Unexpectedly valuable deep dive into candidate experience. Download the report here
Issue #354 published 23 Jul 2023
Great piece of research from our friends at Thrivemap, who repeated their candidate expectations survey of 2019 and compared the changes in response over time. A couple of key insights that stand out: role expectations mismatch on the rise (are we mis-selling the role?), lack of communication over how roles have changed since Covid era and the rise of pre-hire assessments, most of which seem to be resented by the candidate population.
Issue #352 published 9 Jul 2023
Now into it’s 7th year, Phenom’s State of Candidate Experience report objectively measures CX of top 500 employers by testing the job application process on their company career pages. I’m encouraged by the results tbh - software is getting better, and previously niche nice-to-have’s are becoming standard parts of uplifting the job applicant experience. Plenty more work to do though. Important research, must read for any body managing a careers page.
Issue #349 published 18 Jun 2023
Final report this week, this time from our friends at PeopleScout. Some interesting findings, especially on the dissonance between where candidates do their research (social media) and how often employers post on those channels (less than once per week). Some no brainer stuff here, the problem has never been that we didn’t know what to do, we just don’t have the capacity or resourcing to do it efficiently. Perhaps AI can help. H/T to brainfooder Charlotte Spivack for the share.
Issue #345 published 21 May 2023
A lot my Twitter followers have been asking me about the source of this tweet about ‘speed of application by ATS’ and I have finally (re)located it - it’s from this report by our friends at RSConsultancy (Resource Solutions) who conducted an audit of 100 companies job application flows. Very worth read for anyone interested in candidate experience, employer branding and company career sites. H/T to brainfooder Tom Lakin for the share
Issue #336 published 19 Mar 2023
Outstanding report on the State of Candidate Experience from our buddies Starred (thanks Jasper!), who have made this available without a registration wall. I particularly like the contextualisation of CX into the wider economy, and especially by considering the variations in vacancy and unemployment rate in different countries and industry sectors. Must read folks.
Issue #333 published 26 Feb 2023
90,547 respondents from 160 countries, across all education types and industry sectors, makes for an outstanding report, one which is packed full of useful insight, supported by some great visualisations for an at-a-glance view of job seeker sentiment. Probably the best thing in the newsletter this week, so if you’re going to click on one thing only, click on this and read it. H/T to brainfooder Ivan Harrison for the share.
Issue #330 published 5 Feb 2023
Job Hunting in 2022
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Interesting retro from a software engineer let go by Meta last year. The mindset shift is clear (‘started paying attention to recruiters’), the candidate experience still inevitably poor (‘applied online to 14 places, only heard back from 6’) and the power of the network still evident. Can be read as a qualitative evidence of the state of tech hiring, but also as insight on the candidate mindset in this period of long uncertainty. Get in touch with your candidates folks, even if you aren’t immediately hiring.
Issue #328 published 22 Jan 2023
Brainfooder Bas van de Haterd conducts an annual report on quality of career pages from top employers in the Netherlands. Love this report for the objective criteria and quantitative output. Somebody should do this on a country by country basis btw, using the same testing criteria. Great reading- and - a long way to go for CX.
Issue #315 published 23 Oct 2022
Candidate Motivation
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Nuanced post from brainfooder Sofia Broberger on the heterogenous nature of candidate motivation. It’s not just a binary case of ‘are they up for it or not’ rather than different types of motivation based on where that candidate is currently on their journey. Well worth a read for anyone who cares about candidate experience or candidate management for that matter.
Issue #307 published 28 Aug 2022
Having spent the previous decades developing ghosting into an art form, these past few years have seen us recruiters on the other end of the experience, as candidates regularly start ghosting us. It’s a traumatic experience, that does not allow closure. Perhaps it should be a criminal offence?
Issue #305 published 14 Aug 2022
Incredible story which is hard to categorise - fans of Marie Kondo might have cause to empathise with the recruiter, but I suspect most of us would side with the consensus at this outrageous request. “Massive red flag,” one user said. Probably is. H/T to brainfooder Colin McNicol for the share in the fb group
Issue #305 published 14 Aug 2022
The full breakdown of what a job search in AI with a new Ph.D. looks like
Fascinating account of said Ph.D candidate on his job search, where he reflects on topics such as credentialism, speed of response, value of back channelling and the inconsistency of job titles. A superb read, recruiters will get a lot of out of this, especially on insight on CX.
