Much has been said and written about the candidate experience. It’s an expensive challenge for companies as unhappy applicants spread the bad word and ultimately affect the bottom line. One organization, called the Talent Board, even created a “Candidate Experience Resentment Calculator” to measure the pain.
Frustration levels and dropoff rates among job candidates are very high with many career sites. Keyword searches are poor, and candidates, if they even end up actually completing the frustrating fill-in-the-little-boxes process, often assume their application will go straight into a black hole.
AI has been used to improve the career-site experience, as described in this video. We’ve been helping companies augment their applicant tracking systems with these AI-driven career sites.
The quick explanation of an AI-powered career site is this: companies have visitors upload a resume or bio. The AI, having seen the career paths of 1.5 billion people, can match the skills and potential of each candidate to the roles the company has open. Candidates don’t have to dig around trying to find a job that may fit them. They have the confidence of knowing where they’re a match. The diversity of applicants improves.
But what do job applicants think of this? How do they view this experience?
To find that out, our customers have been asking their applicants to rate their experience. After a job applicant uploads a resume, sees the roles that match, and then applies, they’re asked, “How was your application submission experience?”
The result: 89 percent of respondents give the experience the highest rating. Only 5 percent give the lowest rating. Our overall “candidate experience” score averages 77 right now among Eightfold customers, with some companies scoring as high as the 80s. This means that Eightfold customers have an exceptional “candidate experience” score, which is a key metric for customer success and candidate loyalty trends. If significantly more candidates rate their experience with the highest rating, the more promotional power Eightfold customers can derive from the candidates who are likely to refer others and share their positive candidate experience.
A similar “Net Promoter Score” is used to calculate how customers feel about their experience with various companies and products.
A typical career site would likely register lower. The Talent Board, which has done yeoman’s work in measuring and advocating for a better candidate experience, found that only about 5 percent of people believe that applying for jobs is a positive experience. Kevin Grossman, from the Talent Board, says that the candidate experience is averaging a score of about 41 among the companies participating in the organization’s research so far this year. And, that’s probably a more candidate-friendly group than the norm, since they’ve taken an interest in participating in Grossman’s research in the first place.
The criteria and wording to measure these candidate-experience scores may differ. But we could all agree that few applicants rave to their friends about how simple and easy their job-application experiences are.
Put another way, we’re ecstatic about the 77.
Along with the applicant-experience survey, our customers ask candidates, in an open-ended text box, to provide more qualitative feedback on their application experience. So we’ve been able to see in the words of candidates how they truly feel. Here’s what applicants said to some of our customers:
- Quick with few steps … that’s how it should beIt’s very easy to submit my application
- Very easy and efficient way to submit the application
- Fast & smooth!
- User friendly platform. It was a very pleasant experience.
- It was a great experience while submitting my application.
- Smooth like butter!
- It is great that you help us match our profile with the open positions, it gives a better opportunity
- Simple and excellent
- Thanks for making it fast and easy process
- Straightforward
- Application was super easy
- It’s actually a very smart easy way to apply
If you’re measuring your candidate experience, let us know how it’s going. We want your candidates’ experience to also measure a 77 or more.