Candidate Experience: Why It Matters and How to Improve It

In recent years, the relationship between recruiters and job seekers has evolved.

Candidates’ perceptions of a company’s recruitment process is now a strategic asset which can make or break your hiring. After all, we know that candidate experience can ripple through your employer brand, your talent pipeline and your business reputation.

In short, candidates are no longer solely applicants, they are also active voters!

Without further ado, let’s explore statistics that showcase why candidate experience matters for your company, as well as ways to improve it.

Why Candidate Experience Matters: Key Statistics You Should Know

• A whopping 66% of candidates say a positive hiring experience influenced them to accept an offer, while 26% declined offers in 2024 due to poor communication or unclear expectations.
• Companies that focus on candidate experience benefit from a 70% improvement in hire quality.
• A 38% higher offer acceptance rate occurs when candidates find the application process smooth.
• On the other hand, 60% of candidates abandon applications if the process is too long or complex.
• 72% of candidates share their negative experience with friends, colleagues or family members, thus damaging employer and business reputation.
• Meanwhile, 78% believe the candidate journey reflects the company’s culture and how it values its people.
• Around 80% of job seekers say the outcome of the candidate experience (positive or negative) can make them reject a role or leave a strong impression.
• Over 78% of applicants were never asked for feedback, which is a missed opportunity to improve recruitment processes for the hiring team and the company.

So, what insights can we get from these key statistics?

First of all, candidate experience directly impacts your employer brand, and therefore your ability to attract the best talent. Unsurprisingly, candidates share their negative experiences with others, and they consider that their experience reflects your company culture.

There is also an untapped potential in collecting applicant feedback to improve recruitment processes, from application to selection. Speaking of application, candidates are looking for simpler ways of applying for a role, and expect quick responses from organizations!

 

Common Barriers to Positive Candidate Experiences

Before jumping to solutions, it’s useful to recognize what typically holds companies back. Here are some recurring issues:

• Lack of process visibility and opaque hiring timelines: Candidates rarely know what stage their application is in, or how long steps will take.
• Overly burdensome application and screening: Asking for long forms, duplicative data entry, long assessments, complex tests before basic screening negatively impacts candidate experience.
• Slow decision-making or delays: Hiring managers often take time to make decisions, and interview rounds drag scheduling suffer from these delays.
• Poor or non-existent feedback: Rejected applicants are often ghosted or handed canned rejections.
• Inconsistent communication and messaging: Messages from recruiting, HR, hiring manager don’t always align, which leads to missing information and a sense of lack of organization.
• Unrealistic expectations in job ads: Descriptions that are vague, inflated, or over-demanding discourage applicants. Make sure to differentiate between must-haves and nice-to-haves in your job descriptions.
• Bias, lack of fairness, overuse of AI screening filters: Automated systems or poorly designed filters may eliminate good candidates unfairly. Recently, candidates also report AI fatigue in their application process.
• Lack of measurement and feedback loops: Organizations often don’t survey candidates or analyze drop-offs, even though precious data and insights can be collected with a quick follow-up.
• Underinvestment in candidate-centric tools and technology: Legacy systems, disconnected tools, and manual workflows are a source of frustration for candidates.

Recognizing which of these are most acute in your own recruitment funnel is the first step to improvement! No need to act on all these issues at the same time: identify your main pain points by order of priority and build action plans accordingly.

 

Tips & Best Practices to Improve Candidate Experience

Here are examples of strategies, best practices, and tips you can embed into your recruitment process. You don’t have to do them all at once, instead, prioritize the biggest pain points in your funnel.

1. Map and audit the candidate journey

First of all, you need to have a clear understanding of your current candidate journey to identify which step you can optimize:

• Walk through your end-to-end candidate experience (job ad → application → interview → offer → onboarding process).
• Identify friction points throughout these stages: long waits, lack of information or reach, etc.
• Use candidate surveys (post-interview, post-rejection) to get real feedback.

 

2. Simplify and streamline application forms

The first impression is crucial! Your application process should be straightforward and mobile-friendly.

• Keep only essential fields and allow auto-fill on every platform.
• Avoid redundant data entry (don’t repeat fields already on the resume).
• Use mobile-friendly forms (look for job opportunities on their cellphones!).
• Provide progress indicators (e.g. “Step 3 of 5”) so candidates know how much is left.
• Consider “one-click apply” / resume parsing.

 

3. Be transparent from the start

Transparency is valued by all candidates, be it in terms of salary, qualifications or recruitment stages:

• In the job posting, include salary ranges, benefits, work conditions (remote or hybrid work) required vs preferred qualifications.
• Describe the hiring stages and their approximate timeline, and choose an interview format.
• Be explicit about your evaluation criteria and what tests the candidate should be prepared for.

