Improve your Candidate Experience and you automatically improve your quality of hire!

1. It Takes a Village to Create a Great
Candidate Experience

2. There is often a disconnect
What is often promoted by company… What candidates say…
Imagine the possibilities. No one took the time to paint a picture of
how this role fits into the bigger picture,
where the company is going, the impact I
could make.
Our people are passionate. Interviewers seem tired and disengaged.
Our employees are our number one The recruiter and hiring manager didn’t
concern. make time to learn about what I want to
do with my career, to ensure this is a good
match. The interview was just about skill
matching.
We are only looking for the best. The interviews were easy, uncoordinated,
repetitive and focused on the wrong
things. It’s clear this company doesn’t
know what they’re looking for.

3. There is often a disconnect
What is often promoted by company… What candidates say…
We are innovative, nimble and moving They took 3 weeks to get back to me after
fast. the phone interview. The process was
slow. (2012 study shows the average
hiring process in USA is 90 days!)
We are performance driven and customer No one focused on my accomplishments
focused. or how I delivered for my customers in
the interview. All of their
situational/behavioral questions put me
in a difficult customer or co-worker
situation – are there no happy employees
or customers?!
We’re the leader in our industry. The interviewers were arrogant and the
conversations were one-way.

4. There is often a disconnect
What is often promoted by company… What candidates say…
We’ve created something special, and No one focused on fit and everyone failed
believe fit is key to your success. to go deep into my background…I can’t
imagine they got what they needed to
make a good decision about my fit. What
will they base their decision on?
Our core competencies include: It was clear after my 3rd interview that the
Communication. interview team was not on the same page
about the role’s scope or primary focus
areas.
Our core competencies include: Flexibility The interviewers were clearly listening for
and Innovation. one right answer and not open to
alternative approaches.

5. There is often a disconnect
What is often promoted by company… What candidates say…
Our core competencies include: None of the interviewers focused on
Teamwork and Leadership. teamwork or my ability to lead people. It
was purely a technical/functional
interview.
Our core competencies include: It was clear after my 3rd interview that the
Communication. interview team was not on the same page
about the role’s scope or primary focus
areas.
Our core competencies include: Problem They asked me puzzle questions that
Solving. didn’t have anything to do with the job.
How are they possibly going to know if I’m
good at my job’s challenges if they don’t
ask me? Do they even know what
someone like me can do for them?

6. Great Candidate Experiences
Is it the flashy, So what should a Great Candidate experience
glitzy include?
• Fancy candidate packets?
showmanship, • A better employment brand tagline?
or is it substance • Flying candidates first class or replacing a taxi with a
Limo?
that wins out? • Sending candidates flowers?
Surveys show Great Candidate experiences
include….
• Ownership of the process.
• Getting everyone on the same page
• Good, meaningful process.
• Execute the Basics well!

7. Great Candidate Experiences
Vince Lombardi
Brilliant on the Basics.
“We are not going to be flashy.
We are going to be brilliant on the
basics. We will
run, throw, catch, tackle, and
block better than every team in
the league. That is how we will go
to the championships this year.”

8. Great Candidate Experiences
Show Me, Don’t • 10 Practical Strategies to create a candidate
experience that?
Tell Me. – Helps build a positive employment brand.
– Helps to hire the best candidates.
Creating a great candidate • Best Practices without big budgets!
experience is one of the – Interview Process.
most strategic, long term – Selling the opportunity with Integrity.
(branding) investments
you can make for your
organization…and it has
great short term
ROI, too!!

9. Make sure your assumptions are
correct.
Examine your Some (poor) assumptions
• HR owns the candidate experience
current process. – My recruiters and coordinators create and control
the candidate experience.
• It’s about nice looking candidate packets
– Fancy candidate packets with great PR articles and
earnings reports make a big difference; swag sells.
• It’s about putting on a good show
– Ensure candidates meet in the nicest conference
rooms , are taken to the best lunch, see only happy
people (smile).
• We’re interviewing them (not the other way
around)
– We’re interviewing them, and by telling them what
we want them to hear, we create (and control) a
great experience.

