One thing I’ve often come across when talking to customers about measuring Candidate Experience is a sense that Candidate Experience exists independently of the hiring process. Many TA Operations professionals or TA leaders are simply so busy that they can’t dedicate too much time to researching best practices for measuring Candidate Experience, and believe that sending out one survey is getting them a sufficient amount of insights. 

Unfortunately, this means that a large amount of insights go unnoticed. For example, one customer mentioned they had recently launched their internal mobility plan, but didn’t consider the benefits of sending personalized surveys to measure the internal candidate experience. Others have a strong focus on Diversity and Inclusion, but didn’t consider asking candidates to what extent they feel respected and included during the interview process. 

I started to think of ways I could lay out best practices for measuring and analyzing Candidate Experience, with all of its nuances. The scope of this project kept growing, and I eventually settled on an easily digestible Maturity Model as the best format. 

What is the Candidate Experience Maturity Model?

In short, it’s a one-stop-shop of all the relevant Candidate Experience metrics and processes that every TA professional should follow. It includes three levels of maturity: Intermediate, Advanced, and Leading, so you can see where you stand in relation to best practices. 

The Maturity Model exists to showcase the wide variety of elements that feed into the ultimate goal of extracting as many insights as possible from your Candidate Experience. There’s two main parts to this process: first, you have to actually capture these insights using personalized feedback surveys and ensure that they’re tailored to their audience. Second, these insights have to be properly analyzed and shared within your organization in order to turn them into action items and tangible takeaways. 

Making sure that these processes are aligned is crucial, since it ensures that the gathered information is continuously reflected on and used to optimize recruitment. Doing this correctly will provide you with data that can measure every part of your hiring process.

Why is it important?

So, why should you care about the Maturity Model?

For one, it gives you a tangible breakdown of all the different areas that factor into top-level Candidate Experience practices. You can use it as a reference document, a guide, or as a roadmap to Candidate Experience excellence.

Consider the full journey that a candidate goes through - from browser to applicant, from applicant to candidate, and from candidate to new hire. Each one requires due consideration, as well as a slightly different approach. Each one has different metrics and priorities that should be measured. The same goes for different types of candidates that can be targeted. Each group should receive questions related to their unique experience. The Maturity Model helps break down exactly what you need to do to receive valuable feedback from every step of the hiring process.

Together with our Ultimate Guide to Candidate Experience, the model can also act as an onboarding tool, or as an infographic for starting, improving, and excelling in Candidate Experience. 

What does it contain?

In short, the Maturity Model covers all the bases of Candidate Experience, and lays out three levels of maturity. 

It explains what you should measure, how to measure it, and what areas to watch out for. It also lays out what you should do within your organization to help achieve recruitment success. 

As I mentioned before, it contains 12 key categories:

• Scope of Data - Amount of stages for data collection
• Data Granularity - Break down data by department or hiring process
• Stakeholder Satisfaction - Measure internal processes and cooperation
• Internal Candidates - Measure internal candidates’ experience
• Referrals - Measure referred candidates’ experience
• Inclusivity - Measure how inclusive your hiring process is
• Quality of Hire - Measure the quality of new hires
• Feedback Follow-up - Turning around a negative Candidate Experience
• Setting Goals - Setting internal goals for Candidate Experience  
• Performance Management - Evaluating recruiter, coordinator, and hiring manager performance 
• Analyzing Results - Gaining insights from your data
• Sharing Results - Sharing results within your organization

The actual model is much more expansive and covers, in detail, what separates each level from the others. You can view the Maturity Model in its entirety here:

View Full Candidate Experience Maturity Model

Conclusion

Measuring Candidate Experience is a continuous process, and getting the most out of your insights is crucial to optimizing your recruitment process. If you can effectively measure how all involved parties feel about the process, then you know which areas to target to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.

I’m excited to be able to share the Candidate Experience Maturity Model with you! I really hope you find it useful, and that it helps you take your Candidate Experience to the next level.