 

4. Communicate proactively and frequently

If we said it once, we said it a hundred times: effective communication is crucial to build a positive candidate experience. Ghosting and delays should be avoided at all costs:

• Acknowledge application receipt immediately with an automated message.
• Send regular status updates (even if the message just says “we’re still reviewing”, it is always better perceived than silence).
• If delays occur, apologize and reset expectations.
• Even for rejections, send a polite message rather than leaving candidates hanging.
• Whenever possible, offer brief feedback or areas for improvement (even one-liners). Candidates appreciate feedback, especially when they have participated in job interviews.

 

5. Train your interviewers for consistent processes

Whether hiring is handled by recruiters or your HR department, you should set expectations for respectful and consistent recruitment practices:

• Train all interviewers on empathy, structure, and candidate treatment norms (for instance, punctuality, question framing, introductions…).
• Use structured interview scorecards that aim to reduce bias.
• Prepare interviewers with a short briefing on candidate background, what to assess, and the timeline that should be respected.
• Encourage interviewers to sell the company by sharing its mission and culture rather than act passively.

 

6. Limit the number of interview rounds or streamline loops

Candidates need to know that your hiring process is moving forward, not in circles. To avoid endless interview rounds:

• Eliminate unnecessary interviews or duplication of screening calls.
• If possible, combine steps or use panel interviews instead of serial rounds.
• Centralize data to avoid asking for information that has already been shared.

 

7. Use technology to support your efficiency

Recruitment technology should not replace the human touch (remember that candidates already report AI fatigue in their screening process), but it should definitely enhance your strategy:

• Leverage an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to automate routine messaging, reminders, and scheduling.
• Use chatbots or conversational AI to answer candidate FAQs (answering simple questions such as: “Where am I in the process?”).
• Remember to ensure that crucial phases are handled by humans; candidates should always have a clear human contact.
• Use scheduling tools that allow candidates to pick time slots directly in order to reduce back-and-forth.

 

8. Provide feedback and closure

Just like communication, feedback is essential to maintain a good employer brand and reputation:

• Even if you can’t give in-depth feedback for every candidate, aim to provide at least minimal closure.
• For “close misses”, offering pointers or next-step suggestions always makes a positive impression.

 

9. Maintain relationships with past candidates

An applicant who is not the best fit for the open position might be your best asset for a future role. That’s why you should maintain relationships with past candidates and centralize all the applications you have received:

• Keep a talent pool or “alumni” list of past applicants (even rejected ones).
• Send occasional updates or new role alerts.
• Re-engage former candidates who had good experience: they may be strong fits later!

 

10. Monitor metrics and continuously improve

Like every strategy you implement, your hiring process should be constantly improving. In order to do so, it is important to track the following metrics:

• Application drop-off rates (with a focus on where in the funnel do candidates abandon the process)
• Time-to-hire / time-to-offer
• Offer acceptance rates
• Candidate Net Promoter Score (NPS) or satisfaction surveys
• Quality-of-hire
• Reapplication rates / returning candidates
• Candidate feedback (complaints or praises)

By monitoring this data, you will be able to prioritize where to invest and which bottlenecks to fix first.

Did you know that Folks ATS lets you track more than 25 recruitment metrics at all times, in a few clicks?
Request your demo to find out more!

 

Sample Flow of Candidate Experience Enhancements

Here’s how you might apply the above across all the phases of your recruitment process:

Attraction & Sourcing

• Use honest employer branding, employee testimonials, video content, realistic job previews.
• Post jobs across diverse channels, including niche or underrepresented networks.

 

Application & Screening

• Simplified application, clear instructions, progress indicators.
• Auto-acknowledgement confirmation and estimated timeline message.
• Automated screening with clear pass/fail logic, and human review of edge cases.

 

Interviewing

• Pre-brief candidates on format, what interviewers will ask, how long each segment will last.
• Use structured interview guides.
• Interviewers introduce themselves, explain their role, and engage the discussion with warmth.
• Keep interview scheduling efficient and minimize reschedules.

 

Decision & Offer

• Move quickly to make decisions once interviews are done.
• Offer letters should be clear, detailed, and personalized.
• If the candidate is rejected, send a prompt rejection email expressing your gratitude and sharing feedback.

 

Onboarding & Handoff

• A smooth transition to onboarding helps reinforce the positive experience. Good candidate experience should become great employee experience!
• Share what the hire can expect on Day 1, connect them to the team, and provide access to resources in advance.

Ready to deliver a memorable candidate experience?