10. Research
Remember Reality
• Interviewers and Managers create the experience
there are always – So much of an interviewees experience happens
two sides to any without us in the room.
• Process and “next steps” conversations really
business matter.
Relationship. – Who interviews, how many, how we start and end
interviews, how we set expectations really makes a
difference.
• It’s about being real, not putting on a good show
– We all want a good two-way fit; making everything
look “shinier” doesn’t do us or them a bit of good
• They’re interviewing us, looking for signs
– The investment we make in them, the questions we
ask, the way we listen, hour honesty…it all really
matters

11. Assess your current state: Surveys
Find It may be bad, but baseline it now so you can show improvement.
Your baseline. 1. Create a simple, 15 question or less (think 3 min or less to
complete) online survey that’s sent to every candidate (internal
or external) that interviews in your organization
– To know where you
2. Leverage surveymonkey.com or zoomerang.com for the online
are going, you must survey (<$20/month and easy to pull reports)
know where you’ve 3. Get contextual questions up front so you can slice and dice the
been. data (breakout by location, job type, department, source of
application)
4. Make it VERY CLEAR that the info collected will be kept
1
anonymous
10 2
5. Send out the survey to all candidates (When is too soon, too
late?)
9 3 – People who accepted our offer
– People who declined our offer
Assess – People we declined
6. Reinforce that you want/need the survey results (let them
8 4 know you want to improve, tell them to expect the survey on
their interview day when you debrief with them); incent them
to complete it with a prize drawing
7 5
6
7. Get the questions right (see next slide); ask to measure their
experience against a standard you set.

12. Assess your current state: Surveys
What Candidate Sample Survey Questions
Feedback
Questions Goals, •Did you receive an interview Candidate packet before your
interview, containing info about our org, the job description, a
should I ask? Process, SLAs map to our facility, and dress code?
•Were you given the opportunity to ask questions about the
• Stay away from job, your potential manager, and the organization during your
general, unanchored interview day?
questions like “was our •Did the interviewers ask you appropriately challenging
process fast enough?” questions that highlighted your core capabilities?
•Did you meet with a Recruiter or HR representative during
• Set the standard via the your interview day?
question; try to keep it •Did you get the opportunity to meet with an internal
objective so that your tallied customer for this role?
results mean something. •Our goal was to contact you to confirm the next step within 2
business days of your onsite interview. Did you hear from a
• Try to use questions with Recruiter/HR rep within 2 business days after your interview?
quick yes/no or multiple •Did your interview experience impact your interest in working
choice answers. for us? (More or less interested now? Why?)
•Source of applicant
Data •Recruiter and Hiring Manager/Department/Job Type
•Date of Interview (week of)
Scale 1-5 (compare to what…?), General Comments
Overall

13. Assess your current state: Focus
Groups
Real Stories reveal Get recent hires together and facilitate a frank discussion about their
experience
more than data 1. Identify 10 – 12 recent hires from a division/location/job
function and invite them to a 1 hour candidate experience
points. focus group session (bribes like pizza, treats, giveaways, etc.
help attendance
– Do you secret shop your own
process? 2. Have your recruiting manager/HR Manager , or independent
– Do you hold focus groups with consultant facilitate the session. Never use any person who
your recent hires? was involved in hiring anyone in the focus group.
3. Make it VERY CLEAR that the info shared will be combined with
1 survey data and other focus groups; individual named examples
10 2 won’t be shared with the recruiter or hiring teams.
4. Dig into experiences; leverage your survey results to probe on
areas needing more context/examples and validation of the
9 3
data.
Focus 1. What are the common themes?
Groups 2. Find out where else these people interviewed; how do we compare?
3. Have them define what “fast” and “good questions” and “I was kept in the loop”
8 4 really means to them.
4. Now that they’ve been here a few weeks/months, ask them what better they
wish we would have added to our process to make it even better or make the
7 5 opportunity even more compelling.
5. Find out what they think you can (realistically) do to make the experience even
6 better.
6. Validate whether the improvements you have planned would matter to them.

14. Define your future state
Lead the way! Get interviewers/hiring managers in a room together to define your
great candidate experience.
– Gather all stakeholders 1. During interview training or a staff meeting with interviewers/hiring
of the process and managers from a location/department, facilitate a discussion on what a
involve them in defining top notch candidate experience would feel like to a candidate.
your future state = buy 2. Capture their ideas; use their words, but prompt them if they need
in. help, though)
3. Ask them to compare that “ideal” experience with their own experiences
and what we do today (share some survey and focus group data (and
glassdoor.com if available) to help them see the areas of opportunity.)
4. Visibly post their information to use as a reference as you begin to map
out the future state of the candidate experience.
1 1. Roles, interview questions, selling candidates, etc need to be defined.
10 2 2. Use the reference information to “work backwards” to build out your process and
expectations of an interviewer and hiring manager.
3. Incorporate the standards into our surveys and focus groups (measure results
and share = accountability)
9 3
Define 5. Dig into experiences; leverage your survey results to probe on areas
Desired needing more context/examples and validation of the data.
1. What are the common themes?
Process 2. Find out where else these people interviewed; how do we compare?
8 4
3. Have them define what “fast” and “good questions” and “I was kept in the loop” really
means to them.
4. Now that they’ve been here a few weeks/months, ask them what better they wish we
would have added to our process to make it even better or make the opportunity even
7 5 more compelling.
6 5. Find out what they think you can (realistically) do to make the experience even better.
6. Validate whether the improvements you have planned would matter to them.

