While it’s in the candidate’s best interest to give you a good first impression, so too will you be judged based on the offered interview experience – and we all know that word of mouth, not to mention tweets, carry fast.
Presenting a more friendly nature is largely for reputational matters. It also, however, allows you to put candidates that simply don’t interview well at ease. Not everyone is good at speaking, and that should by no means dictate whether they’re a good fit for the company – unless it’s a requirement for the role.
As was explained by Carmel Galvin, chief HR officer at Glassdoor: “The interview process is the gateway experience that employers have with a candidate, and you only get one chance to make a great lasting impression and find out all you can about them – whether you bring them onboard or not.
“Some employers have been acknowledged as standing out from the rest in terms of offering a best in class interview experience. It’s no easy task, but employers who get this right will have the recruiting and business advantage.”
Galvin is referring to Glassdoor’s “best places to interview” awards, a ranking made possible through the analysis of over 1,000 employees’ opinions. And what made its top ten firm favourites correlates with last year’s results.
At the time, Glassdoor claimed all nominated companies had “informative interviewers, consistency across locations and transparency throughout the process.” It was a concept expounded on by Galvin now as well – “Such factors place businesses in a better position to maintain a quality employee journey throughout the remainder of their time there.”
Taking the crown was Airbus. No matter the amount of time allocated from CV send to acceptance or refusal, most claimed the process was pleasant, the interviewers were nice and easy to talk to, and made their expectations clear. One candidate, who went on to accept, simply wrote: “Very low pressure. No tricks. Straight forward.”
Here’s the list in full – based on “positive experience” percentage points given by staff:
(1) Airbus – 94 per cent
(2) Yell – 92 per cent
(3) Hiscox –86 per cent
(4) easyJet – 86 per cent
(5) Salesforce – 85 per cent
(6) AllSaints – 84 per cent
(7) Hays – 83 per cent
(8) Carphone Warehouse – 82 per cent
(9) Waitrose – 82 per cent
(10) Rolls-Royce – 80 per cent
HR is one of the hot topics discussed at the FD Surgery Manchester in November. Find out more here.
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