Issue #302 published 24 Jul 2022
Interesting research from our buddies Phenom People, who audited 100 top European company career sites against attraction, engagement and conversion measures. Employers are named and ranked, (rather politely on page20 🙂), after the methodology and aggregate commentary. Worth benching your career site against this to identify areas of improvement folks. Read here. H/T to brainfooder Jana Tepe for the permission to share
Issue #302 published 24 Jul 2022
Software Job Strategy Guide
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Some of the best recruitment insight comes from the candidate POV, especially ones who have gone around the block a few times enough to have confidence in their opinions, without succumbing to bombast. This post from a software engineer on how to approach the job search tells us a lot about how the highly skilled, in-demand think about the recruiter techniques we often employ. Must read for those who care about CX
Issue #299 published 3 Jul 2022
Rejected candidates: How to avoid upsetting them?
Love directly addressing the problem 🤣. One of many practical insights in this accessible report from our buddies at Starred. H/T to brainfooder Jasper Hissink for the share
Issue #298 published 26 Jun 2022
Interesting post of the responsibilities of onboarding from the perspective of the new hire. I love the commitment to proper mindset, 100-day plan, and the sense of ownership required to make it work. This goes countervailing to most of the material we read about candidate & employee experience, but I think a necessary balance when we might have gone too far into the concierge. How this might us? Have a look at the moments that mattered for OP in this post, and see if you can make sure they have the opportunity to happen in your company’s onboarding process.
Issue #296 published 12 Jun 2022
This was the provocative title of a LinkedIn post penned by a candidate who experienced two different outcomes on identical applications, with only one change - on the ethnicity marker. Monzo, provide a public in-thread response, as do nearly 400 other people. Worth reading the original post and the whole comment thread. H/T to brainfooders Mikael Nilsson and Garry Turner for each independently sharing this with me.
Issue #295 published 5 Jun 2022
Short yet illuminating thread on how to improve candidate experience - talk in the language of the candidate, use real world assessments, have the candidate take the lead in figuring out the problem in the collaborative assessment. You are going to need to resource this properly, but this is how you do it. Have a read.
Issue #290 published 1 May 2022
Matt Alder continues racking up the quality conversations are an incredible pace - twice weekly 1-2-1’s with practitioners and thought leaders in the recruiting industry. One of the must listen podcasts, this one with Carlos Fernandez on healthcare, is an exemplar.
Issue #289 published 24 Apr 2022
Great to speak to brainfooder Kevin Grossman on his superb podcast. We talk recruiting brainfood, how it started, what the editorial policy is, how content is gathered to build this newsletter. Hope you get something from it - have a listen here
Issue #286 published 3 Apr 2022
Do we care enough about recruiter experience? Trust brainfooder Tim Sackett to constantly come up with smart, unconventional questions, which usually make a serious point. Miserable recruiters, will generate poor candidate experience and make poor recommendations. Something to monitor folks, as our recruiters are overstretched and over stressed.
Issue #285 published 27 Mar 2022
Dear Recruiters, Don't Ghost Me
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
The internet does not lack for blog posts of candidates complaining about recruiters, but few are as philosophical as this. OP has a great candidate experience….but ends up thinking that the recruiter relationship meant something other rather than transaction that was it….one for the ethicists of CX - are we unintentionally misleading candidates by adopting friendship patterns of communication? It’s definitely brainfood.
Issue #285 published 27 Mar 2022
How are we using the Internet? Very few organisations would even attempt to answer this question but Hootsuite give it a go every year. Digital 2022 report is out and is a must read / download for anyone who cares about consumer behaviour, candidate experience, employer branding or recruitment marketing.
Issue #280 published 20 Feb 2022
How did the peak of the pandemic impact candidate experience? Pretty badly as you might imagine, as this research from our buddies Starred shows. Decent report, especially if you wanted evidence of the importance of candidate progress for the NPS.
