Candidate Experience Meetup III Madrid

Yesterday we had the pleasure to host more than 60 recruiters at Eventbrite in Madrid to talk about Candidate Experience

Candidate Experience Meetup III Madrid
Candidate Experience Madrid

“We all know how we want recruiters to treat us as candidates. So, we shouldn’t assume that we are doing everything correctly” – Irene M Morgado.

Yesterday, January 30th, 2020, we had the pleasure to host more than 60 recruiters at Eventbrite in Madrid to talk about Candidate Experience. The panel members in the round table couldn’t be better: Irene M Morgado, HR Talent Manager; Tania Pérez, Talent Acquisition Manager at Eventbrite; and Sara Pérez, Technical Recruitment Lead at Cabify. They enrich our knowledge about Candidate Experience and how to deal with one of the most difficult stages of the hiring process, the decision-making stage.

Circular wants to thank all of the attendees for coming. But if you couldn’t join, no worries! Here we’ll share the most fascinating points from the 3 Talent Experts.

The CX Notebook

CX starts even before the Hiring Process

In this day and age, the candidate has a lot of access to information. Therefore, recruiters must defend their image and branding and they can do so through Candidate Experience (CX). It is key to show potential applicants, from the beginning, how cool you are as a company, what each team does, if you are hiring, and how hiring processes are at your company. It’s something that works pretty well to attract talent and improve Candidate Experience.

The importance of asking for Feedback

Before having to give feedback to a candidate ask them ahead of time if they would like to receive transparent feedback. Do they prefer to receive feedback via phone-call or email – no matter if they continue in the hiring process or not.

It is key to keep constant communication along the process so they know where they stand. Also, try always to let candidates know that even though they were very good candidates, the role has been filled. Make sure you close the loop, don’t leave candidates feeling that they applied to your company and never knew the outcome.

Communication shouldn’t be something punctual, but something constant. As recruiters, we may not have news yet, but candidates want to feel you haven’t forgotten them and they appreciate it if you keep them informed.

Candidate’s requests come first

The tech sector is way too competitive. If the Candidate Experience is not good enough they’ll go to work for other companies and you’ll lose the most talented candidates.

Make sure you write down what the candidate needs and the reason why they want to change jobs by the end of the first interview. Ask them openly. If in the end you decide to hire them, make sure these requests are included in the job offer.

Alternatives to turn negative situations into positive feedback

When rejecting a candidate, it is very important to add a human value. It is not the same to say that they will no longer be considered for the role, as it is to say “we will stop your candidature here, but no worries because I support you and we’ll get new opportunities”. Offer them a solution, you can even refer them to your network or hiring communities, like Circular– especially If  you think the candidate is Top. According to Sara from Cabify, referring candidates eliminates the negative impact, so she keeps on referring top profiles to Circular.

Research – Research – Research

What today works may not work tomorrow. It is very important to keep researching new tendencies and candidates expectations to constantly improve. Candidate Experience. Candidates change, companies change, careers and needs do the same, we can only avoid falling behind.

Testing actions before implementing routines

Eventbrite for example is implementing a pilot test, using video in EU for interviews with NON-Tech profiles. Something that works very well for them is to tour the office with the candidate. “Many of them are like ‘wow I really want to work here, this place is cool’, says Tania.

The battle with Spam Messages

Does it make any sense to send LinkedIn messages? Some candidates receive up to 80 LinkedIn messages per day and even if you make yours look cool and personalize it, what are the chances of getting a reaction from the candidate?

The challenge of growing the team

Very often recruiters are asked to increase the team by a 120%. But it is rarely considered that resources for Human Resources need to multiply too in order to meet the objective. Inform your employer about this if they want you to do your job properly.

The CX Photo shoot