Is it enough to simply meet candidates’ expectations when they go through the application process at your company? Greenhouse’s Director of Talent Acquisition, Jacqui Maguire, doesn’t think so. “Candidates have a very low bar when it comes to expectations,” says Jacqui, which is why “we want to proactively design an experience with the candidate in mind the entire way.”

Jacqui recently led the “Candidate Experience: Design with the Candidate in Mind” webinar. In this fireside chat with FabFitFun’s Recruiting Manager Angela Mayhew, Checkr’s Head of Technical Recruiting Vannaro Lim, and Greenhouse’s Associate Recruiter Michelle Yoshihara, Jacqui and the other panelists talked tips and tricks for taking a proactive approach to candidate experience.

Keep reading for a few highlights from their conversation, or click here to watch the entire on-demand webinar.

Customizing the Candidate Experience

After Jacqui introduced these fundamentals of a proactive candidate experience, she opened up the floor to hear from the other panelists. One of her first questions was, “How do you customize the candidate experience to have the greatest impact?”

As a former engineer, Vannaro brings an engineering tactic into his work as a recruiter and always conducts retrospectives to see what went right and wrong in a hiring process. The retrospective reminds him that every hiring process is a learning experience and an opportunity to improve the next time around.

Angela likes to highlight the product and people. At FabFitFun, they think of interviews as a chance to “showcase the magic.” The hiring process is designed to help candidates see FabFitFun’s unique energy and values.

Similarly, Michelle says that at Greenhouse, every candidate who comes in for the onsite will get a tour of the office and a quick demo of the product. This approach gives a high-level picture of the product and helps candidates get some additional context on the types of problems they’ll be working on every day.

Collecting Feedback from Candidates

Feedback from candidates is one of the most important factors when refining your candidate experience. Each of the panelists uses the Greenhouse candidate survey to gather information from candidates, and they all had stories of specific elements of the interview process they’ve changed as a result of feedback from the survey.

FabFitFun is a dog-friendly office, which is something employees love, says Angela. However, some candidates expressed that having a canine companion in the interview room with them was a little distracting. Now dogs stay out of the interview rooms and candidates feel more comfortable.

Vannaro finds the Greenhouse survey helps him to understand trends and stay ahead of the curve. He saw that engineering candidates at Checkr were craving more cross-functional interactions, so now they have the chance to meet people from several different teams during their onsite interview.

At Greenhouse, candidates receive the survey after the onsite interview, but before a candidate leaves the Greenhouse office, recruiters make sure to check in with them and get a sense of how they’re feeling. Do they have any urgent questions or comments? Taking a moment to check in with candidates like this provides one more opportunity to collect feedback and ends the long day of interviews with a personal, friendly interaction.

Audience member question: How do you increase engagement in your Greenhouse candidate surveys?

Vannaro’s answer: Increase awareness. Let candidates know that they’ll be receiving the surveys in a couple of different ways. You can add a line to the end of your onsite interview confirmation email, your post-onsite interview email or verbally mention it to candidates in person as they’re heading out the door – or maybe all three!

Still craving more advice and insights on candidate experience? Tune in to the full webinar to hear the panelists’ tips on dealing with negative feedback, coordinating multiple stakeholders and much more!