While the facets of digitisation continue to evolve and proliferate every aspect of human behaviour, communication remains the one constant in how people define and rate ‘experience’. Think about it; the right engagement creates understanding. Understanding drives resonance, and when that happens, therein lies the metaphorical ‘ jackpot’.
Whether it’s sharing, posting, or just branding – being able to effectively communicate the what, when, why, and how online has completely transformed human-to-human conversations and brand-to-user engagement.
There are many consumer-centric buzzwords: ‘meaningful engagement, ‘personalisation’, ‘omnichannel journeys’, ‘experiential marketing’ etc., constantly thrown into strategy and marketing conversations when the topic of communicating occurs.
If you really analyse brands that actually deliver on communication e..g Amazon, Netflix, Paypal and Google… Fundamentally you’ll see a commonality thread across three operating principles:
Brands that win in the new digital era pay attention to these new rules of engagement. They’re redefining what it means to be customer-focused. Everything is built around what “you” as a customer want, how “you” want to engage with them as a business. This is the new normal.
What does this have to do with HR?
People have come to expect personalised experiences and services. Oftentimes, in HR, we try to build processes for ‘candidates’ and, in doing so, forget that they are really just ‘people, with the same motivations as ‘consumers.’
Candidates are people; Candidates are consumers. Let that resonate. As consumers, we expect to track a parcel, receive live updates and even chat with the driver before we receive an order.
Candidates approach the transaction of an application in the same fashion they would make any purchasing decision. Consumer behaviour principles demand that this interaction should
And, what’s more, they’re approaching job applications in the same way they would any purchasing decision. They expect the experience to look and feel the same or at least similar. As a result, they have less patience for slow to respond or don’t focus on building a relationship.
Misconceptions in Talent Acquisition and HR
Every Google search on candidate experience shows content inundated with the generalised process and product-focused approaches. Pitches about optimising workflows that do not really touch on ‘experience’. What we found is that almost all suggested methodologies are generalised and reactive at best:
A focus on static content:
A well-designed careers page, job description etc., can only go so far regardless of how many filters, pictures or forms are implemented in its design. The average candidate spends 3-4 hours searching for and submitting a single application, while 70% of companies think it takes them less than an hour.
The conundrum and disregard of choice:
‘Choice’ as a variable in hiring should consider both internal and external competition. People are looking for the best option in any buying decision and can be swayed by proactive actions (think how many recommendations you’ve bought into whilst shopping for a particular product). Now, consider how your candidate experience could be transformed based if you introduced tailored on-demand job recommendations.
Automatic, unpersonalised communications:
Sending an automatic email acknowledging a candidate’s application or rejecting an application is not enough. What happens when a candidate has questions or wants to know the status of their application? How is this being managed?
Why does this matter?
A great candidate experience is no longer a ‘nice to have. In today’s competitive job market, timely follow-ups, clear communications and personalised interactions all have a big impact on your revenue, hiring costs and your ability to attract the best talent.
49% of all job seekers have turned down an offer because of a bad candidate experience, according to a PwC survey. Meaning that the cost of hiring increases within a fragmented HR process, coupled with the increased competition for talent, which means companies lose time, money and effort in the hiring process.
The obvious problem becomes even more apparent if we analyse the gaps between candidate expectations and HR practices.
Manual systems, repetitive and time-consuming tasks mean that HR teams miss out on the opportunities to nurture relationships with candidates, which directly impacts.
Even more stats
60% of candidates go through a bad experience when applying to a new job
72% of them choose to share that experience with others.
Only 59 of the Fortune 500 companies score higher than 80% on “Would recommend to a Friend’’ on Glassdoor.
The talent shortage is a real issue in the current market. Almost 75% of employers are having difficulty finding skilled candidates, and 45% of employers are concerned about finding employees with the necessary talents.
Employer response time is what 69% of candidates would most like to see improved, whilst 25% demand a simpler application process.
The reasons why companies like Amazon, Google and Netflix are so lauded comes down to user experience. Every touchpoint is engineered to drive meaningful impact by building deep, meaningful relationships with every consumer.
The more you use their services, the smarter and more personalised they become. Your hiring and HR processes should be no different. However, it would help if you facilitated real-time insight into every application’s status and give candidates access to their information, your company on-demand.
Consistent, relevant communication is what builds the most impactful relationships and helps companies morph candidates into brand followers, advocates, applicants and great hires—all good news for your EVP.
Meet EVA
EVA delivers customised, intelligent, and ‘conversation-driven automations to help that help hiring teams scale. EVA turns every conversation into experiences that count and insights that optimise. Our award-winning methodology delivers value by converging Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Chatbots, Machine Learning and Analytics. As a result, EVA helps forward-thinking recruitment functions reduce waste and optimise service delivery.
To be successful and meet the changing expectations of candidates, candidates need to communicate on their terms. Here’s how we help you win by facilitating on-demand, transparent and accessible technologies for your hiring teams and your candidates.
Hiring teams
We build automated and RPA driven workflows managed by our NLP chatbot – EVABot. This reduces the time that hiring teams spend on top of the funnel tasks and refocuses their energies on building relationships with candidates. Our engineering principles consider:
On-demand
All candidate information, marketing analytics, and documents are available anytime, anywhere. Additionally, all data within EVA is integrated into your existing HR systems allowing your team to query for information across multiple systems from a single source of truth.
Accessibility
All data entered within is accurate in real-time. Once our chatbot or a member of your team talks to a candidate, the information is immediately available to everyone and can be shared with hiring managers. This ensures that every recruiter has the right information. Marketing teams can optimise their efforts, and people managers can measure their efforts and provide coaching where needed based on real-time analytics.
Transparency
EVA’s communication hub houses the history of interactions between every member of your team and a candidate. Thus, transforming your talent relationship management from stagnant databases and reactive methodologies to data-driven, efficient and productive processes. This means any member of your team can make the best decision for any candidate based on commonly shared knowledge.
Candidates
We help hiring teams create seamless candidate experiences by facilitating an always-on system that is:
On-demand
EVA’s candidate self-serve portal gives candidates everything they need to support their careers: View, accept and decline recommended jobs. In addition, they can request to speak with a human, update, work experience, domains of expertise, regional focus, and more.
Accessible
EVABot’s Omni-channel capacity spans social channels, internal mobility systems, talent communities, websites and SMS. Allowing candidates to add/update their profile: contact information, education as soon as they have built up some new work experience/qualification.
Transparent
Candidates can Apply and track the progress of current applications. Add/update their profile: contact information, education, Track the progress of current/previous applications, and easily express interest in others or deregister from others.
