Your Digital Candidate Journey – Whitepaper
For most companies, the lack of skilled workers is already a reality and employer branding is an integral part of their strategy. What many are missing is a carefully conceived and designed digital candidate journey that actually reaches the desired candidates.
Employer Branding: The sense of perception
Outstanding candidates have a keen sense of how digital and contemporary a company’s candidate journey is – and use it to form a picture of the potential employer. If the digital recruiting process, which can be understood as the first date with a candidate, does not feel up-to-date and smooth, top candidates in particular will jump ship and not come back. Desired candidates, who often belong to Gen Z, live with digital media, shopping and service experiences as a matter of course. This is exactly what they expect in their professional environment.
According to a survey conducted by the RhineMain University of Applied Sciences in 2021 among 720 students as well as specialists and managers, 66% of the respondents place a high or very high value on a consistent and appealing design of the application process. Only 7% assign a low relevance to this. And: Only 11% of the respondents can name a company that has positively attracted their attention through its job and career activities in social networks. This means: with a carefully designed candidate journey, companies can clearly stand out from the competition.
Learn how companies can attract the best candidates through a digital candidate journey in this JUNO Whitepaper.In principle, a convincing digital candidate journey combines all digital interactions and touchpoints into a coherent overall picture – from the first click on a job ad to Linkedin posts to the career page and the application process. If barriers appear on this journey, the digitally savvy candidates are irritated, drop out and are lost for the company. The journey should also be technically up to date. Long loading times and slow performance slow down the joy of getting to know each other. The Candidate Journey must be mobile-optimised, as most applicants access it on the move.
A good match
In terms of content, it has become apparent that it is not only the rational value propositions such as salary, additional benefits, training, holidays and flexible working hours that determine whether a potential employee will apply. An attractive employer value proposition – especially for the coveted top candidates - must also have a strong emotional core. Because they want to be sure that they and their new employer are a good match. They want to be happy there, do something meaningful and feel like “I fit right into this culture.”
In order to find out what constitutes one’s own specific company culture, the company’s employees should be interviewed and involved, among other things. Based on the results and the goals and guidelines of the company, a relevant, authentic and emotional employer value proposition should be formulated in comparison with the wishes of potential candidates.
Strong visual markers
Likewise, the stages of a journey need a strong visual bracket. Applicants who click on an appealing job advertisement, for example, are irritated when a new world opens up visually where they land. What is needed is an independent and powerful key visual. Finally, the career page – the actual destination of a digital candidate journey – should fully score with the top candidates – with content, culture and experience. All information on the topic of career and the advertised position should be consumable quickly, precisely and profoundly. The company’s culture should also be made clear. Playful elements, the chance to interact and lively, surprising content make the career page an experience. It is also important that interested visitors can apply quickly and easily.
“Become what you’re made of” – A Digital Candidate Journey for the company SCHIFFL
What a coherent and convincing candidate journey can look like is shown by the employer branding campaign that JUNO conceived and designed for the Hamburg-based IT service provider Schiffl. Many career changers work here who love their job and find exciting development opportunities with the medium-sized employer – and this is precisely what the campaign “Become what you’re made of” orchestrated across the various channels represents. Among other things, employees are presented with their diverse CVs. Strong key symbols and individually formulated corporate values make the Career Page unmistakable. The result: measurably more applicants for the open positions and more interviews. In addition, Schiffl explains: “Candidates are now applying to us who we would have had to wait a very long time for before.”
Click here for your JUNO Whitepaper with 10 tips for a better “Digital Candidate Journey”.