Is your employee experience (EX) preventing you from securing your next candidate?

HR Ready writes:

Employee experience is all the touchpoints an employee has with a business from the time they apply for a job to the moment they leave. It is how the employee experiences the culture of the business, their interactions with others, the physical environment, technology, and all the procedures, processes and systems used within the business. In this blog post we start at the very beginning of the employee experience, focusing on the ways you can attract, hire and retain new employees.

Begin by considering how successful your business is in securing great candidates. Have you been in a situation where you have interviewed a candidate and offered them a role only for them to turn you down for a competitor? Maybe it takes you six months to recruit for a position as it is ‘hard to fill’? Or perhaps you hire the perfect candidate and within seven months they leave your business? If any of these resonate with you, then it is a good idea to evaluate the employee experience your business offers.

Attracting new employees 

To begin with you need to consider what actions you can take to entice people of the calibre you need to apply for job vacancies in your organisation.

There are two main considerations which are categorised as the external experience and the internal experience. 

The external experience is what the potential candidate hears and sees about your business even before they apply. Consider what the job advertisement, company webpage and career website communicate about your business. Also think about the impact your company’s reputation has on recruitment.

The internal experience covers different aspects from the organisational culture, the processes and procedures you have in place to the remuneration package (T&C’s) you provide. It is also influenced by the interactions the candidate has with the people in the business process such as the recruiter/hiring manager, human resources team, and anybody else they come into contact with.

Retaining new staff

You may be successful in attracting and hiring candidates, but are they right for your business? We ask you to consider these questions:

• What is our turnover rate? How many people have left us within the first year of employment?
• How quickly and successfully have our new joiners got up to speed in their roles by learning the skills, knowledge and attitudes they need to contribute effectively to the business?

The answers to these questions are your first indication that there could be a problem matching the right candidates to the right roles or that a competing business is offering a higher quality employee experience.

Addressing problems with employee experience 

If you think you may have an issue with employee experience and you are wondering what you could do, our advice would be to start with the fundamentals of your business. What is your business strategy and culture? What skillsets do you need to carry out specific roles? Skills are the main priority, and within this you also need to consider what personalities will fit with your existing team. You will be able to define your employee framework around this, ensuring your processes, systems and people match what you are looking to achieve.

In the recruitment cycle, you may look at things such as:

• Your website. Does the tone and content reflect the culture of your organisation? Is it clear, informative and easy to navigate?
• The application process. Is it straightforward? A complicated, poorly designed application form can put off potential candidates who may see it as a reflection of your organisation in general.
• The interview process. Is the interview process streamlined for both the candidate and also your team allowing you the flexibility to hire the candidates as and when you need them?
• Applicant tracking system. Is your system effective in helping you to identify the best candidates for each position? Does your system elevate candidate experience? If you are using manual processes instead, this could cost you more money in the long run because of the time the recruitment process takes and it could compromise your organisation’s reputation. An applicant tracking system incurs upfront costs but does save time and money in the longer term.

Getting one piece of the puzzle wrong when it comes to the employee experience can have a catastrophic effect on your business. At the end of the day, without people there wouldn’t be a business, so getting this part right is crucial to your success.

Guidance with employee experience (EX)

At HR Ready we know that employee experience together with an HR strategy that manages your brand’s reputation is crucial to the success of your business.

We can work with you to build and improve your employee experience by looking at all aspects of the employee lifecycle providing practical solutions that fit with your business’s goals and that have measurable outcomes.

Would you like support with your organisation’s employee experience? Get in touch to discuss your business needs today.

HR Ready, You value your people, we take care of them