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The CareerXroads Annex

staffing, recruiting, employment, retention, HR

The Candidate Experience follow this blog post

Whew! Completed reviews of staffing pages for the last few sites on Fortune Magazine's list of the 500 largest public corporations late this afternoon. Tedious work this- a month of nose grinding...even splitting up the load, Mark and I each did 250 site reviews, methodically plodding through  a (survey monkey) checklist I put together several years ago (and keep modifying) to identify the extent that the sites Target, Engage, Inform and Respect the job seeker. Critical elements I maintain offer quality candidates a realistic choice and define the candidate experience.
 
After 6 years of repetition, I suspect there are some trends worth noting and I'll be trying to tease them out the next week or so before my sessions at the SHRM national conference in DC. where we will list the 25 sites with the best candidate experience. Mark is giving a couple sessions as well but on a different subject. This will be our 11th conference as presenters in the last dozen years.
 
Added to the mix above are the 100 additional corporate site staffing page reviews (and subsequent focus group out-takes) from 20 out of work HR leaders who voluntered to help us actually apply to ALL of Fortune Magazine's list of The 100 Best Companies in America to Work For. (All under an assumed name and mystery shopper resume of course). The anger exhibited by these volunteers over how poorly they feel they are treated in the online hiring process (especially by the acknowledged leaders in treating employees well) is a truly delicious irony given their chosen profession. If nothing else they commit themselves to making changes once they find their next gig.
 
Some of the early insights I plan to share next week at a presentation to the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers meeting in Calgary, Alberta. I probably won't finish the public whitepaper the subject until late July.
 

6 comments

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  • 1 point 3 years ago

    how about a "worst dressed" list ... like the top 3

    *shrug* ~jer www.o0.typepad.com

    ps. JG -- my "internet metrics" program counted your post 2x

  • 1 point 3 years ago

    Gerry, as you can image and due to our pay per click model we spend a lot of time analyzing web analytics from a candidate standpoint, so I know how you feel. We also conducted a job seeker survey where the #1 thing that they wanted was more job information...detail. As we hunt for the elusive passive candidate we have also implemented a two step approach to reach them. We first have them complete their name, and email and then we move them to the account creation and upload resume page This way we have two values to provide our clients. 1. Passive Candidates that didn't take the next step and need to be engaged and 2. The actual resume. It?s a learning, growing, and tweaking process.

  • 1 point 3 years ago

    Gerry, as you can image and due to our pay per click model we spend a lot of time analyzing web analytics from a candidate standpoint, so I know how you feel. We also conducted a job seeker survey where the #1 thing that they wanted was more job information...detail. As we hunt for the elusive passive candidate we have also implemented a two step approach to reach them. We first have them complete their name, and email and then we move them to the account creation and upload resume page This way we have two values to provide our clients. 1. Passive Candidates that didn't take the next step and need to be engaged and 2. The actual resume. It?s a learning, growing, and tweaking process.

  • 1 point 3 years ago

    On the outside it can appear effortless, glamorous etc.

    In actuallity most people who are at the top of their game pay a price in terms of time invested, training, research, mental workouts to be at that level.

    You are willing to pay the price to be an expert.

    I enjoy learning from you, so thank you for raising your own intellectual bar.

  • 1 point 3 years ago

    I'm looking forward to hearing about what you've learned -- perhaps despite the frustration of the volunteer job-seekers, there has been some progress since last year? Todd

  • 1 point 3 years ago

    Gerry, this is an area of immediate relevance for roundtables in the next few weeks and months at our company. I will be eagerly anticipating your white paper O wise one. :) Dave Mendoza