Rally Recruitment Marketing Ideabook: 11 Ways to Humanize the Candidate Experience Improving the candidate experience is an ongoing priority for HR and TA leaders. Good progress has been made in areas like mobile-friendly career sites, shorter apply times and standardized interview methods. Process improvements are important, but what candidates are telling us they really want is more communication. The latest Talent Board research shows that job seekers rated their candidate experience higher when there was open, transparent and two-way communication (including feedback) between them and the employer throughout their candidate journey. It turns out that a great candidate experience has come down to meeting a few basic human needs: the chance to be heard, the satisfaction of getting a response and the feeling of being respected. It’s time for us to take the next step in improving the candidate experience. It’s time to HUMANIZE it. This Ideabook will inspire you to humanize the candidate experience through new strategies and technologies that enable better communication and engagement.

1. Learn how employers are humanizing the candidate experience
through better communication and engagement
IDEABOOK
WAYSTOTHE
1CANDIDATE
EXPERIENCE
1HUMANIZE

2. This Ideabook is designed for every
Recruitment Marketing skill level and every
budget, and will take you about 13 minutes
to read. So let’s go!
What you’ll learn:
Improving the candidate experience is an
ongoing priority for HR and TA leaders.
Good progress has been made in areas like
mobile-friendly career sites, shorter apply
times and standardized interview methods.
Process improvements are important, but
what candidates are telling us they really
want is more communication.
The latest Talent Board research shows that
job seekers rated their candidate experience
higher when there was open, transparent
and two-way communication (including
feedback) between them and the employer
throughout their candidate journey.
It turns out that a great candidate
experience has come down to meeting a few
basic human needs: the chance to be heard,
the satisfaction of getting a response and
the feeling of being respected.
It’s time for us to take the next step in
improving the candidate experience. It’s
time to HUMANIZE it.
– Ways to update your
career site content and photos to
make your employer brand human
– How to engage your
talent network and social followers
to build valuable relationships
– Tips for using modern
communications tools like text
messaging and AI-powered chat to
be always on and accessible
OVERVIEW
Beginners
Professionals
Experts
PAGE2©2018RALLY™RECRUITMENTMARKETING
Employer Branding
Communications Strategy
Social Recruiting Engagement
Talent Network Email Nurture
Skills Developed:

3. This Ideabook will inspire you to humanize
the candidate experience through new
strategies and technologies that enable better
communication and engagement. We'll look
at 11 ways that we can make it happen:
INTRODUCTION
PAGE3©2018RALLY™RECRUITMENTMARKETING
ofcandidatessaybetter
communicationthrough-
outandaftertheappli-
cationprocesswouldmake
themostpositiveimpact.
(Source:CareerArc)
ofemployersthink
candidateswanta
betteronline
applicationorinter-
viewprocess.
Plus, at the end of this
Ideabook, we've included a
Candidate Experience Checklist
to help you plan your next set
of improvements. Read on!
46%
ofjobseekerswhogive
theiroverallcandidate
experienceanegative1-
starratingsaythey'lltake
theiralliances,product
purchasesandrelation-
shipselsewhere.
ofjobseekerswhogive
theiroverallcandidate
experienceapositive5-
starratingsaytheyʼllapply
again,referothersandmake
purchaseswhenapplicable.
(Source:TalentBoard)
74%
55%
60%
Whyhumanizingthecandidate
experiencematters‒keystats:
1. Show the Real You
2. Make it Personal
3. Describe Your Why First
4. Respect Everyone's Time
5. Help Candidates Find Their Potential
6. Be Social on Social Media
7. Provide Real-Time Access
8. Leverage Tech to Build Relationships
9. Add Value, Not Clutter
10. Manage Expectations Transparently
11. Ask for (Candid)ate Feedback

4. Your career site is the #1 place candidates go to learn about
your company, according to the Talent Board. Humanize
your candidate experience from the start by showing job
seekers who they could be working with. Real photos of your
employees, work environment, company culture and
community events make your employer brand authentic –
stock photos just don't cut it anymore. makes
their team approachable and accessible by showing
candidates photos of Your future coworkers. The photos
help take on assumptions about who works in the
insurance industry.
1.ShowtheRealYou
As candidates learn about your corporate mission and values,
they'll want to dive deeper into team culture. has
created pages for key job families, like this Sales page that
includes a video of Sales leadership and account executives
talking about what it takes to be successful in the role. The
content is highly targeted to what would motivate a sales
person to choose MongoDB, such as the market size, sales
support and professional development.
MongoDB
PAGE4©2018RALLY™RECRUITMENTMARKETING
When you confidently put your employees front and center on your career site, with their names and titles, the
next stop in a candidate's journey might be LinkedIn. Here's a blog post with tips on how to ensure that your hiring
managers have LinkedIn profiles that
ExpertTip:
11WAYSTOHUMANIZETHE
CANDIDATEEXPERIENCE
2.MakeitPersonal
Policygenius
speak to candidates.
35%
increaseinwebsiteconversionrate
whenusingarealemployeephoto
comparedtoastockphoto.
(Source:MarketingExperiments)

