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The Forgotten Workforce Are We Neglecting the Hourly Candidate?

CHAPTER 2

Thinking of Candidates as Customers

In industries that rely on hourly workers, candidates are often customers. Aptitude Research found that nearly 50% of hourly candidates are also consumers of that brand or business. Job seekers may come into a store to shop or eat at a restaurant and decide to apply for a job based on their experience and affinity as a customer. According to the this latest research, nearly 60% of hourly candidates still find a job by walking into a business or through word of mouth (see Figure 3).

Source: Aptitude Research, Hourly Survey, n=1002

Unfortunately, as many job seekers quickly learn, the customer experience can differ significantly from the candidate experience. For organizations with a focus on hiring hourly workers, customer experience is critical to business success. Companies with a superior customer experience see 5-7% more revenue than their peers, according to Forrester Research. Positive customer experience gives companies a distinct competitive advantage and builds loyalty with consumers. Companies invest significantly in strategies and solutions to manage and track customer experience. In fact, 64% of companies have a dedicated role in managing or optimizing the customer experience. Yet, the same focus is not given to the candidate experience. Only 8% of companies with hourly workers have a dedicated role for the candidate experience, according to Aptitude Research. By failing to treat candidates like customers, companies are jeopardizing organizational growth.

Good customer experience means that customers will spend more. According to research by PwC, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a good experience.

A good candidate experience means that candidates are more willing to participate, stay engaged, and move through the process. Candidates that have a positive experience engaging with an employer are three times more likely to apply for a job (Aptitude Research).

A Look at the Fortune 100

One-third of the Fortune 100 companies are in hourly worker dominated industries such as retail, hospitality, restaurants/food service, and automotive. These organizations have managed to achieve organizational success, despite the continued challenges they face when it comes to competing for the people they need to run their business. Fortune 100 status is based on the total ranking of the company’s revenue for the fiscal year. Twenty-two percent (22%) of these companies have a dedicated customer experience role and have focused heavily on the candidate experience. Their organizational success is a result of their ability to support both customers and candidates commonly and consistently.

Let's take a closer look at a few of these organizations, and the strategies they share that helped them flourish:

CVS invests in all areas of talent acquisition, from recruitment marketing to onboarding. Glassdoor ratings for the candidate experience and more specifically, the interview process, are ranked favorably with only 16% of candidates reporting a poor experience.

A multi-year winner of the Talent Board’s candidate experience awards, Enterprise Holdings is the largest car rental service provider in the world. While being tasked with staffing over 6,400 branches in the United States, they continue to be recognized for the superior candidate experience they're able to deliver across all areas of talent acquisition.

Johnson & Johnson, working through over 1 million applicants annually, recognized the pain applicants feel when applying for a job and decided to evolve their process leveraging technology that prioritizes the candidate experience. They recognized that job seekers are often customers of the brand first, and knew that improving their own process would ultimately help them both attract candidates and keep customers.

These successful organizations have been able to prioritize customer experience, without overlooking the candidate experience. Let's take a look at what their approaches have in common:

In chapter 1 of this digital series, we looked at candidate satisfaction across six key processes in the talent acquisition journey - from nurturing potential candidates to applying, interviewing and being hired (and even, not getting the offer). When you look at organizations that are able to deliver a well-regarded candidate experience, consistency is critical.

Focusing on one stage of the talent acquisition process, and neglecting the others, will ultimately lead to a poor overall candidate experience - despite your best efforts.

The HCM tech market, and especially the talent acquisition segment, are flooded with well-funded and clever solutions. However, beautiful technology alone can't fix a broken or neglected recruiting and hiring process - as evidenced in chapter 1, we still see low satisfaction rates from candidates in every single process.

Organizations that are able to optimize the candidate experience through technology-enabled processes take the time, effort and investment to find digital solutions built for their distinct needs and are designed around the job seeker make adoption a 'no-brainer'.

Strong brands recognize the importance of aligning employer and corporate brand messaging in an authentic way. We know that 86% of candidates were not satisfied with the rejection process, so what does this mean for their ongoing relationship as a customer?

When candidates who are customers express a poor candidate experience, this exposes a crack in the authenticity and alignment of overall brand - jeopardizing both the potential employee and the existing customer.

Let's continue the conversation. In Chapter 3, we will take a closer look at how to overcome the obstacles that are preventing you from delivering an improved candidate experience. You are registered to receive the full digital series, and we will send you a note when each chapter is Released - as well as a link to all available chapters.

Did you miss Chapter 1? Click to get caught up or to reread. Then, continue reading in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.

Created By
Madeline Laurano
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