Candidate Experience Metrics: How To Measure and Improve Candidate Experience
In 2023, 60% of HR professionals said their company focused on more than just the compliance aspects of DEI, compared to 71% in 2021. This decline concerns workplace DEI, especially given the proven business benefits of investing in DEI initiatives.
As the job market increasingly becomes candidate-centric, how job seekers view an organization can make or break its ability to attract and recruit top talent. Candidate experience metrics can help inform your HR hiring process.
Collecting and analyzing these numbers matters. Several surveys, including one from CareerArc of over 800 candidates, have found that over half of all job seekers have had a poor candidate experience. Understanding your candidates’ experiences through measuring their journey can help you pinpoint issues and improve your hiring process.
Contents
What is candidate experience?
How to measure candidate experience
How to improve candidate experience
1. Application drop-off rate
2. Time to hire
3. Offer acceptance rate
4. Interview-to-offer ratio
5. Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS) / Candidate Satisfaction Score (CSS)
6. First-year attrition rate
Candidate experience best practices for HR
What is candidate experience?
Candidate experience is job seekers’ overall impression after undergoing a potential employer’s recruitment process.
Every interaction between each candidate and the company, from application to onboarding, influences the candidate’s experience. The more relevant and efficient each phase of the recruitment process is, the more positive the candidate experience (and vice versa).
Why is candidate experience important?
Candidate experience is a reflection of an organization and its culture. It gives applicants a glimpse into how the company treats its employees and indicates whether it’s a desirable workplace. Let’s look at the stats on why candidate experience matters:
- The CareerArc survey found that 72% of job seekers were likely to share their negative candidate experiences with others, both online and verbally
- Additionally, 50% wouldn’t accept a job at a company with a poor reputation, even if it paid higher than their current or previous job
- 52% of job seeker participants in a CareerPlug survey indicated they had turned down job offers because of poor candidate experience.
On the other hand, a positive candidate experience can benefit your organization in the following ways:
- Attracting and retaining high-quality candidates
- Forming a pool of interested candidates for future job openings
- Building trust and connection with new hires
- This trust will help improve employee engagement and retention of new recruits
- Creating enthusiasm for the company by enhancing its reputation and employer brand.
How to measure candidate experience
Improving candidate experience clearly benefits HR and the organization. But to get the right insights into what’s working and what’s not, you’ll need to measure and analyze the right candidate experience metrics:
1. Application drop-off rate
This metric reveals the percentage of candidates who began but didn’t complete the application process. A high percentage can indicate a range of issues. Maybe the process is too long or cumbersome, is riddled with technical glitches, or doesn’t provide enough relevant information on the company’s job openings.
Calculating application drop-off rate:
Application drop-off rate percentage = (number of candidates who drop out of the application process ÷ number of candidates who begin the application process) x 100
Try this: Review each application step and consider ways to condense it. Ensure all questions are relevant and straightforward. Then measure whether the application drop-off rate improves.
HR tip
Every application system should have a “save and return” feature. If candidates can take breaks and pick up where they left off, they’ll be more inclined to follow the process through.
2. Time to hire
Time to hire calculates the length of the entire hiring process, from when a candidate applies for a job until they accept an offer. An extended hiring process can negatively affect your organization’s candidate experience. Job seekers may get frustrated, lose interest, or receive another suitable job offer.
Calculating time to hire:
To calculate time to hire, select a set period (such as the previous six months) and add the number of days between each new hire’s job application and when they accepted the job offer. The average of these values is your organization’s time to hire.
This breakdown should tell you where the bottlenecks are, allowing you to focus on how to speed up the slowest phases.
Try this: Sort the hiring process into stages and analyze how long each stage takes. For example:
- Application submission — 10 days
- Application review — 15 days
- Initial contact with qualified candidates — five days
- Interviews — eight days
- Interview evaluation and job offer — five days
- Job offer accepted — four days.
