How to Improve the Virtual Candidate Experience
In the world of remote healthcare recruitment, it’s critical that hiring managers understand what makes a positive remote candidate experience. A candidate’s experience with your recruiting process will either encourage them to come on board or keep away top talent.
Today, the virtual candidate experience is extremely important in healthcare, where the workforce shortage has reached crisis levels. Overcoming this gap may mean recruiting from a wider pool than just local candidates, which may hinder results if your virtual experience is not top-notch.
Here are some of the top ways you ensure your healthcare candidate experience is strong in a virtual hiring process.
Assess Your Current Candidate Experience
Most healthcare recruiters were suddenly thrown into remote working during the onset of COVID-19. There wasn’t time to fully deploy excellent virtual candidate experiences, and many still have critical gaps that could be keeping them from finding and attracting top talent.
To improve your results, first map out your current process for virtual candidates and document each touchpoint. You can use this map to identify where you are succeeding and where there are opportunities to improve.
For example, you might find that your current process lacks a suitable location where applicants can check the status of their applications. It might create frustration if they wonder whether they submitted everything, if they are being interviewed, or if a hiring decision has been made.
A candidate portal can provide a solution to this type of frustration. However, you might not realize this gap if you don’t take the time to assess your process.
Keep Initial Screening Short
Long and complex application processes often deter the best candidates. They may not have the desire, time, or energy to fill out a lengthy application for an initial interview. Instead, keep the initial application short and screen for essential skills first. This will ensure an efficient process for both you and your candidates.
Scam job applications are an issue for many healthcare recruiters. To avoid this, set up your initial screening process to focus on verifying credentials, so you can reduce false applicants and discourage fraud quickly.
Make Communication a Priority
Few things are more frustrating to an anxious candidate than silence. Without clear and consistent communication, it’s impossible to create a good candidate experience.
Frequent communication does not mean that you have to repeatedly contact everyone who applies manually. Automated messages triggered by internal actions can provide candidates with the information they need. An automated email about the next steps in the hiring processes and an anticipated response window will help reduce applicant anxiety and the need for follow-up calls.
Gather (and Provide) Feedback
A great candidate experience is not a destination but a continuous process. As such, it requires improvements over time to keep competitive with other healthcare organizations.
Use surveys and questionnaires to get feedback from vetted candidates and recent employees. It will help you analyze how your company culture is viewed and where you might have blind spots that could be hurting your performance.
Some questions you might want to ask include:
- How would you rate the overall virtual interview process?
- Were you provided adequate and timely communication?
- Did you feel as though you understood the company culture?
- Did you find the job description we provided sufficient?
- Would you recommend your friends and family apply here?
Communication is critical not only during the interview process but afterward as well. A great candidate experience means providing clear and understanding feedback for candidates you did not hire. Many appreciate the information to understand where they can improve for future job applications.
The virtual candidate experience is new for hiring managers and recruiters, but leading brands are already optimizing their hiring practices. Continuing to explore and improve your virtual candidate experience will ensure you continue to attract and hire the best applicants for years to come.