Issue #279 published 13 Feb 2022
Great interview and case study with Sebastian Schötz, on how he managed to achieve a 100% offer acceptance rate. Now a great deal of this must be attributed to accurate assessment at the top-of-the-funnel, but the steps & mentality expressed after the candidate has been engaged is excellent. Have a read.
Issue #279 published 13 Feb 2022
There is plenty of blog posts online from software engineers lambasting tech recruiters so this one stands out because it takes quite a different view. Some insight here too, for understanding candidate experience, especially for in-demand workers are inundated with solicitation.
Issue #278 published 6 Feb 2022
The ‘beauty bias’ may be the only bias that we all accept exists. Some interesting research in the hospitality sector to suggest that masking levels the playing field when measuring customer satisfaction. I wonder how this might apply when we do recruiter NPS. Can you bump up your company score by hiring more attractive recruiters? It might be an uncomfortable truth that, yes, you absolutely can.
Issue #277 published 30 Jan 2022
Mr Greg Savage has been knocking it out of the park recently with his content production. These start-of-the-year summaries are great. Particularly good on candidate experience and in client selection. Agency focused but relevant to anyone doing the recruiting job.
Issue #276 published 23 Jan 2022
It is always interesting to read about recruiting from non-specialists, in this case, a senior engineering leader who found himself as a candidate late last year. Positive reviews for recruiters for a change, which got me thinking about the how much the seniority of the candidate influences our general approach to them - probably more than would be comfortable to acknowledge. Lots to learn here, especially on candidate experience. H/T brainfooder Pedro Oliveira for the share.
Issue #275 published 16 Jan 2022
Use ‘I’ (“I’m happy to help”) instead of ‘We’ when interacting with customers to increase satisfaction and sales (19% and 7% in the study). Using ‘You’ in interactions has no benefit.
Pretty sure no one in recruiting has researched this but I like the thinking of leading with the self vs the organisation. It’s taking ownership, there’s no delegation of responsibility. Customer service insight which we might well apply to job candidates
Issue #274 published 9 Jan 2022
Fjord Trends 2022
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
“Technology has made it less risky to seek out new income streams—and many are going for it. This rise of a “me over we” mentality has profound implications for organisations in how they lead their employees, and how they nurture relationships with their consumer-creators”
One of the many insightful observations in this excellent annual report from Accenture-Fjord. Again mainly consumer focus but in the era of the ‘holistic human’ we cannot afford to think of people as just job candidates.
Issue #273 published 2 Jan 2022
Future Consumer 2022
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Some cool (and useful) consumer persona’s for us to think about in 2022. Are you a ‘radical optimist’ in a desynchronised society? I’d say I’m more of a cheerful pessimist but that’s only me 🤣. Easy 7 pager, worth reading especially if we want another angle to understand candidate / employee psychology.
Issue #273 published 2 Jan 2022
"Things Can Only Get Better"
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
A confessional from long time brainfooder James Ellis, who appears to be on the market and looking for a new role. Observations of an employer branding guru on today’s candidate experience is worth making notes on.
Issue #268 published 28 Nov 2021
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
“Created a fake LI profile to use as an example for my next youtube video. Added NOT REAL to my headline, added This is NOT a real profile disclaimer all over. It’s been less than 1 hour & I already have recruiters reaching out with jobs… WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
"you people” - that somewhat triggering term - means us recruiters of course. An interesting example of the over-use of mass messaging techniques by recruiters in a candidate short market. Problem is, negative backlash to a single actors behaviour is diffused across the entire industry….
Issue #267 published 21 Nov 2021
Employee Counter Offer Survey
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Cool report which measures how accurate recruiter perceptions are on the effectiveness of counter offers. Turns out, we routinely underestimate how often employees would accept a counter offer. Have a read here
Issue #264 published 31 Oct 2021
…..asked this commentator on Hacker News, which triggered some interesting responses from other commentators on ‘how to decide which recruiters to block’. A pretty good reveal on how highly skilled, in-demand workers think - useful for recruiters who care about candidate experience.
