Why candidate relationship management is the new employer brand

In today’s hiring landscape, candidates form impressions about an organisation long before they join it. Their hiring process experience becomes a powerful signal of an organisation’s culture and values. This is why thoughtful candidate relationship management is essential not only for effective hiring, but for maintaining a strong, positive employer brand.

What is candidate relationship management?

Candidate relationship management is an organisational approach to building and nurturing relationships with candidates throughout the hiring process and beyond. It centres on the belief that creating a positive candidate experience improves brand perception, increases the likelihood of job offer acceptance, and strengthens the talent pipeline for future hiring needs.

For candidates, a company’s culture and how they treat and value their current and future employees is on full display during the hiring process. While companies may publicly promote their values, mission, and employer brand, the real indicator of those values is how they treat candidates at every stage of selection.

Why is candidate relationship management important?

Having a positive candidate relationship management strategy creates both short- and long-term benefits for the organisation, while having a negative one can be truly detrimental for the organisational goals, brand, and image. Poor candidate experiences have been repeatedly linked to candidate attrition, negative company perceptions, and the public sharing of negative feedback through social media or platforms like Glassdoor. Negative candidate experiences may even impact an organisation financially if candidates who are also customers sever their relationship with the organisation following a negative hiring process.

A positive candidate experience, on the other hand, has been shown to improve brand perceptions, increase the likelihood of accepting an offer, encourage candidates to recommend the organisation to others, and boost the chances that candidates will apply again in the future.

Because of these implications, many organisations have invested in improving candidate engagement, enhancing communication, and increasing transparency throughout the hiring process. Improving the candidate experience can occur at any stage of the selection process, starting from recruitment and can continue until a hiring decision is made and communicated. A positive candidate experience can signal that a company cares and respects its candidates and their time, even for candidates who may not ultimately receive an offer. In other words, every touchpoint sends a message about who the organisation really is.

Candidate relationship management strategies

There are several important focus areas for organisations seeking to enhance their candidate relationship management and create a more positive, consistent experience:

1. Human connection vs. AI

Providing personal, thoughtful communication, especially in the age of increasing AI automation, can go a long way toward keeping candidates engaged and valued. Research has found that candidates can react negatively to automated tools, especially when used at later stages of the hiring process, such as interviews. Overreliance on AI can also undermine perceptions of fairness and opportunity to demonstrate abilities.

However, using AI can sometimes improve candidate experience when used strategically. One of the most promising uses is generating targeted, personalised feedback, offering deeper insight into candidates’ strengths and development areas. It can enable a level of transparency and information that is seldom seen in feedback practices yet highly desired by candidates. If using AI to provide information to candidates, specific explanations for the use of AI (e.g., faster feedback, greater objectivity/consistency) can improve applicant reactions and trust in the selection process. The key is to balance automation with human touchpoints, ensuring that technology supports rather than replaces meaningful interaction.

2. Transparency and realistic insight

Transparency about the hiring process and the nature of the job is a critical component of candidate relationship management strategies. Research consistently demonstrates that the job relatedness of the selection process (i.e. how closely it resembles the actual job) influences applicants’ perceptions of fairness of the assessment process. When candidates see clear alignment between the assessments and the role, they view the process as more credible and relevant, thereby improving the candidate experience.

Candidates also report valuing realistic insight into both the tasks they might encounter and the culture of the organisation. For example, our research indicated that candidates preferred assessments to provide a realistic insight into the role and organisation they are applying to, accurately reflecting the tasks they might encounter and the organisational culture and values. This helps to determine if the opportunity is the right fit and whether to self-select in or out of the process.

3. Engaging and straightforward content

Engaging assessment factors, such as gamified content or narrative storylines, have been frequently studied as ways to improve the candidate experience. New or gamified assessment formats can also lead to more positive applicant reactions including greater organisational attractiveness and innovation. Our Talogy research also found that candidates dislike repetitive and generic content, highlighting the need to keep assessment content engaging and varied. This is especially important when many candidates end up completing numerous assessments during their job search. Mixing up assessment formats can help reduce feelings of monotony, enhancing the overall candidate experience.

For any assessment in the selection process, providing explanations about the selection procedures improves applicant reactions like fairness and organisational attractiveness. We also found that candidates tend to prefer a swift and straightforward assessment process and are likely to disengage if it feels unnecessarily long or convoluted. They value assessments that are easy to complete at home and at their own pace, with clear instructions on the objectives and expectations throughout the process. 

4. Feedback

Feedback (providing information regarding some aspect of a candidate’s performance or status in the selection process) is an incredibly useful yet highly underutilised strategy to bolster candidate relationships. Many organisations offer little to no feedback, or only provide binary outcomes such as ‘accepted’ or ‘rejected.’ Fewer organisations take the opportunity to truly build trust and rapport with their candidates by providing richer, more personal, and valuable information. As applicants move further through the selection process, there are many steps along the way for which feedback would be incredibly beneficial, such as skills or knowledge tests, personality or ability assessments, values fit, assessment centres, and interviews.

Useful and timely feedback promotes transparency and open communication in the hiring process, signaling respect for candidates. The opportunity to give and receive feedback also fosters two-way communication between the applicant and employer. These factors are shown to improve applicants’ perceptions of fairness in the assessment process, leading to a more positive candidate experience.

Our research also showed that receiving performance-related feedback helps candidates understand their development needs and signals that the organisation is invested in their growth, an important indicator of long-term support for development and advancement. McCarthy and colleagues also note that providing real-time feedback on assessment scores specifically, whether simple or comprehensive, can be quite valuable as long as the feedback is explained and contextualised properly. Conversely, organisations that don’t provide candidates with any feedback can risk negative consequences such as feelings of injustice, lower perceived organisational attractiveness, fewer peer referrals, and lower intentions to re-apply for other jobs. It is important to note though that providing detailed feedback can have drawbacks, such as negative feedback making candidates upset or deflating feelings of self-worth. Although organisations must balance constructive delivery with care, the benefits of offering meaningful feedback to encourage future growth is worthwhile.

Use positive candidate relationships to strengthen your brand

Candidate relationship management has become a defining element of the employer brand. Every interaction during the selection process helps to shape candidate perceptions about the organisation and whether they choose to engage with it in the future. Investing in candidate relationship management by prioritising transparency, engaging assessments, meaningful feedback, and a consistent journey goes a long way in building trust, strengthening brand reputation, and creating a more reliable, future-ready talent pipeline.