Creating a Positive Candidate Experience

Today's job descriptions are awful. They drive away top talent and waste everyone's time. Here are 8 things every great job description should include: 1. A Realistic Salary Range Sorry, but $0 - $400,000 isn’t a real range. You’re not fooling anyone with this. You’re just telling candidates that you think pay transparency isn’t something you’re serious about. 2. Location Transparency Remote means remote. Fully in office is fully in office. Saying a position is “remote” only to mention it’s hybrid or in office at the bottom doesn’t help anyone. 3. Clear, Realistic Qualifications Listing every platform, skill, and qualification imaginable in an industry isn’t realistic. Get clear on your needs and goals, research the specific skills this hire needs, and include them by name. 4. Who Will Excel in This Role Outline the ideal hire for this role, including: - Traits - Tendencies - Work Style - Cultural Fit Be specific and share examples! 5. Who Isn’t a Fit for This Role Outline who wouldn’t be a good fit for this role, including: - Expectations - Tendencies - Work Style - Cultural Fit Be specific and share examples here too. 6. Describe What Success Looks Like Describe what success will look like for this hire, including: - Tangible Goals - How Goals Are Calculated - How Goals Are Monitored - How Employees Are Supported In Reaching Goals 7. Describe the Team Culture Culture is key for both employers and employees. Describe yours including: - Work Style - Boundaries - Values - Expectations 8. Outline the Hiring Process Include a step-by-step timeline of the hiring process, including: - How many rounds - Stakeholders involved - Estimated response times Then stick to it. What did I miss?

If in 2026 you’re still trying to justify Talent Attraction and Employer Branding, you’re already a step behind. Not because the function has failed—but because we’re asking the wrong question. The real conversation is no longer why EB or TA matters. It’s how it can move beyond recycled “best practice” templates and actually solve business problems. Gaining ROI from employer brand and recruitment marketing continues to be one of the biggest challenges across India Inc—and not due to lack of activity or creativity. It happens because: 📍 We don’t ask the right questions. We default to “we need more hires” or “we can’t find XYZ skills” without clearly defining what problem EB and RM are meant to solve beyond volume. 📍 We confuse symptoms with root causes. Is the challenge awareness, perception, relevance, trust, or experience? And more importantly—what role can brand and marketing realistically play in addressing those root causes? 📍 We blur branding and marketing into one bucket. Branding builds reputation and long-term preference. Marketing generates demand and leads. They are complementary, not interchangeable—and each brings a different kind of value. 📍 We judge ROI far too quickly. One or two campaigns don’t define success or failure. Employer branding is an investment, not a quarterly experiment. 📍 And finally—the most uncomfortable question of all: Do you have leaders who are willing to learn, unlearn, and commit to building a long-term business case for employer branding and recruitment marketing? For me, this is the single biggest success factor. Without credible sponsorship, trust, and leadership backing, no amount of investment will deliver results. Because this work demands behavior change, process change, and systematic change—not just better creatives. No brand became a top employer overnight, with zero investment, or without delivering on an authentic promise. So maybe the real ROI question isn’t what did this campaign deliver, but are we brave enough as HR, TA, and business leaders to change our perspective and play the long game? #EmployerBranding #TalentAttraction #RecruitmentMarketing

