One is the first impression a future employee has of your organisation; it sets the tone for things to follow. The other is the reality of life working in your organisation. To mess up this transition can create feelings of betrayal, distrust, and disappointment for your new hires. 

Here’s why it’s important to create a consistent candidate and employee experience that amplifies your employer brand. 

The intrinsic link between employee and candidate experience 

All employment experiences form your employer brand. 

Generally, HR teams attempt to tackle employee and candidate experience separately. After all, it’s the recruitment/TA team responsible for sourcing and hiring while the people experience team takes care of onboarding into departures. Sometimes other departments are involved, like payroll, IT, and learning and development. 

When the candidate to employee transition is handled in bits and pieces like this, it can create friction and inconsistencies that don’t match what the new hire was promised. A more strategic approach would be to create a positive, consistent, on-brand experience that travels the entire employee lifecycle. 

How to create a consistent people experience 

Follow these five steps to create a consistently powerful candidate experience and employee experience that reinforces your employer brand. 

Step 1. Get input 

Arrange surveys and/or interviews with employees hired in the last 12 months to gauge their satisfaction. You also want to understand any gaps – what information wasn’t provided during recruitment and onboarding that would have been helpful? Ask them to share any outstanding experiences they’ve had with other employers to see what can be leveraged.

Step 2. Get feedback 

Collect feedback at every stage: candidate, new hire, seasoned employee, exiting employee. Don’t be discouraged by the thought of negative feedback – it usually provides the most useful information and learning opportunities! 

Step 3. Over communicate 

Consider mapping your candidate and employee journey to track all the major touch points. What messages are being communicated, are they effective, and is it enough? 

For example, let’s say you’re experiencing high new hire churn within their first 60 days. The exit interview indicates the employee was promised super flexible remote work but was actually required in the office 4 days per week. What touchpoint is the cause of the misinformation, and how can you transparently communicate the reality? 

Step 4. Leverage tech 

What technology can you use to streamline your processes and automate the heavily manual or repetitive tasks? Some ideas might be to consider how a chatbot could help answer candidate questions about the recruitment process or how automated interview scheduling can improve efficiencies, reducing the recruiter’s load while personalising the candidate’s experience. 

Step 5. Test and learn 

Accept that you may not get it right the first time, but with a constant feedback loop where you test and learn, you can always get better. For your employees to see that you care and you’re trying will help them feel seen and valued. 

Creating a consistent candidate and employee experience will help to reinforce your employer brand, foster employee trust and boost engagement and retention. So, approach it strategically and holistically for maximum impact. 

Need help positioning your employer brand?

Get in touch with our Talenza team.