On December 4th, ConveyIQ by Entelo sponsored the RallyFwd Virtual Conference: See the Future of Candidate Experience. This free event featured six industry leaders for idea-packed sessions for how to deliver an amazing candidate experience in 2020.
This half-day event was full of proven strategies and new technology that's helping shape the candidate experience landscape. Here are a few highlights from the day:
RETURN ON COURAGE
In his Opening Keynote presentation, Ryan Berman, Founder, Courageous, shared his methodology for how to work closely with your teams to shift their mentalities from, “There’s no time like the present” to “There’s no time but the present,” so that you can fight common business fears that are holding your team back from creating the candidate experience and employee experience you envision. Ryan presented his P.R.I.C.E. methodology to help you build your personal and organizational courage brand and drive change:
- P = Prioritize your values.
- R = Rally believers.
- I = Identify fears.
- C = Commit to a purpose.
- E = Execute your action.
As talent acquisition teams are adding more technology to their recruiting processes, it's critical to ensure you don't lose the human element in recruiting. Kristen Magni, VP of Talent & Culture at Bozzuto, shared her strategic thinking on what matters most for improving the experience of both candidates and recruiters, and the decision making process she uses to decide where technology fits in the candidate journey and where the human touch can’t be replaced, and ensuring it's balanced; known as the “Goldilocks Effect." Kristen recommends creating a candidate journey map before deciding which TA and HR technology to implement. Consider which technologies would enhance the experience or address problem areas during the different stages of your hiring process.
THE POWER OF EMOTION IN YOUR CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
North America Employer Brand & Recruitment Marketing Partner, Shavonne Thomas, discussed her own methodology to uncover the emotional connection that a candidate could have to AstraZeneca’s job opportunities, and how she then works closely with recruiters and business managers to ensure this messaging is reinforced throughout the candidate experience. She then crafts mini Employer Value Propositions that act as a guiding star for communications to candidates. These mini-EVPs are then infused throughout job descriptions, Recruitment Marketing campaigns, landing page and careers site copy, social media posts and job ads to really create a compelling initial experience to show that the organization understands the candidate and cares about the emotional experience they’re going through.
USING THE 80/20 RULE TO CREATE MOMENTS THAT MATTER
Chris Mulhall, VP Talent & Organizational Effectiveness, and his team at PointClickCare subscribe to the 80/20 rule, which states that 80% of your results come from 20% of the actions you take. This focus allowed them to pay close attention on three moments in their candidate experience that truly mattered:
- Pre-interview stage: Chris’ team developed a pre-interview correspondence template along with a video that shows what the interview experience will look like and offers tips for success.
- Post-interview stage: Chris’ team updates candidates at the end of every week using a strategy he calls Follow-up Fridays. Recruiters use a customizable email template that they can send out easily and efficiently, so no candidate is forgotten.
- Decline stage: There is another correspondence template that the team leverages for declines that includes a spot to provide the job-specific feedback that candidates are craving. This message also encourages certain candidates to apply again in the future and lets them know that their experience is normal — typically candidates apply a few times before landing a role.
Stacy Van Meter, Vice President of Talent Acquisition & Employment Brand, Deluxe, focused on her belief that in order to truly put candidates at the center of every decision requires buy-in from the entire talent acquisition team, business partners, hiring managers and corporate leadership. She shared examples of training materials and operational procedures for the TA team and hiring managers you can use to ensure everyone who touches candidates are aligned and accountable, including providing video training and creating candidate experience training guides.
BRINGING YOUR CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE VISION TO LIFE
Kevin Grossman, President of the Talent Board, closed out the day to present key trends that are shaping candidate experience and what it takes to win talent in today’s social and digital age. Kevin shared, “The candidate experience begins during talent attraction and sourcing, even before a candidate applies for a job.” The importance of your communications starts during the attraction stage because it can determine whether candidates choose to apply in the first place, and that in 2018-19, for instance, the usage of text recruiting campaigns increased by 56% and chatbot usage saw a 100% lift.
Kevin shared a range of stats on the business outcome of a poor candidate experience, and his team at Talent Board have built a Candidate Experience Resentment Calculator that you can use to determine the kinds of losses your organization could be suffering as a result of your candidate experience.
All-in-all it was a great event. And don't worry if you were unable to attend, you can still catch the entire event On-Demand here!
If you're looking for ways you can transform your candidate experience in 2020, click here to find
out how ConveyIQ by Entelo can help!
