Candidates form an impression of a prospective employer from early on in the application process. A positive candidate experience, from first contact through to signing the contract, is the prerequisite for every applicant to come away with an unclouded, good first impression of the hiring company. Once a candidate is successfully recruited, carefully planned onboarding is the ideal opportunity to confirm and reinforce that positive impression.
False sense of security at the end of the hiring process
Unfortunately, the following is quite common to observe: the hiring process appears almost complete, signing an employment contract seems like a mere formality, and suddenly the attention and appreciation shown to the prospective new employee, both by the hiring company and often by the executive search consultant involved, start to fade. After an elaborate selection process, everyone assumes nothing can go wrong now. As a result, the selected candidate visibly slips down the list of priorities, and communication with them is neglected. Even "minor" carelessness on the company's part can, in the final phase of a hiring process, have a lasting negative effect on the candidate experience. It becomes critical when situations and misunderstandings arise that create uncertainty or doubt for the selected candidate, ultimately jeopardising a contract signature that had seemed all but certain. Contract offers not infrequently contain unpleasant surprises for candidates too.
Contract terms that deviate from points previously believed to be binding regularly cause irritation among candidates. Even a job title that differs from the original job posting "for internal reasons" can lead to considerable uncertainty on the candidate's part. At the latest, a salary offer below the originally discussed figure, or restrictive rules on holiday entitlement, home office or travel expenses that were not discussed beforehand, raise legitimate questions even for the most good-natured candidates about how reliable their future contract partner really is, putting the contract signature itself at risk.
The magic word: empathy
Attention and appreciation are not the only areas where obvious shortcomings can be observed. Empathy for the prospective new employee often leaves something to be desired too. The sensitivity and awareness of how important a candidate's personal situation is seem to have gone missing for quite a few HR professionals and executive search consultants these days. Many decision-makers seem either entirely uninterested in candidates' personal circumstances, or too unsure to bring the subject up. The sometimes enormous impact a job change has on someone's living situation seems to play, at best, only an incidental role for many decision-makers. Yet this is precisely where enormous risks lie. A spouse's previously never-discussed unease, or a child's school situation, not infrequently leads to a last-minute change of heart. Danger lurks elsewhere too: while employers used to operate on the principle of "let them go if they must" when an employee resigned, nowadays it is increasingly common for that employee to receive an attractive counteroffer from their current employer.
Onboarding starts before the contract is signed
Onboarding a new employee begins in the final phase of the hiring process, not on the first day of work! HR managers and executive search consultants alike need to bridge, with the necessary professionalism and empathy, not just the time between the ink drying on the employment contract and the new employee's actual first day, but also the preceding steps of the hiring process itself. Anything less strikes us as simply negligent! The extra time invested always pays off: it protects against unpleasant surprises and contributes to a positive candidate experience.