Candidate journey: what it is and tips to design it

In today’s competitive job market, companies need to provide a positive candidate experience to attract and retain top talent. A candidate journey is a useful tool for companies to ensure that candidates have a smooth and engaging recruitment process. 

In this sense, all the phases of the recruitment process, including pre-selection and the onboarding of the person finally hired, are integrated into a roadmap where people’s emotions and expectations are taken into account. 

Implementing this methodology in your recruitment processes provides you with benefits that will have an impact on your brand image. That’s why in this article, we will explain what a candidate journey is and give you some tips for creating a practical candidate journey map.

What is the candidate journey?

The candidate journey is the entire process that a candidate goes through when seeking a job, from the moment they become aware of your company’s job opening to the moment they accept or reject your job offer. 

It includes various touchpoints and experiences that candidates have with the company, such as job postings, job applications, interviews, and follow-up communication.

Candidate journey map: what is it?

The candidate journey map is a visual representation of the candidate’s itinerary in the selection process. It captures what happens in each candidate’s interaction with the company and helps track and evaluate the process. 

The objective of this methodology applied to recruitment is to be aware of the candidate’s feelings throughout the different stages of recruitment, from discovering the company to being hired. 

The candidate journey map arises from adapting the sales and marketing methodology of the customer journey map, which consists of creating a conceptual map that reflects the buying process journey to improve the customer experience and increase sales. 

This approach aims to perceive the candidate experience as a journey that should be as enjoyable as possible, making talent acquisition easier.

Elements of the candidate journey map<

The candidate journey map is created based on 5 elements:

1. Candidates: It is essential to define the profiles of the people you want to reach in detail and put yourself in their shoes to detect possible blockages or recruitment improvement needs to enhance their experience.
2. Candidate experience: Refers to the candidates’ feelings as they complete the different phases of the journey.
3. Communication channels: Analyzes the performance of the contact channels available to the candidate without losing sight of their emotions.
4. Interaction between the candidate and the company: Focuses on the exchange moments that reveal valuable information about the applicant’s current status.
5. Timeline: Essential to verify when interactions take place.

As an added value, paying structured attention to these elements will facilitate the detection of where you should apply filters in your personnel selection processes.

Candidate journey mapping: tips to set it up

Creating an effective candidate journey map involves several steps. Here are some tips to help you set up a successful candidate journey map:

Identify the stages

The first step is identifying the stages in the candidate journey, which is crucial in designing an effective candidate journey map. Understanding the stages and touchpoints is crucial in creating a practical candidate journey map.

Map the touchpoints

The next step is to map out the touchpoints for each stage. Touchpoints include everything from job postings, career fairs, social media presence, job application process, phone, video, and onsite interviews, and follow-up communication. 

It is essential to evaluate each touchpoint critically to identify areas that need improvement.

Get feedback from candidates

To create a meaningful and impactful candidate journey map, it is essential to gather feedback from candidates. You can collect feedback through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. 

Candidates’ feedback is a valuable source of information, and incorporating it into the candidate journey map can help create a more engaging and satisfying candidate experience.

Use data to make informed decisions

Using data to make informed decisions when designing a candidate journey map is crucial. Metrics such as time-to-hire cost per hire, and candidate satisfaction can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the recruitment process. 

By tracking these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

Benefits of designing a candidate journey

Having a good candidate journey map provides you with a series of benefits that significantly impact the brand image of your company and the quality of your candidates. 

Thanks to this procedure you will be able to have:

1. Improved candidate experience: A well-designed candidate journey ensures that candidates have a positive experience throughout the recruitment process. It enhances the company’s reputation and makes it more attractive to top talent.
2. Enhanced Efficiency: Creating a candidate journey map helps to streamline the recruitment process, making it more efficient. It reduces time to hire, cost per hire, and enables the HR team to focus on more important tasks.
3. Better Quality Hires: by improving the candidate experience, companies can attract higher quality candidates who are more likely to accept job offers and stay with the company longer. This will help you decrease your company’s turnover rate.
   

Remember that each profile you have defined in your Human Resources strategy should have a customized map to make your project a success. 

One improvement you can make in your candidate experience is to provide them with safe and accessible environments for exchanges and different remote tests they need to perform. 

At Smowltech, we have developed a series of proctoring products through which you can reinforce transparency and respect for the people in your project. 

Request a free demo so we can share how our remote supervision solutions can help you.