15. Facilitator guide/example
Organize the Imagine you referred a friend or former co-
discussion using high worker to a job with your company
• They interviewed yesterday
level categories.
• You call them today to see what they thought
– Building a brand is
about us and their interviews.
accomplished one
candidate at a time.
What do you want them to day about…
– Our assessment
strategy/approach is Our The The The job Our
a selling strategy. Interview people questions company
Process they met they were
asked

16. Focus on the little wins
Pick the low lying Create momentum by choosing a few things
This year and establish some wins….here’s
fruit and start. how.
– #1 reason for failing is
lack of execution.
1. Identify 1-3 things that seem achievable (affordable:
– Many/most/all of time and money) and measurable.
these are very doable 2. Define what success would look like (i.e. candidtes who
and not expensive! say they were contacted within 2 business days after
1 interview goes from 32% to 50% by December 15th,
10 2 2012)
3. Publicize the goal and ensure your recruiters
9 3 understand how they will be measured on this
Create 1. What does success look like? Ex. A live phone conversation
Momentum with the candidate, a voicemail to the candidate, a generic
email to the candidate, a personalized email to the candidate?
8 4
2. Ensure that they’ve bought into the expectation and held
accountable.
7 5 3. Swiftly address performance issues; don’t wait until December
6
survey results to address problems.

17. Teach your interviewers how to be
successful
Don’t assume Interview Training
1. Ensure managers are tuned‐in to the market; it’s unlikely A‐players
– Don’t assume are lining up to work at your company (despite the unemployment
figures!) Give them a reality check; they are interviewing us as much
everyone involved in as we’re interviewing them, right?
the selection process 2. Get them invested in the hiring targets for their teams and/or the
knows how to company (help them see how they are company‐builders, how these
are big decisions; ask the business‐leader/VP to come in to set the
conduct a proper stage)
interview! 3. Define success as an interviewer/hiring manager for your company
1. Share real feedback from candidate surveys and focus groups that highlights the
control they have over the candidate experience
1
2. Share the common denominator characteristics of the interview teams that hire
10 2 the best people and create the most compelling candidate experience
3. Help them create their own definition of success
4. Ideal: Have one of your top performing hiring managers co‐facilitate
9 3 the session and help the team understand their role and
Process opportunity as interviewers
Training 5. Share/Reinforce best practices:
1. How to create a quality, realistic target candidate profile
8 4
2. Interviewing kickoff meeting with all interviewers and alternates
3. Assigned interview focus areas
4. Avoiding weird questions
7 5 5. Leaving time to “sell” candidates
6 6. Quick, quality decision making process

18. Teach your candidates how to be
successful
Set the candidate Things to add to your pre-interview communication with
candidates (simple and obvious, but overlooked by most
up for success. companies)
1. Be specific about typical dress; let them know how most of the
– Help the candidate interviewers will be dressed
know what to expect. 2. Point them to suggested reading/research on your org and let
them know which division/business unit they’re interviewing
with and key acronyms used to describe it
3. Let them know the type of questions they are likely to be asked
and/or the type of interviewing approach to be used (i.e. role
1 plays or presentations or white board problem solving)
10 2 4. Share the high level schedule; times, titles, locations.
5. Let them know who to ask for when they arrive, who their
recruiter/coordinator is and how to reach them (cell) if they’re
9 3
Inspire running late or they need to reach someone during the day.
candidate 6. Encourage them to prepare questions.
success 7. Create an FAQ for common candidate questions about the
8 4
process, next steps, benefit information
8. Let them know they do/don’t need to bring copies of their
7 5 resume/CVs or work samples with them.
6 9. Show them pics of their potential workspace.

