Candidate experience

Candidate experience is what your hiring process feels like to the people applying. Most applicants won’t get the job, so for most of them, this experience is all they take away.

Why it matters

• Strong applicants have choices. A slow, confusing or cold process loses them to a company that treats them better.
• Applicants talk. Friends, online forums and review sites all hear about a bad interview.
• Applicants are often customers. Especially in retail, hospitality and businesses that sell to the public.
• Someone you turn down this year could be next year’s hire. People treated well are more likely to apply again, and to join your talent pool for future jobs.

The moments that matter most

1. The job post. Clear pay, hours, location and what the work involves.
2. Applying. Short, works on a phone, and ideally no account needed.
3. Knowing what’s next. Each step says how long it takes and when they’ll hear back.
4. The interview. Questions about the job, a fair chance to answer, and respect for their time.
5. Hearing back. A decision, even a short one, within a reasonable time.

For AI interviews and interviews taken on your own time

These formats raise their own questions for applicants. Answer them up front:

• Tell them it’s AI. Before it starts, not in the small print.
• Say what’s judged. Their answers, not their face or the room they’re in.
• Say how long it takes, and whether they can pause or need to finish in one go.
• Explain what happens next, including that a person makes the decision.
• Offer help. Someone to contact about technical problems, or if they need changes because of a disability.

A guide for applicants, like this one for LessRounds interviews, saves your team from answering the same questions again and again.

A short checklist

• Can someone apply on a phone in under ten minutes?
• Does every invite say how long the next step takes?
• Does every applicant hear back, including those who are turned down?
• Is there a named person they can contact?
• Have you gone through your own hiring process yourself, from start to finish, in the last six months?

Common mistakes

• Ghosting, meaning never replying. It’s the most common complaint, and email templates make it the easiest to fix.
• Surveys nobody reads. Asking for feedback and then changing nothing is worse than not asking.
• Too many interviews for junior jobs. Four rounds of interviews for an entry-level job tells applicants you don’t value their time.

The candidate experience guide suggests wording for each of these moments.