Managing candidate expectations, especially for high-volume positions, can be a daunting yet ultimately rewarding task for both the employer and the candidate. 2022 is an employee market, and it’s now easier than ever for potential candidates to pursue positions on their terms, which means employers must stand out from the crowd in order to find the best fit for their teams.

Meeting high candidate expectations is actually fairly simple; an experience that’s easily navigable treats an applicant with respect acknowledges their varied talents and is both friendly and engaging goes a long way to ensuring a smooth application process.

Technology makes this level of personalized investment easy, from before the application process to the final hiring decision.

1. Ensure Your Candidates Are The Right Fit For The Job

Before the application process even begins, employers should seek to make it as easy as possible for the right candidates to find their offer. 

When candidate skill level and accurate job descriptions align, employers will find it easier on both themselves and the applicant to conduct a successful interview and find competitive candidates, especially for entry-level positions. Requiring several years of experience for a beginner’s position, while offering entry-level compensation, is not going to fare successfully.

However, even with the perfect job description, if the right candidates don’t see the offer, then the offer falls short of meeting candidate expectations. By utilizing AI ad placement software in conjunction with PandoExchange, our expansive network of hundreds of job posting sites, finding the perfect candidate is only a matter of time.

2. Ease Of Application Across All Platforms

While applicants apply for jobs across both PC and mobile devices and across multiple job application platforms, having a mobile-friendly website is essential to the candidate experience, especially if an employer’s job application links back to their website. Over 61% of applicants applied for jobs on their mobile phones in 2020, with the number only trending upwards as candidates apply for more and more jobs.

Something as careless as a poorly formatted mobile website can harm a great applicant’s view of an employer’s company before they complete the application process, which in turn may cost the employer a capable future employee.

3. Host A Memorable Interview Process, Both In-Person And Remote

Interviews can be quite a stressful process, especially for new-to-workforce applicants. For positions with a large amount of competition, it’s not rare for candidates to have applied to hundreds of jobs before landing an interview, which confers a lot of pressure on the applicant to perform.

With virtual and mobile interviews having quickly become the norm, conducting an interview that is both engaging, interactive, and informative is more important than ever when first impressions can be sullied by an unstable internet connection or a device malfunction.

An employer can host a successful interview by:

• Making the interview process run as more of a conversation, endearing a potential candidate and forming that human connection that may get lost over the internet
• Discussing the company in honest, high level detail; typical schedules, holidays, environment, and advancement opportunities
• Ask of the interviewee their goals, and encourage them to ask questions about how they want to advance their own careers

4. Be Transparent About Open Positions

With transparency in offer comes transparency in compensation. While common practice is to negotiate salary and benefits, this creates unnecessary anxiety for applicants and immediately fosters a “you versus me” environment as both the candidate and company seek to gain the most from the interaction.

With an accurate job offer and well-curated candidates, an employer can accurately predict the skill level of the applicants they intend to interview. By offering a realistic, competitive compensation range based on skillset variance from the initial job post, employers can alleviate negotiation anxiety as well as build trust with potential hires. This gives candidates a realistic expectation of what your company is looking to offer them for their diverse talents.

5. Be Flexible On Hard Skills

Candidates who possess a compatible mindset and the ability to perform well in an offered role might lack experience working in a specific employers’ preferred platforms. While this might require more training, hard skills are significantly easier to learn than soft skills, and the latter is more flexible should an employer’s needs change as time goes on.

6. Provide Feedback As Soon As Possible

Candidates today are applying to many jobs at a time, and don’t always hear back in a timely manner. According to a 2021 survey by Indeed, 77% of candidates have been ghosted partway through the interview process since March 2020, with the vast majority reporting about how it was a negative overall experience. Exceed candidate expectations by responding in a timely manner, which will not only leave a more positive mark regardless of acceptance or rejection but will also increase the chance of future reapplication in good candidates.