What is the candidate journey?

The ‘candidate journey’ refers to how your recruitment process feels for applicants joining your company. The quality of this depends on the ease, accessibility, and speed of your hiring process – from application through to onboarding. Here, we discuss the importance of building a positive candidate journey, and how your company can create one.

Key takeaways

• The candidate journey is a job applicant’s perspective of the recruitment process. This perception is shaped at every stage of the hiring process, from candidate attraction through to onboarding
• The candidate journey is divided into 7 steps: awareness, consideration, interest, application, candidate selection, hiring, and onboarding
• A high-quality, engaging candidate journey is an integral part of any successful hiring strategy to create a good first impression with candidates and a positive new starter experience. Track the success of your candidate journey via an application tracking system like Talos ATS

Steps to take to improve the candidate journey include promoting your employer brand, and thinking about ways to support long-term staff retention from a new starter’s first day

What is the ‘candidate journey’?

The candidate journey is your applicants’ perspective of your hiring process. The overall candidate experience journey is affected by every stage of hiring – from talent attraction to employee onboarding. Below is the customer journey map all applicants will follow on their candidate journey. 

The 7 Steps of Every Candidate Journey

There are seven steps that make up every candidate journey, from the moment the applicant becomes aware of a job ad until the time they have been successfully onboarded into the organisation.

Step 1. Awareness 

The candidate is aware of your employer brand, whether that’s through word of mouth or coming across your brand on sites such as LinkedIn and Indeed. 

Step 2. Consideration 

Candidates research your organisation, who you are, what you do, where you’re based and who your competitors are. 

Step 3. Interest 

Candidates choose your organisation and their preferred employment choice. 

Step 4. Application 

Candidates apply for your vacant role either through your website, careers site or through a job board. 

Step 5. Candidate selection 

Candidates go through your selection process. This step is visible in your applicant tracking system. 

Step 6. Hire 

The candidate accepts your job offer and begins the onboarding process. 

Step 7. Onboarding 

Your new hire goes through the employee onboarding process, this can last anywhere from the first few weeks to the first year.

Read more: The 7 stages of recruitment you need to follow

Why is candidate journey important?

The quality of your candidate journey can have a huge impact on the success of your hiring strategy. Here’s why maintaining a positive applicant journey is so important…

1- Protecting your employer brand

Your employer brand is the reason why new talent joins your company, and existing employees stay with you. Maintaining a positive candidate experience helps to uphold your employer brand reputation within the job market. 

If candidates have a negative or difficult experience in applying for your vacancies, this can compromise your status as an ‘employer of choice’. This will make it more difficult to attract strong applications in future campaigns.

2- Getting new employees off to a strong start

The first few weeks of a new role lay the foundations for future success. A positive candidate experience journey gets new employees off to a strong start with your company, helping them to thrive in their careers.

Providing a great candidate hiring journey for new recruits helps to keep them engaged with your employer brand from day one. This inspires them to start their new roles with confidence, and ensures their expectations are met from the very beginning.

3- Promoting new hire retention

Promoting retention is just as important for new hires as it is for established employees. If new recruits have experienced a negative candidate journey, they’re more likely to leave your company prematurely. 

A strong hiring experience promotes your employer brand and its values to your candidates – boosting engagement from even before their first day. Employees who are given a great start with your business are more likely to stick with you for the long run.

Introducing…

Talos ATS: Talent-winning recruitment made easy

Talos ATS is our all-in-one recruitment software, making it easier to deliver a high-quality candidate journey, while maintaining a well-organised hiring process.

We’ve combined all the best recruitment tools into one user-friendly dashboard, giving your team a comprehensive toolkit for all their hiring needs!

The platform provides all the tools you need to attract, hire, and onboard new talent effectively – including:

• Next-generation Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
• Recruitment advertising/job-posting suite
• Video screening & interview tools
• Automated SMS/email updates for candidates
• Automatic progression of your strongest applicants 
• Onboarding tools to ensure a great new-hire experience

Discover a better way to bring new talent to your business: