For a couple of decades, the “candidate experience” has been a hot topic in the talent-acquisition field. There have been a few improvements to the recruitment process here and there. But new technologies are now available to make more dramatic changes to the way job seekers browse through your jobs, apply for your jobs, and communicate with your organization over the long run. The AI available now can even give job seekers a more fair chance at getting an interview.

What follows is a look at some of the ways the candidate experience can now be strengthened, especially using personalization.

Career sites

Career sites can now provide a much more personalized experience. In the past, employers might have posted a few videos of employees talking about their jobs on a career site, and perhaps a few blog posts by employees.

Now, however, a job seeker might search for a job in accounting, and be able to view accounting-specific content. More importantly, if they leave the site and return, the platform remembers who they are and can serve up job descriptions, videos, blogs, and more, all related to accounting.

Improved communication with candidates

We’ve all heard horror stories of job candidates who interviewed multiple times and never heard back from a company. Or, they started an interview with a hiring manager who hadn’t looked at their resume and application and didn’t know who they were. Then there are instances where the application process drags on because managers haven’t provided feedback after their interviews.

All of these issues are now more easily solved with new technology, improving the candidate experience. Here are some examples:

• Managers can get reminders with action items or to-do items such as reviewing candidate profiles or inputting notes
• Candidates not selected for a future round of interviews can receive personalized communications as part of bulk communication features
• Candidates, managers, and recruiters can receive automatic reminders of interviews and decision deadlines to reduce “ghosting” and improve candidate engagement and offer acceptance rates

At Catholic Healthcare, for example, if a candidate gets rejected from a process for one position, they are automatically sent a note that helps them find other roles that may fit, as well as educational resources.

Conversational AI

A major improvement over rule-based chatbots, conversational AI is essentially an AI-powered hiring agent that provides personal help to applicants from their first visit to the career site to screening and interview scheduling. Instead of leaving candidates frustrated when their questions aren’t simple and straightforward, conversational AI uses natural language. It’s like talking to a real recruiter, offering personalized job matches, easy applications, and quick updates – on any device, in any language – for a tailored candidate experience at scale.

In the past, a chatbot might have asked, “which do you prefer: remote, hybrid, or in-person work?” and a job candidate could click on one of three boxes. Now, a candidate could type in “I’m tired of working from my hot garage … OK to come in the office at least 3 days?” and the conversational AI can understand the intention behind the question and respond.

Interview scheduling

Candidates don’t have to go around in circles with many emails if you use new interview scheduling tools to improve the candidate experience. Job candidates can self-schedule their interviews, finding a time that works for everyone.

CRM

A candidate relationship management system (CRM) is one part of a personalized candidate experience. When CRMs first became popular, companies would send it out for employer branding. They would email an often-monthly email newsletter to people in their talent communities, updating prospective employees with company news and job listings to give people a feel for the company culture. Now, a more personal experience is possible. Some examples include:

• Reminding employees that a conversational AI feature is available for them to get answers to their questions
• Letting people know of upcoming events that match their individual interests (such as a engineering fair for women in Silicon Valley)
• Providing localized language experiences
• Connecting with prospective employees where they spend their work day, such as through an integration with LinkedIn

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