I had 15 rounds of interviews. Across many months. The process was rigorous, textbook, meticulous. It was for a position at a top global executive search firm. Everyone was involved. And on paper? The process was flawless. I was hired. Then came the realisation: We both got it wrong. It wasn’t a fit. Here’s what no one wants to say out loud: - More interviews ≠ better decisions. - Confidence in a candidate ≠ compatibility with your context. We hire the résumé. Then we work with the real human. And most interview processes don’t even come close to revealing who that person is: - under pressure, - in conflict, or - in real-world ambiguity. I learned the hard way. To get beneath the surface, you need to ask questions that bypass the rehearsed answers. You need to disarm people — not trap them. Here are 10 top interview questions for hiring manager to work with: 1. “When did you last completely fail at something you cared about? What changed after?” Shows resilience, self-awareness, and how they grow from failure. 2. “What’s a story you’ve told yourself about your career that you’ve had to unlearn?” Reveals capacity for growth, humility, and evolving perspectives. 3. “What would your harshest critic say about your leadership style?” Uncovers blind spots and emotional intelligence. 4. “What are you still trying to figure out about yourself?” Tests honesty, vulnerability, and self-reflection. 5. “Tell me about the last time you were in a room where no one agreed with you — and you were still right.” Surfaces conviction, influence, and independent thinking. 6. “What kind of culture would exhaust you — even if you were successful in it?” Cuts to real values and long-term cultural fit. 7. “If you were in this role, what’s one thing we’re currently doing that you’d immediately challenge?” Tests courage, insight, and fresh perspective. 8. “What’s a risk you didn’t take — and still regret?” Shows decision-making patterns and appetite for risk. 9. “What part of your professional identity is just armour?” Gets past the façade to the real person underneath. 10. “If we don’t hire you, what would be the real reason why?” Reveals self-awareness, honesty, and unspoken concerns. These questions reveal patterns. How someone reflects. Responds. Recovers. Grows. And that — more than any CV — is what predicts leadership impact. Hiring is not about certainty. It’s about clarity. It’s about asking the questions most people avoid. And listening for the answers that aren't always neat or polished. ♻️ Repost to help hiring managers hire better. Have a great week ahead dear reader! #culturematters #leadership #aviation

"If you want to get hired, send a thank you note" - influencers everywhere. But what if - and here me out - we shifted from putting this expectation on candidates, to asking employers to show some gratitude to the people who put time and energy into interviewing with them? The people doing the interviewing? They're being paid by their employer and doing their job by building their teams. But jobseekers are spending hours on each interview process with no guarantee of payoff. So here are a few ideas employers might consider to show some appreciation to those people who invest in your company through the interview process: 1. candidate.fyi recently rolled out a cool new feature allowing employers to offer exclusive discounts to candidates as a "thank you" during the interview process. Their platform manages and tracks all of this for you as well, and it could give candidates even more insight into your product and brand which can help them be more competitive in the future. 2. Consider compensating candidates when you ask them to put extensive time into a take-home project, or if anything in their work could be utilized by your company in the future. If this is too tricky, a gift card, swag, or even a personalized thank you note following an interview could be a show of appreciation for their efforts. 3. Provide other helpful resources! For example, at Zapier, we've gotten a lot of positive feedback on sharing a list of other remote companies that are hiring as well as some of the organizations we partner with that could be helpful to candidates in their own job search. These are all low-lift steps you can take to help candidates feel a bit more appreciated, build your employer brand, and keep those top candidates excited to come back and explore opportunities next time you have an opening. And if you're an employer thinking that a bad candidate experience doesn't negatively impact your business, think again. Back in 2017, Virgin Media realized they were losing $5M annually as a result of a poor candidate experience. Perhaps investing in candidate experience in 2024 could be the reason you hit bonus in 2025! P.S. I would be remiss if I didn't say that a thank you note isn't going to get you hired. It's always a polite thing to do but it's not going to be a game changer. - someone who has hired tens of thousands of people over the years.

The European Commission has officially published its draft guidelines on AI transparency obligations (Article 50). While much of the recent political debate in Brussels has focused on the delayed timelines for high-risk systems, these new guidelines deal with the immediate requirement for transparency. I have reviewed the 40-page document. Here are the four most critical takeaways for your HR technology strategy: 1️⃣ The end of the 'generic assistant' trap Many recruitment teams use AI chatbots that are given human names or labelled vaguely as 'virtual assistants'. The draft guidelines explicitly target this practice. You must clearly inform candidates about the artificial, non-human nature of the interacting counterpart. A single disclosure buried in your Terms and Conditions is no longer sufficient. The guidelines strongly recommend multi-modal disclosures, such as persistent badges visible throughout the interaction. 2️⃣ Emotion recognition is a prohibited practice The guidelines address the transparency requirements for emotion recognition systems but they include a crucial reminder for the HR sector. The use of emotion recognition is outright prohibited in the workplace. If a vendor pitches an assessment tool claiming to analyse a candidate's facial expressions or vocal tone to infer their emotional state, reject it. It is not just poor science; it is a prohibited practice under the AI Act. 3️⃣ There is no 'grandfathering' for transparency You might assume that because you procured your AI screening tool years ago it is exempt from these new rules. The draft guidelines clarify that while a special grandfathering rule applies to high-risk compliance for legacy systems, it does not apply to transparency obligations. Every AI system you use that interacts with humans or generates synthetic content must be updated to meet these transparency standards regardless of when you bought it. 4️⃣ Mandatory transparency for GenAI communications If your team uses generative AI to draft candidate rejection emails, automate interview feedback, or write job adverts, you can no longer seamlessly pass this off as human-authored. The guidelines dictate that AI-generated synthetic text (or images, audio etc.) must be marked in a machine-readable format and be fully detectable. Furthermore, individuals must be informed clearly at the very first point of exposure. If you rely heavily on AI to mass-produce automated communications, your workflow will require immediate structural updates to remain compliant. The consultation period for these guidelines closes on 3 June 2026. We must stop treating AI transparency as a legal hurdle and start viewing it as a fundamental pillar of candidate trust. I have attached the full draft guidance document below and I have dropped the link to the official consultation in the comments. Are your technology vendors prepared to meet these stringent transparency standards? Are your internally built tools (agents)?

