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“How to measure candidate experience” can be a tough question to answer.
The short answer is it depends!
The longer answer is that candidate experience is a complicated topic. There are many different ways to measure it, each with their own pros and cons.
However you measure it, candidate experience is a crucial step in putting people at the center of your organization – a goal every recruiter should strive for.
Ultimately, the best way to get a complete look at how candidates feel about your hiring process is to track several metrics. A single metric will never tell you everything you need to know about this key part of recruiting.
Let’s look at several common metrics and the value offered by each.
How to Measure Candidate Experience – Candidate Feedback
Feedback from candidates themselves is the most valuable tool you can use to improve candidate experience. Unfortunately, responses are often limited here. Getting feedback consistently can be a real challenge.
The best approach is to ask a few very simple questions. If you want people to take the time to give feedback, it has to be easy and straightforward.
As part of a candidate experience survey, you can calculate a Net Promoter Score as well! If you’re unsure how to measure candidate experience, this is a great place to start.
How to Measure Candidate Experience – Application Drop-Off
How many candidates start applying to your jobs, but abandon the process halfway through?
This is a great answer for “how to measure candidate experience.”
One of the most common complaints in candidate experience is that it takes too long to apply. For example, it’s very frustrating as a candidate to attach your resume, then fill out your experience manually in a new form.
If your drop-off rate is high, consider how you can make it easier and quicker to apply.
Furthermore, look into how mobile-friendly the process is. People expect to do more and more tasks on their phones these days, so if it’s difficult to apply on mobile, you may lose more candidates.
Candidate Drop-Off Rate
A related metric is your candidate drop-off rate. If you’re wondering how to measure candidate experience with this metric, perform this simple calculation. After someone has completed the application process, how many abandon the process?
Interviews, tests, and presentations all play a part here. If you ask candidates for too much of their time, they are more likely to bail. The higher your candidate drop-off rate, the more carefully you should look what value you get out of each interview step.
Interview-to-Offer Rate
How many candidates do you interview for every offer you extend? Interviewing too many candidates is bad for you AND your candidates.
It wastes your time, it means you have to reject more candidates, and it means you have less time for the really good candidates in the meantime.
We promise candidates can feel the difference when they are one of three candidates versus one of 20!
That translates into slower responses to candidates, more delays in the recruiting process, etc.
If your interview-to-offer rate is low, the best step is to screen candidates more thoroughly. Focus on interviewing the candidates that are really the strongest.
If someone asks you how to measure candidate experience, interview-to-offer rate can be a good place to start.
Candidate Experience Matters
“How to measure candidate experience” isn’t always an easy question to answer. But a great candidate experience is one of the most important parts of a strong recruiting process. The better your experience, the more candidates you have access to, and the more referrals those candidates deliver.
If your candidate experience isn’t where you want it to be, don’t get discouraged. The important part isn’t what your metrics say about your experience today. The important part is using those numbers as a benchmark and leveraging that information to improve the experience. It’s not the data that matters…it’s what you do with the data!