People over Process – transforming the candidate experience

It’s no secret that across the board, candidates find the recruitment process extremely frustrating – the whole process takes too long, communication is lacking throughout, too much information is needed and so on. We’ve been that employer in the past. We know that it contributes to losing talent and damages the employer brand which leads to making talent acquisition even harder.

Personally, I have been in the position, waiting for call and not hearing back. Missing out on a role and not knowing why. No-one likes it and now we want to do something about it.

At CUB we’re committed to improving the candidate experience and managing the additional HR challenges and opportunities brought about by the changing digital, economic, demographic and social landscape. Over the last 18 months, we have been doing things differently and we will continue to adapt and improve our processes. Our focus is people over process.

We see our candidates as ‘customers’ and the recruitment process as the ‘product’. We want candidates to ‘buy’ us because the process is so easy and engaging. The key to making our product desirable is to make it easier and to have a high level of human interaction. Finding the right person for us is critical, as is finding the right job for the candidate.

We are streamlining our recruitment process to make it as fast and simple as possible. CUB candidates are no longer required to provide a cover letter, and we are looking at LinkedIn resumes. That’s a substantial reduction in pain and time!

Not only are we making the process simpler, we’re also improving engagement by employing simulations to connect with talent. We have recently adopted augmented reality (AR) technology to give potential employees a real-time experience of what it’s like to work with us. Candidates can use AR to tour the brewery and office, and listen to first-hand experience from our staff.

However, our key differential for enhancing the candidate experience is not technology, but good old-fashioned human contact. We take this very seriously. At the conclusion of our recent Global Management Team Training Program, every graduate was called by a VP to congratulate them on their offer of a position.

Regularly, feedback from our candidates is that they are surprised at the level of engagement with real people. While HR facilitates the recruitment process, our managers are very involved and ultimately accountable for building their teams and finding the best talent. Because of this high accountability senior managers are often involved in many steps of the hiring process.

As part of our candidate-centric recruitment process, we won’t be using video or ‘record me’ technology, as we know candidates don’t like it, and that it’s difficult to perform well in these circumstances. We won’t sacrifice the candidate experience and how potential recruits feel through the process to reduce time or cost.

At CUB we believe that our greatest strength is our people. We want to recruit the best people, and we know that transforming our recruitment process so it is fast, simple and engaging is key to this. So come on, why not ‘buy’ from us?