Candidate journey – Understanding the seven stages
The candidate journey is a vital path which shapes your recruitment process from start to finish.
Each stage should present itself as an opportunity for you to showcase your employer brand and engage with prospective talent.
Throughout this blog, we’ll be highlighting the seven stages within the candidate journey.
The amount of involvement you have in each stage will depend on:
- The size of your organisation.
- Whether you have a clearly defined recruitment process.
- How ‘visible’ you are online.
1. Awareness: Capturing Attention
The candidate journey often commences with the awareness stage, where individuals become acquainted with your organisation as a potential employer.
This initial encounter can occur through various channels, such as social media, career fairs, employee referrals or viewing your job advert online.
2. Consideration: Sparking Interest
Consideration is the second step in the candidate journey. This stage is when candidates evaluate whether you could be a potential future employer. The job advertisement may have sparked their interest, but do you have what it takes to make them apply?
According to research, when job searching, around 64% of people will research a company’s background online before applying for the role.
Research usually includes generic information including what the company does, where it is based and how long it has been operating. However, we are seeing an increase in job hunters looking into a company’s reputation and culture.
3. Interest: Cultivating Engagement
During the interest stage, candidates actively express an interest in pursuing opportunities with your company.
This can look like:
- Attending recruitment events you are hosting or will be exhibiting at.
- Subscribing to job alerts.
- Signing up to your e-newsletter.
- Engaging with your employer branding posts on social media.
4. Application: Making the Connection
The application marks the ‘formal initiation’ of the recruitment process, where candidates officially submit their information for your consideration.
Depending on the process you have agreed on, the candidate would either submit an application form answering questions or upload a copy of their CV.
5. Selection: Assessing Fit
The fifth stage in the candidate journey is selection, aka, the interviews. In some organisations the selection process will have multiple stages, this is also common for senior positions regardless of the size of business.
It may feel like the employer holds all the power at the selection stage, however this isn’t the case.
As the employer you will be assessing the candidate for their suitability for the role and team fit. Your candidates will also be using this stage as an assessment, to determine whether you are also the right fit.
6. Hiring and Rejections: Positive Experience For All
It’s important to remember that the candidate journey isn’t just important to those you hire.
Candidates who are unsuccessful will also evaluate their experience throughout the process. If they are treated well and like your company, it’s very likely that they’ll return in the future and speak positively about their experience with others.
If multiple candidates impress you, but you can only hire one, why not ask the unsuccessful parties if they are happy for their details to be kept for future opportunities.
7. Onboarding: Embracing New Beginnings
Onboarding is the final stage of the candidate journey, where the successful candidate(s) begin their role within your organisation.
However, don’t be fooled, the start of your next journey begins – employee engagement/experience.
Did you know – typically 20% of employees leave within 90 days of starting a new role?!
If you’re one of the companies losing people in the onboarding stage, check out our blog ‘Five tips to improve your onboarding.’
Want to know more about your candidate journey and how to improve it? Follow us on social media and keep an eye out for our future blogs.