Hiring today isn’t just about finding great candidates—it’s about getting them to engage. A hiring process that is protracted, clunky, frustrating, or overly complex doesn’t just slow things down, but can turn talent off before they’ve even had a chance to take the next step. With years of hands-on experience driving hiring success and securing the best and brightest, I’ve seen firsthand that a strong candidate experience isn’t just a courtesy—it’s a competitive edge. Done well, it strengthens employer reputation, widens the talent pool, and increases offer acceptance rates. Prioritising it isn’t just good practice—it’s a strategic advantage. In a market where businesses are already struggling to attract top talent, making the hiring process harder than it needs to be can result in losing out on high-caliber candidates altogether—not because they weren’t the right fit, but because they simply lost the will to continue. One of the biggest barriers? Unnecessary duplication of effort.Candidates upload their CVs, cover letters, maybe even key selection criteria—only to then be asked to manually re-enter all the same information, field by painstaking field. At best, it’s an inconvenience. At worst, it’s enough to make them abandon the process entirely. Others will try to bypass it by writing ‘refer to CV’ in every box, only to be filtered out by an automated system that doesn’t take kindly to shortcuts. And that’s the problem—great candidates aren’t just a collection of keywords in a database. Employer gains start with having strong candidates in the mix—and the best appointments stem from genuine conversations, not just a software-driven screening process or transactional experience.
Balancing Tech with Touch
For larger organisations, recruitment technology plays an important role. Applicant tracking systems, AI-driven shortlisting, and automated screening tools all help manage high volumes of applicants efficiently, keeping line managers or HR from drowning in CVs. Efficiency is great. What’s not great? A hiring proess that makes candidates question whether they even want to work for you. When these systems prioritise speed over experience, businesses risk losing talent before they’ve even had a chance to connect. This is especially true given that many of the most capable professionals are already employed, fitting job applications around their busy schedules. The best hiring strategies cast a wide net first and refine a shortlist later—rather than deterring great people with excessive upfront requirements.
Why the Candidate Experience Matters More Than Ever
A poor hiring process doesn’t just frustrate those who apply—it actively damages an employer’s reputation. And in an age where experiences are shared widely, that damage can be far-reaching. A negative recruitment experience rarely stays private. It often finds its way into advice to friends, colleagues, group chats, Glassdoor reviews, or LinkedIn posts, sparking industry-wide discussions, so companies known for long, impersonal, or needlessly difficult hiring processes don’t just risk losing candidates today—they risk losing future ones, too. The better approach? Keep the barrier to entry low. Make it easy for candidates to express interest and submit their credentials, then ensure there’s a well-structured process in place to assess them meaningfully later.
Stop Pressure Testing
Beyond applications, the candidate experience is just as critical when it comes to interviews, and this is where many businesses are still approaching things in a way that’s out of step with the modern workforce. Right now, interview structures are as varied as how people take their coffee—some are overly intense and formal, some are impossibly milky and vague, and some are still stuck in the antiquated era of ‘If you were a bean, what kind of bean would you be?’ While every company has its own approach, some strategies are simply more effective than others. Great hiring decisions that stick don’t come from testing endurance, they come from meaningful, structured conversations about the person, the role, and their likelihood of success. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to improve interviews—and get the best out of candidates—is to share some of the questions in advance. This is something I actively encourage in my recruitment practice. Some employers worry it gives applicants an unfair advantage, but the reality is quite the opposite. No one expects a lawyer to walk into court without preparation. No one assumes a consultant is delivering strategy off the cuff. We all perform at our best when we know what’s expected of us. So why should an interview be any different? When candidates have a sense of where the conversation is headed, interviews become more insightful, more engaging, and ultimately more reflective of how someone will actually perform in the job.
Candidate experience also extends to communication and timeframes. Six rounds of interviews. Weeks of silence. No updates on where they stand. These hiring missteps don’t just frustrate candidates, they damage your reputation. While it’s unrealistic to provide detailed feedback to every single applicant (particularly when many roles receive over 100 applications), there’s a clear distinction between general applicants and those who have progressed to meaningful conversations. A simple, reasonable approach? If you’ve spoken to someone—whether through an initial phone screen, a video call, or a face-to-face interview—you should close the loop with them personally. The effort involved in doing so is minimal compared to the goodwill it generates, and yet it’s still an area where many businesses fall short.
When ‘Innovative’ Goes Too Far
On the other end of the spectrum, some employers have tried to simplify the candidate experience by shaking things up a little too much. Take McDonald’s Australia, for example, which introduced ‘Snaplications’—allowing job seekers to apply via Snapchat with a 10-second video wearing a virtual Macca’s uniform. A novel idea? Sure. A more engaging way to attract younger workers? Possibly. But it raises a bigger question: are we moving towards a world where CVs are irrelevant? Or will we soon be asking candidates to submit a TikTok dance explaining why they’re qualified?
Counter-Offer Considerations
Candidate experience also plays a huge role in another major hiring challenge: counter-offers. Businesses are throwing serious money at retention—$10K, $20K, sometimes more—because losing key people means losing IP and restarting the hiring process. But counter-offers rarely fix what’s broken. The employee knows they were ready to leave. The employer knows they were about to quit. And now there’s an unspoken expectation: ‘We gave you more money, so you’d better prove you’re worth it.’ That shift in dynamic rarely ends well, which is why most candidates who accept counter-offers leave within six months anyway. This is another reason why a strong, engaging hiring experience matters. When people feel genuinely excited about joining your company, they’re far less likely to be tempted by a last-minute counter-offer. The way you communicate, the way you structure your hiring process, and the way you make people feel about the opportunity all contribute to whether they ultimately choose you—or stay put.
Remove the Barriers, Win Gold in Talent
The best hiring strategies aren’t about throwing candidates in the deep end—they’re about making sure the right people see the opportunity, feel invested in it, and ultimately choose you. A simpler, well-designed process focussed on the candidate experience doesn’t mean lowering standards; it means structuring hiring in a way that attracts top talent without unnecessary friction. The real work isn’t just about finding candidates—it’s about identifying, engaging, and securing the best people. And that takes more than just process; it requires expertise, influence, and a deep understanding of how to position an opportunity in a way that truly resonates. The reality is, the best candidates aren’t always looking, and they certainly aren’t lining up to apply. Often, they need to be engaged, intrigued, and convinced that a role is worth considering. These are all things I actively manage for my clients, but even for employers hiring directly, understanding these dynamics is critical.
Ultimately, when it comes to engaging the right candidates, it takes more than just visibility, and when the market is tight and candidates have options, asking them to wade through waves before you’ve even spoken to them might mean they just… don’t. It takes the right approach, the right message, the right timing—and the right expertise to influence the outcome. In a market where top talent is in demand, even small shifts in your hiring approach can make a big impact. More often than not, if you’re struggling to attract great candidates, the issue isn’t the talent pool—it’s the barriers standing in their way.
Naturally, if you’d rather focus on choosing the best candidate instead of chasing them, get in touch to continue this conversation.