Every Talent Acquisition Manager should adopt this exercise: Mapping the candidate journey from initial contact to hire. Here's my approach: Create a Miro file, and working from left to right: - Where do candidates first hear about our company? - What are the steps in our recruitment process? - How does this process lead to a successful hire? Then, moving left to right, optimise the process: - How can we improve our conversion rates (i.e., interview to hire)? - How can we re-engage candidates who drop out of the process? - How can we enhance the candidate experience? Next, determine what and how to monitor: - Add stickers for key recruitment events - Categorise candidate lifecycle stages To conclude: - Review and refine the process every 6 months. - This exercise establishes a Talent Acquisition framework. Apply it to: - Enhance the candidate experience - Visualise new recruitment strategies - Determine what to automate and how - Evaluate the effectiveness of different recruitment channels Pro tip: Go through the process yourself to see it from a candidate's perspective.

Global employee engagement just dropped to 21%. Leadership teams are asking a more urgent question: Why aren’t the best people choosing us? Most companies respond the same way. They refine the careers page. They update the values. They launch an internal brand campaign. And still, the talent they want goes elsewhere. Because top talent isn’t persuaded by messaging. They’re pulled by meaning. In 1878, George Cadbury had a choice about how to grow his company. He could have expanded his factory like everyone else. Instead, he built Bournville. A place designed around a better way to live and work. Not a campaign, or a careers page. An environment. He didn’t ask people to adopt values. He built a world where those values were real. That’s the shift most companies haven’t made yet. They are still trying to tell people what the culture is. The companies winning talent are building brands that make culture unmistakable. A clear point of view. An idea of the future. A level of ambition people want to be part of. Because the smartest people are not just looking for perks. They’re looking for a place that sharpens them. Challenges them. Expands what they’re capable of. This is where Motto does some of our best work. We approach employer branding as part of the brand itself. We help companies define a single, clear Idea Worth Rallying Around®. Not a collection of values or a vague mission. An idea with gravity. The kind that attracts people who want to do meaningful work and filters out those who don’t. Then we build the brand around it so it shows up everywhere talent looks. ↪ What you say. ↪ What you ship. ↪ How you operate. So when the right people encounter your company, the decision is already made. “This is the company I want to build with.” Because employer branding is not a layer on top of the business. It is the signal your entire company sends about what it stands for and who it’s built for. Motto®

Novartis has announced a bold step: by 2027, they will make salary ranges transparent for all candidates globally — part of their renewed commitment to the UN’s Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC). This isn’t just a policy change. It’s a signal. In Switzerland’s life sciences sector, where talent is scarce and competition is fierce, transparency could quickly become a differentiator — and even a deciding factor when candidates choose between multiple offers. But the implications go further. As a Swiss-based Sr Talent Partner who has worked across EMEA, I see this as part of a larger shift in how organisations approach talent. If a market leader like Novartis sets this standard, it won’t be long before candidates in tech, finance, and manufacturing expect the same. What begins in life sciences could ripple across industries. For talent acquisition and HR leaders, this raises both opportunities and challenges: •How do we integrate transparency into global hiring frameworks? •How do we balance local market norms with global commitments? •And most importantly — how do we use this shift to build trust and strengthen employer brands? My view: salary transparency won’t just change conversations. It will reshape expectations. And in a competitive market like Switzerland — and across EMEA — the organisations that adapt fastest will gain a clear edge. 👉 What do you think: will transparency stay industry-specific, or will it become the baseline for all hiring in the years ahead? #TalentPartner #TalentStrategy #LifeSciences #Recruitment #Switzerland #EMEA #SalaryTransparency #EqualPay