Issue #261 published 10 Oct 2021
Brainfood Tim Sanchez, Global head of Talent Acquisition at Millicom makes his podcast debut on the excellent Recruitment Revealed show. Lucid brainfood - have a listen here
Issue #259 published 26 Sep 2021
Interesting writing (again) by brainfooder Jan Tegze on the cost to the business of bad candidate experience. The idea that the more candidates you attract, also means the more candidates you have to reject, leading to increased reputational risk to the business if you do it badly or not at all, is an idea I had not thought about. A good reason to moderate your candidate attraction policies for less but better. Have a read.
Issue #249 published 18 Jul 2021
Do we ever think about this? How much mental pressure are we putting on candidates when we invite them into our recruiting ‘process?’ No wonder everyone hates the job search. OP here focuses on D&I but I think everyone would benefit from a ‘low anxiety hiring’. Here’s some ideas
Issue #239 published 9 May 2021
Superb resource from our buddies at Talenthub. I like this not only for the solutions but especially for the breakdown as to why your current methods are inadequate 🤣. Have a read here if you care about improve your candidate’s experience, really great stuff
Issue #238 published 2 May 2021
Candidate Expectations 2021
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Outstanding report from our buddies Cronofy, who surveyed 6500 job candidates from US, UK, Germany and France who had gone through hiring in the past 12 months, to clarify the importance of interview logistics. It’s a surprisingly important component for hiring success. Summary here, full report here, infographic here
Issue #237 published 23 Apr 2021
This is an interesting survey, particularly in connecting the stage of application with how candidate experience recruiting. Got me thinking…..what is the psychology behind providing poor ratings? It might not always (or even frequently) be accurate assessment. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share, and for our buddies at Starred releasing it beyond the reg wall. Have a read here
Issue #226 published 7 Feb 2021
Fjord Trends 2021
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
You can expect anything that Fjord produces to be a superbly slick user experience. Their Trends 2021 interactive report provides insights into emerging trends in business, technology & design focused on meeting human needs. If ‘design thinking’ was ever a thing for you, then this post is for you.
Issue #224 published 24 Jan 2021
“Customers have made the move to messaging, but brands lag behind” - is the main point on this excellent annual report from Conversocial. Swap in ‘candidate’ for 'customer’ and all of this suddenly becomes relevant. H/T brainfooder Martyn Redstone for the share in the fb group
Issue #223 published 17 Jan 2021
Stunning reportage from journalist Ryan Lam who saw a job ad for an Amazon warehouse worker as an opportunity to document a human free recruiting experience. He got to the job and verdict on the experience? Weirdly ok.
Issue #220 published 27 Dec 2020
Fascinating reportage on an experience which many thousands of warehouse workers already know - getting hired without any human recruiter or interviewer involved. Author ends up lamenting the ‘over automation’ of the experience, but perhaps makes the error in thinking that a 'human heavy’ experience is necessarily better (google 'recruiters are….etc)
Issue #201 published 16 Aug 2020
Candidate Experience Statistics
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
What do job candidates care about? 1000+ US Mechnical Turkers answer the survey. Bit of a messy report, but readable enough here. H/T Denys Dinkevych - again - for the share ( 👈 follow Denys obviously)
Issue #194 published 28 Jun 2020
Voice Search Analysis
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
We found that people confide in Alexa, asking questions like “Alexa, what are the chances I’ll be infected?,” “Alexa, I’m scared,” and “Alexa, am I going to die?”
Voice search carries emotional valence not apparent in written search enquiries. Portentous implications for data privacy & candidate experience in this excellent report from RAIN & PulseLabs
Issue #189 published 24 May 2020
Guess what? Candidates are asking about Covid-19 and what your lay-off policy might be when they visit your career page. Nice piece of research from our buddies at jobpal - important read for those who care about candidate experience and employer brand
Issue #188 published 17 May 2020
‘Recruiter bashing’ is a popular sport on the internet. In part this comes from lack of transparency, in part through a lack of empathy. Sometimes, though, complaints goes too far. Rebecca Hudson’s important post shows where this line is crossed. H/T brainfooder Tris Revill for the share. 
