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There may be nothing souring faster than job seekers’ feelings about the hiring process right now—except for maybe that carton of eggnog that you bought and neglected to drink over the holidays.
Candidates and recruiters seemingly haven’t always had the best relationship, but what was previously a mostly-neutral, transactional interaction has become an emotional one, rife with finger pointing: Job seekers say they’re getting ghosted by recruiters or rejected by AI within moments of applying. Hiring teams say they can’t handle the growing pile of résumés on their desks, made worse by the growing arsenal of AI tools that candidates are using to speed up the application process.
Someone has to be the bigger person and, as such, some organizations are extending an olive branch by trying to improve the candidate experience. Aspen Dental, a dental chain with more than 1,100 offices across the US, is one such organization.
The company receives “thousands of résumés” in any given month, Reece White, senior recruitment marketing manager at Aspen Dental, told HR Brew. Using Phenom, an AI-powered HR platform, Aspen Dental has tried to improve its candidate experience, including communication and feedback channels.
Aspen Dental uses Phenom automation tools to funnel top candidates to recruiters. For example, if someone applies for an in-demand open position, like a dentist, recruiters are automatically notified so they can contact the candidate immediately.
Applicants are also sent automatic notices if they are not selected for a role, and are informed of why they were rejected. For example, if an applicant’s résumé was never viewed, their rejection note will state that.
“You have to be as transparent as possible, because the market will feel it, the candidates will feel it, and we can’t have 10,000 angry Glassdoor reviews in a year,” White said.
Candidates receive surveys at each stage in the interview process that ask about their experience and request feedback. That feedback is sent directly to recruiters, who have been able to use it to identify where they may be falling short. For example, recruiters neglecting to send rejection notices will kick off an automated rejection notice to applicants.
“You’ve got to remember it’s a person on the other side of the screen at the end of the day,” White said. “It’s a person who spent time and effort to give you their information, you have to treat that with a level of respect [and] be able to communicate back to them what’s going on.”