What Your Hiring Process Says About You

Sudhanshu Ahuja

May 17, 2022

According to Career Builder, 78% of your candidates consider the candidate experience to reflect how you value your people. That’s 4 out of 5 people who equate candidate experience with your organization’s values, culture, and working environment.

This statistic should have HR teams across the globe thinking about what their hiring process says about their organization.

The candidate experience starts when a prospective employee first considers working for you right through to the moment they accept a position or receive a rejection. There are many opportunities to convey messages in a process this long. So, what is your hiring process saying about you?

Your organization values people’s time…or it doesn’t
Any candidate who applies for a job with you has invested time in your organization, so your process may inadvertently tell a candidate how you value your employee’s time.

Three key areas ensure you give the right message (and a winning candidate experience).

Firstly, offer a simple, streamlined application process. For example, don’t ask candidates to input data, such as work history, when it’s readily available on their uploaded resume.

Secondly, communicate early and often:
- Send a confirmation when an application is received
- Update candidates when they progress or let them know if there is a hold-up or unexpected delay
- As soon as a decision is made, let them know – a fast ‘no’ is much better than leaving candidates hanging.
Thirdly, keep things moving. In today’s fast-paced world, your process should move fast to help you snap up the best talent before your competition does.
Your organization is digitally mature…or it’s not
An outdated or clunky hiring process will likely leave candidates with low expectations about your internal systems and processes. Your hiring process should match your digital aspirations, and today, that’s about online, fast and seamless.

The key things to consider here are:
- A streamlined careers page and job portal
- AI-driven resume screening
- The use of an intelligent virtual assistant for candidate support and guidance
- Real-time communication to streamline candidate engagement
Your organization is committed to diversity in hiring…or it isn’t
Today, most organizations recognize the people and business benefits of diversity and have policies in place when it comes to recruitment. However, if your hiring process doesn’t actively encourage diversity and fairness in hiring, you may be giving mixed messages. And, even worse, not hiring the best people for the job.

When auditing the diversity in your hiring process, some questions to yourself ask are:
- Are we using language in job adverts or application pages that might inadvertently discourage some sectors of society?
- Is the application process accessible?
- Is there a chance that human biases will impact the outcome?
- How are we assessing candidates to ensure the process is fair and competency-based?
And, of course, if you are using any recruitment tech to support your team, it’s essential to make sure it eliminates bias too.
Want to deliver the right messages every time (and find the best candidates)?

The good news is that today’s recruitment tech can help you deliver, from your initial careers page presence through to skill assessments, interviews, and finding the right candidate.

Look for market-leading tech, underpinned by solid organizational psychology to ensure fast, fair, and accurate hiring every time. impress.ai’s customized, AI-powered solutions are designed to do just that while saving your time and money too.

You can check out how our solutions have achieved results for banks, tech consultancies, telcos, and government agencies, to name just a few. And when you are ready to get started on your own journey to better recruitment, get in touch with the team here.