Issue #58 published 23 Apr 2020
You only have one chance to on-board your new hires. So why do we consistently neglect this critical stage in the recruiting process? Great Fastcompany post on Finnish company Reaktor on how they do. Main takeaway is: do the simple stuff that doesn’t scale. 
Issue #61 published 23 Apr 2020
WhatsApp unveiled their full Business API this week and our buddies at jobpal have broken down what this may mean for recruiting; potential automation of their communications with candidates via WhatsApp. If you’re a recruiter, you need to keep an eye on this development. Check out their post here.
Issue #96 published 23 Apr 2020
#BehindTheBlinks
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
How cool is this? Brainfooder Deborah Caulet publishes online guides for candidates on how they can ace the Blinkist interview process. Hiring isn’t about tripping candidates up, it’s about allowing them to be the best they can be. Mature and innovative recruitment - and something everyone can do.
Issue #118 published 23 Apr 2020
Zalando do a lot of things well but this attention to candidate experience is an excellent example of commitment to learning. H/T Chris Raw for the share
Issue #52 published 23 Apr 2020
My Amazon Interview Horror Story
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
The internet is not short of tales of terrible candidate experience. Incidents of the type that Igor Kromin endured might be extreme but not unusual, as perhaps can be seen on the following thread on Hacker News. Risk mitigation from permanent-hire-as-default is the problem. Answer is more obvious than we might think.
Issue #109 published 23 Apr 2020
How We Hire - Bytemark Careers
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Excellent example of transparency from UK hosting company, Bytemark - a simple and elegant clickable webpage which details their recruitment process. Can we see how this might reduce or even eliminate candidate angst? H/T to brainfooder Sjamilla van de Tooren for the share. 
Issue #114 published 23 Apr 2020
We'll Pay You In Experience!
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
“Recruiting Hell / We’ll Pay You In Experience” is an open forum where recruiters and job seekers alike bemoan the industry and each other. It’s crushing & funny, in equal measure. H/T to brainfooder Tony Pitchford for the share. 
Issue #72 published 23 Apr 2020
Derek Zeller is one of the grand old men in recruiting (hope you don’t mind me saying so Derek!). This is a superbly written defence of the recruiting profession to which he has been a credit for over 20 years. Recruiting and job search, needs the human touch
Issue #63 published 23 Apr 2020
Hands down my favourite giveaway of the year. From our buddies at Ph.Creative, this guide is packed full of theory, practice, examples, how-to and why-now. Ridiculous that it’s free, but it is. 
Issue #63 published 23 Apr 2020
Typical Mistakes Recruiters Make
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Sometimes you just have to do an AMA. Our buddies at Landing Jobs took the brave decision bring candidates and recruiters together in this collaborative spreadsheet. It’s lo-fi, for the content, comments and conversations, are gold.
Issue #63 published 23 Apr 2020
Love these case studies from LinkedIn Business - cameo portraits that provide just enough detail to be both accessible and actionable. 4 great and different examples here, including one from long time ‘foodie Ben Gledhill, at Yodel
Issue #131 published 23 Apr 2020
Google Hire’s content team are starting to produce some excellent brainfood. Check out this post which details six ways in which great candidate experiences positively impact performance metrics like reapplication rates, cost savings and revenue generated. Thanks to brainfood Lauren Bass for the share.
Issue #102 published 23 Apr 2020
Do you follow Jan Tegze? You really should. He’s a recruitment blogger who consistently finds new angles on what may be old stories. Here he is applying equations to bad candidate experience and providing evidence why it’s bad for your bottom line. 
Issue #75 published 23 Apr 2020
There is No Funnel. Or Spoon
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Is the candidate funnel the right mental model to think about recruitment? It’s definitely the one we default to using. Martin Burns asks the big questions in this thought provoking post. 
Issue #51 published 23 Apr 2020
CandE Research Reports
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
The TalentBoard - led my buddies and fellow brainfooders Gerry Crispin and Kevin Grossman - provide the most comprehensive data on candidate experience in the industry. You can download reports for North America, EMEA and APAC on this link. I’ve the read EMEA report - believe me, if you care about candidate experience at all, you should too. 
