Mastering the Candidate Experience

Procurement continues to experience a boom. More and more companies that once kept the function at arm’s length are realizing the power of procurement and are investing heavily in growing their teams. Great news, right? Well, that depends. Those paying attention, and adapting the way they attract, assess and engage key hires are loving the attention that procurement is winning from other parts of the business, and the access they now have to talented candidates outside of their traditional hiring channels. Those who are not are, at best, having to compromise far more than they would like, or worse, are dealing with the opportunity cost of having jobs that sit unfilled for months at a time.

Today's candidates are often entertaining multiple offers and counteroffers. Extensive, drawn-out approaches to the hiring process are no longer effective. Much like buying a house in an upmarket, if you want the best, you have to move fast.

The candidate experience is the candidate's touchpoints with your company, from the job description to the post-interview. Let's review what you can do at each of those stages to gain those top candidates your company needs.

The Job Description

Your job description should get people fired up about the positions and draw in top candidates. Procurement professionals like to be challenged and know that they will have the opportunity to spotlight themselves through hard-fought-for achievements.

Stay away from rote job descriptions and ensure you give an authentic representation of your brand. Humanizing the job description with honest detail and context on the challenges they will be facing, and the targets to be reached, will get the right people enthused.

Don't forget to include Internal Recruitment/HR in the process and ask for some external perspective that will bring in a fresh pair of eyes.

Own Your Strengths

Perhaps you don't have the budget to hit the paygrade candidates are looking for. Yes, you should be fighting to increase that budget, but don't forget to take a look at your stance in the marketplace and compete on your strengths.

Today's candidates are looking at much more than their paycheck when it comes to selecting an employer. Consider and make sure you highlight what you can offer in terms of work flexibility, vacation, benefits, job content, mobility, training, career progression, and culture or sense of community. Don't underestimate the value of these selling points.

Align Your Expectations

After reviewing what you can offer, it's time to align your expectations and set a realistic target on what your "perfect" candidate looks like and know who it is you are trying to attract. Keep in mind that people are looking to propel, and you aren't likely to find a candidate with the exact experience you are looking for, so it may be time to widen your scope.

Perhaps you can lower the number of years of experience required and look at investing in someone that's a little greener, but highly motivated. Or look at candidates that don't necessarily have the category experience you are looking for but have a well thought out strategy on how to attack new categories.

Aligning your expectations will take an in-depth, honest look at what is vital to the role, and where you stand in the job market.

The Interview Process

Consolidate

Candidates are likely gainfully employed and inconveniencing themselves as well as their employers by attending multiple rounds of interviews. Prioritize their time by consolidating the process as much as possible.

And remember, they may be entertaining various offers, so focus on the ‘moving to offer’ process as well. Know who will ultimately be responsible for choosing the candidate and try and stay away from an entirely consensus-based, multi-person, time-consuming decision process that may cause analysis paralysis.

Listen

Make sure your list of questions pulls not only what it is you need to know for the position, but what it is the candidate needs from their employer. And then listen to what it is they want, their motivations, what they are looking to accomplish, and let them know how you can help them make it a reality.

Entice

Gone are the days of the "why should we hire you" mindset. In this job market, you are not in a position to play hard to get, so entice your candidates by letting them know why they should work for you. People are looking for a connection, so wear your love for the company on your sleeve.

Candidates need to feel like they've found their work home, so make sure that they have a chance to meet a few of the people they will be in contact with. The need to be open and authentic can't be overstated, and this rings true throughout the process, and for anyone that may be in contact with the candidate. So make sure to spread the word.

Maintaining the Connection

Maintain that connection, and keep in touch with the candidate personally. Your recruitment team should reach out as well, but personalization will reap its rewards.

The playing field has changed, and this is a whole new ballgame. Finding the right candidate, at the right price, and nabbing them, is a task that takes forethought, strategy, and alignment of company objectives and values.