19. Improve your interview
process/structure
Be deliberate and Things to add to or ensure are happening in your
interview process
intentional.
1. No one wants to bomb their interview; if this happens frequently, add
a 2nd phone screen to your process
“Start with the end in 2. Give reception/security the names of candidates so they can prepare
mind and work a badge in advance and know who to notify when they arrive
backwards” 3. Be conscious about who is on the interview team (diversity!), and who
Steven Covey goes first. Ideally, have the recruiter meet with the candidate first to
walk through the schedule and backgrounds of interviewers
1 4. Ideally, have the first interviewer be the person who phone screened
10 2 them (Hiring Manager?) so that they can have a personal connection
and can ask questions about the job
5. Assign different focus areas to each interviewer; it’s common for
9 3 candidates to get asked the same questions
Be 6. Don’t try to interview over lunch – separate food from questioning
Deliberate 7. Consider 2‐on‐1 interviews so you have coverage if 1 is a no‐show
8 4 8. Don’t leave the candidate in the same boring conference room for the
whole day; let them see the “real you”
9. If you have batch interview days, consider a first‐thing presentation
7 5 about your company
6
10. Ensure the last interviewer knows what to say re: next steps

20. Make results visible
Establish Address bad behavior, reward good behavior
accountability by 1. Highlight real “lost candidate” (including declined offer reasons)
data with groups; post mortems for the one that got away.
2. Share candidate experience survey scores by department/leader;
managing to the show their scores vs last quarter, vs peers, vs rest of company, vs
goal/benchmark
results. 1.
2.
Back it up with stories from focus groups
Share it publicly (?)
3. Confront no‐show interviewers/hiring managers and/or highlight
managers requiring multiple reschedules/delays
1. What are consequences in your organization?
1
2. Is time to fill impacted?
10 2
4. Share those wonderful (smile) candidate feedback emails
you get(often unsolicited) when an interviewing team doesn’t
9 3 create a positive experience for a hard to find candidate AND share
Establish the positive kudos you get too!
Accountability 5. Get interviewer participation and hiring manager partnership track
record into performance reviews! Send out quantitative and
8 4 qualitative feedback weeks before reviews are due…
6. Ask recent hires to share positive testimonials with the rest of the
7 5
department managers
6
7. Get crazy (smile) and create a way to generate interviewer level
candidate experience scores.

21. Differentiate yourself
Create a WOW Is there something you can do to stand out and get your process to
help you sell?
experience Partner with your PR/Marketing department to see if there’s
What can you do to something you can leverage to create an exceptional experience
create a unique
experience that will be 1. Retailer: Walks sales person into the real store and asks them to
positive and critique the merchandising, customer experience, look and feel
memorable to the candidate? 2. Coffee Company: Coffee guru taste-test during the interview.
3. B2B Wireless Company: Sales ride-along (realistic job preview)
1 4. Biotech: Present your thesis to really smart scientists
10 2 5. Software company: Given an assignment to learn something new
and present it to peers during interview.
6. Call Center: Listen in on real calls and make suggestions for
9 3 improvement
Create
7. Consulting Company: Role play a project-scoping discussion and
WOW build a draft proposal.
experiences
8 4 8. School District: Teach a short lesson to real students
7 5
6

22. Make Selling part of the interview
What motivates A Ensure that your candidate experience includes time for
candidates to learn why they’d want to invest their career
players that you with your company, in this role, with these people, now
seek? 1. Too many interviewers/recruiters are arrogant or
presumptuous, assuming candidates know your company is
Identify what motivates you’re A- great.
Players and speak to it during the 2. We must identify what our target candidates want out of their
career and map that to our real strengths; then share that
interview process. during the courting, interviewing, and closing process.
1 1. It’s everyone’s job to “sell”; not just the recruiter or hiring manager
10 2 2. Everyone is selling (or de-selling) whether they know it or not
3. Our questions tell candidates what we value and what to expect here.
3. Survey your top performers and ask them these 3 simple
9
Know the
3 questions to learn their motivators
1. What drew you here?
DNA of your
2. What keeps you here?
performers 3. What would lure you away?
8 4
4. Arm interviewers/hiring managers with questions and examples
that highlight why top performers thrive here.
7 5
6

23. Creating a Great Candidate Experience
Vince Lombardi Focus on the basics
Brilliant on the Basics. A great candidate experience is largely about
flawless execution of the basics and less about
innovation.
It’s sad to say that very few companies create
consistent positive candidate experiences. Yet
it is one of the fundamental things that can take
a company from good to great.
Recent research shows that over 30% of all
businesses go under because of poor hiring!
“We are not going to be flashy. We are going to be
brilliant on the basics. We will run, throw, catch,
tackle, and block better than every team in the You want to move the proverbial needle and drive
league. That is how we will go to the championships profits to the bottom line? Focus on the Talent
this year.” Acquisition Experience and watch things grow!!