Issue #150 published 23 Apr 2020
Now this is a tech company taking candidate experience seriously. Once you move from ‘applicant’ to 'candidate’, a proprietary app will be made available to guide you through the entire process. More people should know about this. 
Issue #45 published 23 Apr 2020
A Career Cold Start Algorithm
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Simple protocol by Facebook’s VP of AR, Andrew Bosworth who’s developed an algorithm for self-directed on-boarding. It’s …quite obviously a very good system and behooves us in HR / TA to reverse engineer it and implement. 
Issue #74 published 23 Apr 2020
Pretty much this….the main frustration which spurs candidates negative view of recruiting is the lack of interaction after initial interest. Chatbot’s or ‘conversational interfaces’ the solution? I think so. Check out 'foodie Chris Raw’s post as he makes the case here. H/T Denis Dinkevich (again) for the share.
Issue #133 published 23 Apr 2020
When you don’t delegate decision making to your front-line recruiters, you can terrible candidate experience like this. A series of screenshots between a tech recruiter going by script and an experienced developer who understandably got a little upset. 
Issue #56 published 23 Apr 2020
There are few writers in the recruitment world that can really write. Derek Zeller is one of them. Poignant letter from the heart from an industry legend. 
Issue #56 published 23 Apr 2020
Joe Riggs has some simple how-not-to’s for tech recruiters. You can sense his frustration through this short post - it’s a serious problem when agency vs candidate have this level of antagonism. We all know this - we know less about how to fix it. 
Issue #7 published 23 Apr 2020
In recruiting, we often forget about applicant or candidate bandwidth. How much time does someone have to spend in order to get a job? Jeff Kolesky here records the amount of time he spent talking in order to get one job - turns out it’s quite a lot. 
Issue #22 published 23 Apr 2020
Tech Interview Torture Chamber
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
More despair from developers on the broken recruitment experience. The prevailing sense is that submission is required on the part of the candidate. We can change this. The ‘candidate funnel’ has to go. 
Issue #22 published 23 Apr 2020
Rejecting Great Candidates
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Here’s where the phone call is still the only channel folks. Long time brainfooder, Stevie Buckley writes about the excuses we make in not making the tough call, and why we simply have to toughen up. 
Issue #57 published 23 Apr 2020
Jeff Moore, Staffing Manager at Google, comes up with some excellent tips on how to rethink and redo the candidate rejection process. It’s a golden opportunity to create brand evangelists and future candidates for future position folks. H/T to brainfooder Lauren Bass for the share - it’s a must read
Issue #106 published 23 Apr 2020
Kevin Wheeler takes the entire industry to task with this polemic on candidate experience. He’s probably right, but we do have to start somewhere. 
Issue #15 published 23 Apr 2020
The Talent Board Resources
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
Great archive of candidate experience resources, webinars and research papers from the Talent Board. Take a bow Gerry Crispin, Kevin Grossman and crew for putting this together. Some of it behind a reg wall, but most of it isn’t, so take a deep dive here.
Issue #147 published 23 Apr 2020
Do we need another open letter from a developer about how crap recruiters are? Answer is ‘no’, I think but this post does provide some insight into the psychology of those with 'abundance bias’, as well as the heightened (perhaps impossible? certainly impractical) attention to candidate experience required to engage. Edge case, or something we can learn?
Issue #20 published 23 Apr 2020
Bas van de Haterd’s annual research on Corporate Career Sites is out. Dutch sample but really interesting for in house recruiters in any territory, particularly on methodology, standards, testing rigour and , of course, benchmarking. No email reg wall - just download the report here
Issue #172 published 23 Apr 2020
LinkedIn’s Brendan Browne on interviews, assessment and candidate experience. The understated problem of recruiting is the asymmetry of power between company vs candidate. It’s on us as recruiters to equalise it. Check out the post here and Brendan’s to-the-camera piece here
Issue #84 published 23 Apr 2020