5. 3.DescribeYourWhy
BeforetheJob
PAGE5©2018RALLY™RECRUITMENTMARKETING
ExpertTip:
11WAYSTOHUMANIZETHE
CANDIDATEEXPERIENCE
The infamous black hole in recruiting happens
when a candidate applies for a job, but never hears
from the employer about the status of their
application. Furniture maker believes
every applicant deserves a timely response, so they
use email templates that are built into their
to ensure candidates hear back.
The templates can be personalized, and bulk
responses can be automated, making it easy for
the HR team to communicate status – because
their time is valuable too. As a digital furniture
company, Article appreciates that candidates may
also be customers, and that a great candidate
experience can positively boost the top line.
4.RespectEveryone'sTime
Article
Candidates who land on your job description
through a job board or by searching Google for
Jobs may know nothing about your company.
What will make them click to apply? And what
will help you attract applicants who align with
your purpose? starts their job
descriptions with their Why – answering why
a candidate would want to work with this e-
counseling provider. Right away, job seekers
can get a sense of what BetterHelp stands for,
before reading the typical job requirement
details, and deciding whether to apply now.
BetterHelp
When Marketers add videos
to their landing pages,
conversion rates
Recruitment Marketers are
increasing applications by
leveraging this tactic, like this
video from on the
job page for Commercial
Territory Manager.
can double.
Tenable
#1
reasoncandidateswithdraw
fromtherecruitingprocess:
feelingtheirtimewasdisrespected
duringinterviewsandappointments.
(Source:TalentBoard)
Workable ATS

6. Too often, the candidate experience can feel transactional,
especially when we make applying for a job like adding a
product to a shopping cart. But many candidates become
interested first in a company, not a specific req, and may
not know where they could fit inside the organization.
helped candidates discover something new about
themselves and what jobs may be a fit by inviting them to
take a personality test. The email campaign to GE's talent
network produced 50% more career site traffic and 25%
more applications compared to previous emails.
5.HelpCandidatesFindtheir
Potential,NotonlyaJob
GE
PAGE6©2018RALLY™RECRUITMENTMARKETING
11WAYSTOHUMANIZETHE
CANDIDATEEXPERIENCE
An employer's social media channels are an important stop
in the candidate journey. For , actively
sharing useful careers content has helped them build nearly
40,000 Facebook followers. The hospital system is engaging
that talent pool with Virtual Career Fairs where interested
candidates can chat live with recruiters to learn more about
current job openings near them. The strategy helps Dignity
Health engage both active and passive talent. Candidates
can ask questions before deciding to apply, while recruiters
can start building relationships early with talent in the
competitive health care market.
6.BeSocialonSocialMedia
Dignity Health
1.3
BillionpeopleuseFacebook
Messengereachmonth,providing
recruitersandsourcerswitha
newwaytobeinstantlyavailable
tocommunicatewithcandidates.
(Source:Facebook)
98%
positivefeedbackfrom
candidatesontheir
personalitytestresults.
(Source:GEandTraitify)

7. As consumers, we expect brands to be always on and always
available. The most sought-after candidates expect the same
experience from employers. Being easily accessible and ready
to engage has become a strategic advantage for TA teams that
are filling high-volume roles in retail, call centers and health
care. Technologies like text and chat are the new ways to
reach talent. uses AI-powered chat as a concierge
service to assist candidates with everything from where to find
jobs to how to check the status of their application.
7.ProvideReal-TimeAccess
PAGE7©2018RALLY™RECRUITMENTMARKETING
11WAYSTOHUMANIZETHE
CANDIDATEEXPERIENCE
Some candidates are on the job market for a matter of days, and a recruiter's
ability to engage them quickly can offer a competitive edge. Real estate
services provider uses AI-powered chat on their career
site to invite interested job seekers to speak with a recruiter. After submitting
their mobile phone number and answering a few questions, candidates
receive a mobile text message from their recruiter contact to continue the
conversation. This technology lets Planned Companies instantly start
building one-on-one relationships with candidates.
8.LeverageTechnology
toBuildRelationships
Sprint
In the most competitive job markets, time to fill is directly linked to a recruiter's time to respond. According to
research by mobileSQUARED and SinglePoint, 90% of text messages are read within the first 3 minutes. Including a
call to action (CTA) within your text message (such as respond to schedule an interview or click to view a job
description) will significantly increase your response rate and keep candidates engaged.
ExpertTip:
Planned Companies

