Recruiting in higher education is ever–changing; therefore, the way we recruit and engage with potential hires also must evolve. The candidate experience relies heavily on an HR department streamlining processes and workflows. With a simplified and streamlined internal process and applicant tracking system, a candidate sees your intuition in a positive way, while also enjoying the hiring process. This impression can last through their entire employee lifecycle when their information is easy to access and navigate.
The candidate experience is the candidate’s overall perception and opinion about an institution’s hiring process. Their first exposure to your institution is through your online applicant tracking system and then through who they interact with in person, by phone, or by email during the process. If you have an unhappy candidate, they are more likely to turn down the job, not apply to a job again, and/or tell others not to apply.
According to CareerArc’s research, 72% of candidates who had a bad experience told others about it, either in person or online. This bad publicity can greatly affect how your institution attracts hires in the future.
Remove obstacles and create positive touchpoints while streamlining your processes
Every interaction a candidate has with your company is a touchpoint and ultimately an opportunity for you to create a positive impression. Touchpoints include the hiring process, but also any other time a candidate interacts with your institution throughout their tenure. These touchpoints rely on a simple and clear process for your internal teams. Each party involved from HR to department leads should be guided through the process with as little conflict and as few hurdles as possible.
Below are some recommendations for streamlining your own process in order to enhance the candidate experience:
Write a Clear Job Description
Consistent and accurate job descriptions allow for the right candidates to apply for your role. By utilizing technology, you can create these position descriptions and reuse them when needed. This allows for consistency and less data entry for you and your team. Less data entry also leads to better data integrity over time, since each time something is entered there is the opportunity for errors or discrepancies to be introduced.
Improve Your Applicant Tracking System
An integrated and interoperable digital system is essential to improving your hiring process for you and your candidate. Clear processes and workflows make it easy for applicants and seamless for institutions. With a system that utilizes interoperability for different parts of the process, each member of the hiring committee stays on the same page when it comes to the status of a candidate. This enables HR to send fewer emails and allows faculty to have more input.
Respect Candidate’s Time with Workflows
With solidified workflows, your candidate goes through a hiring process that takes less time and allows them to focus on becoming productive more quickly. A system that allows all internal parties to communicate clearly makes this possible. Faculty articulates the roles that need to be filled, while HR implements a process for hiring and onboarding that is intuitive to the candidate or new hire and streamlined for HR professionals.
Innovation in Interoperability
Not only will the candidate’s experience improve, but the HR experience will as well. When the candidate experience is standardized and automated it frees up the HR teams’ time to focus on what really matters – their faculty and staff. Candidates can feel the disconnect when systems are not integrated. By using one system for easy hiring, onboarding, and training it’s a win for the candidate, the HR team, and the institution overall.
One Platform. Multiple Solutions.
The HigherEd Platform is one platform for multiple solutions that helps your institution fulfill the mission of higher education. Our open platform solutions empower more effective hiring, onboarding, position management, professional development, and retention through interoperability, efficiency, and innovation. Within a platform that speaks to all areas of your institution, our powerful analytics dashboards provide data at your fingertips in real-time. The entire HigherEd Platform provides out-of-the-box single sign-on, mobile access, and multiple portals for employees and administrators.
Watch as part of our How To Series, a free webinar titled, Simplifying the Talent Lifecycle through Workflows on-demand now. Find out how interoperable technology can save you time and money by streamlining your processes from the point of creating positions to managing the employee lifecycle.
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