This post was jointly published today on the Strategic Talent Acquisition Blog at Human Capital Institute.
Who doesn’t feel sorry for job seekers these days? From the candidate’s perspective, it’s grim out there: longer periods of unemployment, more competition for fewer jobs, less human contact from employers, and scrambling for part time jobs (if they can be found) to make ends meet. Unemployment numbers indicate that the average length of a job search in the US today is about 7 months, which is 6 weeks longer than it took someone to find work the last time the jobless rate was this high in 1982.
But it’s not your job search, right? You’re not only employed in this economy, you work for an employer with the luxury of talent supply in its favor at the moment. Besides, hiring is frozen at your company and worse yet, you’re picking up the slack for everyone in your department who was let go in the last RIF. So if we’re going to cry about experience, why not focus on the poor employee struggling to meet performance objectives in this same hostile economic environment?
Funny thing about experience - we all have it, and we all like to talk about it (especially the ugly bits). So why do we wax on and on about it in business? Customer experience influences profitability, so the link is pretty clear there. But candidates? Why all the fuss about being nice to these folks, especially when there are so many of them and we can’t hire them any time soon anyway?
Candidate experience is a deceptive topic, because we think we’re talking about one thing when we’re really talking about something else entirely. Candidate experience isn’t about being nice; it’s about the ripple effect of perception that influences a company’s ability to hire just-in-time. It’s also a silent indicator of employee experience, which influences a company’s ability to keep the talent it needs voluntarily, over time. These elements all have the power to positively or negatively affect revenue, expenses, and customer good will.
So what will 2010 bring in terms of candidate experience? I suppose that depends on whether your company takes a short or long term view of it. Because eventually the supply-demand pendulum will swing from employers back to candidates once again, and if you’re not concerned about it today you’ll be scrambling to catch up with your competition at a much higher price tomorrow.
Claudia Faust is the CEO and Head of Products for Improved Experience.
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