8. Job alert emails are only opened by active candidates. So how
do you stay top of mind with the estimated 75% of the
workforce that's passive? nurtures their talent
pipeline with customized emails that provide career advice
and industry news, while strategically sprinkling in employee
stories. The emails come from Specsavers leaders, not a
generic TA email address. Based on email open rates and
click through rates, their campaigns help identify passive
talent that may be ready for a job change, prompting
recruiters to reach out with a personalized approach.
9.AddValue,NotClutter
Specsavers
PAGE8©2018RALLY™RECRUITMENTMARKETING
11WAYSTOHUMANIZETHE
CANDIDATEEXPERIENCE
One of the easiest and fastest ways that you can humanize
the candidate experience is by describing your hiring
process on your career site. This post from co-
founder declares the company's Commitment to
Applicants, outlining what happens when a candidate
applies for a job. Zapier's commitment: to never go more
than seven days without a candidate hearing from them.
10.ManageExpectationsTransparently
Zapier's
11.Askfor(Candid)ateFeedback
Asking for feedback will help you know if your efforts to
humanize the candidate experience are making a
difference. surveys candidates to learn if their
career site content is on point. A best practice is to ask
candidates for feedback at every stage. This way, you can
capture feedback from successful candidates, as well as
those who don't land an interview or a job. The Talent
Board has found that unsuccessful candidates have a
greater aggregate impact on your business and brand than
those who are hired.
Six Flags

9. Today's socially engaged and digitally connected candidates expect employers to be authentic and
transparent, and to be always available and easily accessible. To humanize your candidate experience,
use this checklist to ensure that you're moving beyond process improvements to implementing
strategies and technologies for better communication and engagement.
PAGE9©2018RALLY™RECRUITMENTMARKETING
CandidateExperienceInitiatives
Previous:ProcessImprovements New:CommunicationImprovements
01. Does our career site align with our corporate
brand identity?
Does our career site communicate our
employer value proposition?
02. Is our career site content mobile responsive? Is our career site content personalized to
the candidate’s interests?
04. How long does it take for candidates to
complete an application?
How long does it take for us to reply to
candidates?
Is it easy for candidates to find our jobs? What do our job descriptions say about us?03.
05. How can I build an up-to-date profile of a
candidate’s skills and experience?
How can I understand a candidate’s fit and
potential?
06. Can candidates submit an application with
their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles?
How can I engage with our social media
followers?
07. How can I send job alerts to generate more
applications?
What relevant careers content can I send to
stay top of mind?
08. How can I route inquiries to a centralized
mailbox?
How can we communicate with candidates
one-on-one in real time?
09. How can technology automate processes to
scale our operations?
How can technology automate processes to
help me build relationships?
10. How quickly and accurately can we screen
and assess applicants for hiring managers?
How quickly and transparently can we tell
applicants where they stand?
11. How can I capture interview feedback from
the hiring team?
How can I collect and analyze feedback
from candidates about their experience?
11WAYSTOHUMANIZETHE
CANDIDATEEXPERIENCE CHECKLIST

10. This shift requires all of us to place a new
priority on how we communicate and
engage with candidates. As we prioritize
new initiatives to improve our candidate
experience, it’s important to expand our
focus from streamlining processes to
increasing communications. Making this
part of our Recruitment Marketing strategy
will help us differentiate our company as an
employer, and create net promoters of our
brand along the way.
Humanizing the candidate experience is a
win-win for employers and talent. Let’s
Rally forward together and lead the change.
Today’s socially engaged and digitally
connected candidates expect employer
brands to be authentic, transparent and
easily accessible, just like a consumer
brand. As candidates research our
companies, they're looking for easy access
to information, personalized engagement
and two-way, instant communication.
Candidates not only act like consumers
when searching for jobs, candidates are the
consumers at many companies. It's why a
bad candidate experience doesn't just affect
our ability to recruit; it now impacts our
company's ability to grow.
Rally™ Recruitment Marketing is an online community forum where the best Recruitment
Marketing ideas are learned and shared to educate and empower you to lead the future of talent
acquisition. Join the Rally today at RallyRecruitmentMarketing.com.
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