What is Candidate Engagement?

Although there isn’t an official definition for Candidate Engagement, this term generally refers to how responsive candidates and job applicants are.

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candidate engagement definition

Candidate Engagement Definition

Candidate Engagement measures how well candidates feel they were treated during the whole recruiting and hiring process. In various surveys, the majority of job seekers – around 60% – have indicated they received poor treatment during their job search.

A CareerBuilder survey found that when job seekers have a bad candidate experience, 42% of them would never apply to that company again and 22% said they would tell other candidates not to work at that company.

Many companies now use tools for improving Candidate Engagement

Candidate experience versus Candidate engagement

To attract the best talent, it has become extremely important to build better relationships with candidates and encourage Candidate Engagement. It is important to understand that Candidate Experience is not the same as Candidate Engagement. 

While Candidate Experience is related to a candidate's perception of the overall recruiting and hiring process, Candidate Engagement is a process that never ends. 

Candidate Engagement is the most important goal of the Inbound Recruiting strategy. This type of strategy encourages Candidate Engagement through great, relevant and useful content to candidates. The goal is to, eventually, eliminate sourcing and encourage candidates to apply for open positions. 

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