3. Offer acceptance rate
Offer acceptance rate refers to the percentage of your company’s job offers that candidates accept. It indicates the success of your efforts in sourcing and selecting suitable candidates. The higher your organization’s offer acceptance rate is, the more effective your recruitment process is. A lower rate can mean the right candidates aren’t getting through the system or that your company’s job offers are not competitive in the current market.
Calculating offer acceptance rate:
Offer acceptance rate = (number of job offers accepted ÷ total number of offers extended) x 100
Try this: Contact candidates who reject job offers and gather feedback on their reasons for doing so. Look for common themes such as candidates receiving better offers elsewhere, feeling overqualified, or having experienced poor communication throughout the recruitment process.
4. Interview-to-offer ratio
This ratio expresses how many interviews your company’s HR team conducts per candidate before extending a job offer. It shows whether the organization attracts qualified candidates and how much time it invests in the interview process.
Calculating interview-to-offer ratio:
Interview-to-offer ratio = number of offers extended ÷ number of applicants interviewed
Try this: Aim for an interview-to-offer ratio of 2:1, but bear in mind that external factors outside HR’s control can affect this ratio. For instance, steep competition in the labor market can trigger the need to interview more candidates, as more are likely to accept other offers.
5. Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS) / Candidate Satisfaction Score (CSS)
HR can use Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS) or Candidate Satisfaction Score (CSS) to measure the likelihood of candidates recommending a company to others based on their experience during the recruitment process. It provides insights into candidates’ overall satisfaction with the process and helps HR understand how candidates perceive their hiring experience.
cNPS categories:
- Promoters (9-10): Candidates who are highly likely to recommend your organization to others.
- Passives (7-8): Candidates who are neutral and probably won’t actively recommend your organization to others.
- Detractors (0-6): Candidates who are unlikely to recommend your organization to others and may even discourage them from applying.
Allowing candidates to provide honest feedback on their perception of the company and its recruitment process is a direct way to determine the quality of the candidate experience it offers.
Try this: Include a question in your candidate feedback survey that asks: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our organization to other job seekers?” Arrange the responses into the three categories.
6. First-year attrition rate
Since candidate experience includes the onboarding process, it’s important to gather data on the percentage of new hires who leave the company within their first year of employment. High turnover within the first year can signify inconsistencies in talent acquisition techniques, while longer-term attrition rates tend to reflect issues that go beyond recruitment.
Calculating first-year attrition rate:
First-year attrition percentage = (number of employee departures after less than one year of service ÷ total number of departures) x 100
Try this: Calculate your organization’s first-year attrition rate yearly and use two or three years’ worth of data for a more comprehensive overview of new hire turnover.
How to improve candidate experience
Once you’ve measured and analyzed your candidate experience, it’s time to apply your findings to improving your process. Here are some general steps you can take to provide a better candidate experience. However, based on your specific findings, it’s important to improve the process where it matters most.
Simplify the application process
If your company’s job application process involves multiple time-consuming steps, candidates will likely wonder if it’s worth the effort and may give up completely. Try to streamline the process and make it as simple and straightforward as possible.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Explain the role and requirements clearly: Every job listing should accurately describe the role’s responsibilities and requirements so candidates know exactly what to expect and whether they are qualified for it.
- Keep the application phase brief: Implement a résumé upload feature on your organization’s job application page and avoid time-consuming forms that ask for the same information that uploaded résumés would contain.
- Include clear, specific, and comprehensive instructions: This should apply to each application section to ensure candidates don’t have to deal with ambiguity and can complete the application process swiftly.
- Ask relevant questions: Not only must your questions be applicable, but they should come with sufficient choices/space for candidates’ answers.
- Use concise, easily understood language: Avoid using complex wording, industry jargon, or organization-specific terms applicants may not know about.
- Avoid technical glitches: Ensure your company’s job application system technology works properly and is user- and mobile-friendly.
HR tip
A Greenhouse candidate experience report showed that 70% of job seekers won’t bother submitting a job application if it takes more than 15 minutes to complete.
