---
title: "RPOA Weekly: Tips on Providing an Exceptional Candidate Experience"
description: Review articles that cover the importance of the candidate experience and present some best practices for improving it.
image: https://blog.rpoassociation.org/hubfs/EMAIL/exceptional-candidate-experience.jpg
---

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 The RPO Voice

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# RPOA Weekly: Tips on Providing an Exceptional Candidate Experience

by [Carrie Kolar](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/author/carrie-kolar) Tue, Sep 20, 2016 ** Share [**](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/providing-an-excpetional-candidate-experience) [**](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/providing-an-excpetional-candidate-experience&text=) [**](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/providing-an-excpetional-candidate-experience&title=&summary=&source=)

It is essential  for employers to provide an exceptional candidate experience to compete in the current job market. Candidates are in the driver seat for two reasons, first candidates have a great deal of intelligence on prospective employers with services like glassdoor, careerbliss, and Seek; second, the candidate pool has been shrinking as the economy has been adding healthy number of new jobs each month for the past couple of years.  This news roundup of the RPOA Weekly presents articles that cover the importance of, and present some best practices for improving, the candidate experience.

![exceptional-candidate-experience.jpg](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/hs-fs/hubfs/EMAIL/exceptional-candidate-experience.jpg?width=715&name=exceptional-candidate-experience.jpg)

[Job Seekers Prefer Human Touch – SHRM - @SHRM](https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/job-seekers-prefer-human-touch.aspx)

When you’re updating your recruiting program, don’t underestimate the power of the personal touch to win candidates. This article discusses how candidates prefer “personal, live interactions with potential employers rather than a totally automated experience.” It touches on the ways that recruiters can add a personal element to the candidate’s experience, including face-to-face meetings, phone calls, and handwritten notes after interviews, as well as the power of word-of-mouth over job boards to successfully recruit great employees.

[Hiring Again? What Do Candidates Experience? – KNK Recruiting - @knkrecruiting](http://www.knkrecruiting.com/2015/02/27/hiring-again-what-do-candidates-experience/)

Customer service isn’t just for your customers. This article recommends practicing good customer service with your candidates as well. According to the article, how your company treats all candidates, including those who don’t end up being hired, can have a direct impact on the quality of your current and future talent pool, as word of mouth spreads and your employer brand is affected. It concludes with the thought that the hiring process is an opportunity to build and improve your employer brand that you shouldn’t miss.

[The Journey: Listen. Care. Candidates Are People Too – Taylor Strategic Partners - @taylor_strategy](http://taylor-strategy.com/blog/journey-listen-care-candidates-are-people-too)

The best recruiters treat candidates as more than numbers – they treat them like people. This article tells the story of the author’s recent experience hiring for an important position in their organization. During the hiring process, the author made a point of really getting to know the candidate to determine whether they were a good fit for the job and the organization’s culture, with the result that the time and the care that the author took make a great impression on the candidate. The article drives the point home by sharing that not only did the candidate take the position when offered, but they referred two friends who ended up being hired as well.

[Best Practices for Creating an Exceptional Candidate Experience – RPOA - @RPOAssociation](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/best-practices-for-creating-an-exceptional-candidate-experience)

How can you make sure that candidates have a good experience with your hiring process? This article suggests a number of steps that recruiters and hiring managers can take to ensure that candidates don’t get fed up and leave the application process halfway through. These steps include going through your entire process as is you were a candidate, making it easy for job seekers to find you, making it as easy as possible for candidates to find out about your company, making it clear what opportunities you offer, making the application process as simple as possible, giving feedback on candidate applications, and more.

[The Waiting Game: Your Hiring Process – AdvancedRPO - @AdvancedRPO](http://blog.advancedrpo.com/2016/07/waiting-game-hiring-process)

Have you ever had to wait for important news? Waiting can be the worst, particularly if you’re waiting on something as important as news about a job application or a new position. This article delves into the negative effect that waiting can have on candidates in the hiring process, and how it can lead to lost opportunities to acquire great talent. It highlights the application and the interview process as two steps that can get bogged down, and makes suggestions for cutting the excess steps that keep your candidates on the fence.

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[recruiting trends](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/topic/recruiting-trends) [recruitment marketing](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/topic/recruitment-marketing)

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### [More Effective Recruiting with Satisfaction Surveys](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/bid/318238/more-effective-recruiting-with-satisfaction-surveys)

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