I recently helped Dice interpret the results of a 300-tech candidate survey they completed around the HR black hole.  No surprise, a lot of savvy candidates are finding ways to avoid HR to get their resume directly into the hands of hiring managers.  Social media and the web have made this 100 times easier.

Some companies - like Microsoft - are making great strides towards a world where candidates can connect directly with recruiters.  (They make contact with recruiters easy on sites like this: Microsoft Careers).  And a whole bunch of other companies are taking candidate experience seriously...there are even awards now, that specifically recognize the great work taking place by recruiting leaders in our industry (The Candidate Experience Award Winners 2011).  And, as a judge and the conference awards panel host for the ERE Recruiting Excellence Awards, I regularly see candidate experience as a major focus for award winners.

Our team recently started a process improvement project that's 100% focused on candidate experience.  We're auditing the North American recruiting process for a 20,000+ employee company, with a focus on job posting and social media presence, career site ease of use and click-apply conversion, ATS auto-replies, recruiter communication and expectation setting, and the interviewing and offer process.  More and more companies are looking at their internal and external processes to see what kind of impact - if any - it's having on their employer brand, their sourcing effectiveness (drop-offs and conversion), and other key metrics (speed, quality, cost, diversity, compliance).

Have you audited your candidate experience (or at least surveyed recent hires)?  If so, what did you learn?

Want some ideas?  Here are 5 basic things you can do now to plug the HR Black Hole: Dice White Paper