Maintain cordiality and transparency throughout the process
Candidates usually remember how HR treated them during an organization’s job application process. Interacting with HR personnel who come across as uninterested or aloof can negatively impact their candidate experience. Instead, be sincere and attentive to help them form a good impression of the company. Ways to create a warm, positive candidate experience include:
- Be transparent about the decision-making process and when candidates can expect updates
- Connect each candidate with a relevant contact person and provide them with timely feedback throughout the process
- Be flexible and willing to accommodate candidates’ needs when scheduling interviews or requesting supplemental materials from them
- Explain who will conduct their interviews and what the process entails
- Ensure interviewers are equipped to lead respectful, thorough, and personable interviews
- Don’t leave candidates hanging — follow up promptly and inform them if they are no longer being considered for the position they applied to.
HR tip
According to a Criteria candidate experience report, 54% of candidates have abandoned a potential job opportunity because of insufficient communication from the employer.
Candidate experience best practices for HR
When tracking candidate experience data, you must have a clear purpose and key objectives in mind to be able to use this data effectively. Here are some best practices for collecting, measuring, and analyzing candidate experience data:
- Predefine your goals and the relevant metrics: Determine what you want to learn from the data and which metrics to focus on. For example, if your company isn’t receiving the anticipated number of applications for its most crucial positions, analyzing the application drop-off rate could reveal whether it’s sourcing enough candidates.
- Send candidates timely surveys to complete: Offer short candidate experience surveys immediately after key touchpoints, but don’t inundate applicants. For instance, you can send survey invitations upon application submission, post-interview, and after extending an offer or rejection to a candidate.
- Ensure candidate anonymity: Candidates are usually more willing to provide feedback if they are confident it won’t affect their application status. Assure them that the survey mechanism is anonymous, so they know they can be completely honest and upfront without fear of repercussion.
- Gather qualitative and quantitative data: Multiple-choice and rating scale questions provide fast-access data, but open-ended questions often offer deeper insights. Collecting quantitative and qualitative data will give you a more comprehensive view of your organization’s candidate experience.
- Analyze feedback frequently: Review applicant feedback on an ongoing basis. The sooner you can identify positive and negative patterns, the quicker you can act on them. Compare your company’s candidate experience survey results against industry benchmarks and historical internal data to uncover potential new issues.
- Involve stakeholders in reviewing and acting on candidate feedback: Collaborate with recruiters, hiring managers, and other stakeholders by sharing relevant data with them via a candidate experience report. Requesting stakeholder input will help shed further light on improving processes. For instance, hiring managers may identify potential biases in screening interview questions, and recruiters could highlight areas of improvement in job descriptions.
- Put the data to work: Extrapolate conclusions from your gathered data and feedback to make informed decisions on implementing tangible improvements to the hiring process. For instance, the data might indicate that your company’s time to hire is too long, causing a drop-off in qualified candidates. You can then propose an AI screening tool to automate a large part of the process.
- Leverage HR software: The most efficient way to collect data and distribute candidate surveys is to incorporate these abilities into your organization’s automated application system. Recruiting software often has these functions built in. For example, advanced HR software platforms can automatically send out surveys at various stages of the hiring process. These tools also allow you to customize survey questions so you can capture specific insights relevant to your organization’s needs.
- Monitor social media: Visit Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and other online job platforms regularly to look for candidate reviews and comments. Keeping yourself updated on candidate experience dialogue on social media can also reveal candid sentiment and feedback you might not otherwise receive.
To sum up
Candidate experience is responsible for the first impression applicants get of an organization and, as such, affects employer’s brand and business reputation. A poor candidate experience is a barrier to attracting and acquiring high-quality talent.
With the help of candidate experience metrics, HR can identify pain points in the recruitment process, then allocate resources and make improvements. Investing time and effort into refining your organization’s hiring practices will pay off in the long run, both for candidates and the company.
Learn more
Related articles
Are you ready for the future of HR?
Learn modern and relevant HR skills, online
