Are the experiences job seekers and candidates have with your organization on the minds of anyone at the top of your house? Does anyone in your organization connect the dots between your corporate brand, employment brand and candidate experience?
Paying attention to the candidate experience is the logical next step as organizations confront the looming talent shortages in many geographic and skill areas. Thought leaders in the recruiting field are suggesting that automated ATS replies to job candidates and the all-too-common resume “black hole” are negatively impacting many organizations’ ability to attract top flight talent and 
begin creating relationships with them – relationships that end with employment.
Some really smart people in the recruiting field are stepping out on the edge and calling attention to the need for better candidate experience practices by creating an award to recognize those organizations whose processes show that attending to candidates in a more respectful way has a positive impact on their ability to build talent communities and to actually hire the talent they need.
Gerry Crispin, Elaine Orler, Mark McMillan and Ed Newman have created The Talent Board to manage the North American Candidate Experience Awards which will be awarded at the 2011 HR Technology Conference in October. The three-round process is easy to complete and gathers information from your organization about the experiences prospects and job seekers have when interacting with your recruitment processes and people. Even if you aren’t selected as a winner this year, you’ll get to receive feedback on how your organization compares with the 
others in the competition and how you might improve your recruitment practices in this area.
Gerry, Elaine, Mark and Ed are just the people to put meat on the bones of this conversation. And announcing the awards at HR Tech is brilliant. I encourage you to fill out the initial questionnaire – it takes less than 15 minutes – and apply before June 30. You’ll be starting down the path of connecting the candidate experience and your employment brand to your broader corporate brand and strengthening all of them.
Not a bad way to start the summer.
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