Is it time we disrupt recruitment? So many people I know are job-hunting right now, and the process is exhausting. Having recently gone through a recruitment process at my organization, I saw firsthand how even well-intentioned systems can fall short. 👉. We skipped the cover letter, asked two focused questions, acknowledged every application, and gave feedback. And still, I know we can do better. So I’ve been wondering: what needs to change? - Why do we still expect every applicant to write a tailored cover letter? - Should we really celebrate 1,000 applicants when 999 are left jobless? We’ve normalized a system that demands hours of unpaid labour from candidates, with little transparency, no feedback, and often, zero acknowledgment. 👉. In most industries, that would be unacceptable. In recruitment, it’s standard. Candidates are expected to thank interviewers for their (paid) time, while their own emotional, mental, and logistical labour often goes unacknowledged, even as they navigate financial stress, bias, systemic barriers, or burnout. - Traditional hiring doesn’t just overlook people, it reinforces exclusion and bias. - The systems we’ve normalized disproportionately disadvantage those already marginalized by age, class, gender, disability, and more. What might a more equitable recruitment system look like? ⭕. Here are a few places to start: 👉. Cover letters on invitation only: Ask for them after shortlisting. Focus on relevance, not volume. 👉. AI transparency: If AI use is discouraged or encouraged in applications, say so. Level the playing field. 👉. Applicant volume visibility: If over 100 people have applied, inform candidates and give them the option to opt in or out. This transparency respects their time and expectations. - While I'm not a coder, I trust this would be relatively straightforward to implement on most application platforms. 👉. Close applications after a fair volume: Don’t quietly collect thousands of applications. Be clear. Set limits. 👉. Feedback as a norm: Even a short, automated “why not” message honors people’s time. Ghosting doesn’t. 👉. Paid interview stages: If you want a presentation, strategy, or task, outside of the interviewing time, pay for it. Unpaid tests = free consulting. In other words, no “take home” assignments. 👉. Skills over credentials: Prioritise portfolios, projects, and experience, especially for career-changers and self-taught talent. 👉. Human + tech screening: Don’t outsource discernment to Applicant Tracking System (ATS) filters alone. Tech should assist, not replace. 👉. Co-designed job descriptions: Involve people who’ve held the role. Ditch jargon. Center lived expertise. Recruitment should reflect the values we claim to hold in our workplaces: transparency, respect, accessibility, equity. Disruption doesn’t mean throwing everything out. It means rebuilding what was never fair to begin with. ❓. What other practices would you add?

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗨 𝗣𝗮𝘆 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝘅 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀. 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆? For companies operating in Europe, this is a seismic shift in how you structure, report, and communicate pay. The Directive flips the burden of proof - it’s now up to employers, not employees, to justify pay differences. That means deep changes are coming in how you manage reward, recruitment, and reporting. Here’s what your organisation needs to prepare for: 🔹𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 - Implement a robust grading framework using fair, gender-neutral criteria - Be ready to justify differences in pay - for performance, experience, geography - with clear, defensible logic - Without a consolidated HRIS, this becomes even more complex and will require planning 🔹𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Pay bands, criteria, and pathways need to be codified and shared 🔹𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Individuals, unions or works councils can request average pay data by category and gender - Employers must proactively inform employees of this right annually 🔹𝗣𝗮𝘆 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 - Starts in 2027, based on 2026 data - Requires gender pay gaps by band, by quartile - including all variable components (bonuses, LTI, commissions etc) 🔹𝗘𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 - If a pay gap >5% exists and isn’t closed within six months, you’ll be required to undergo a formal Joint Pay Assessment - this is likely to be onerous 🔹𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 - No asking candidates about current pay - Pay ranges must be disclosed before interviews - Must take care in setting starting salaries to avoid introducing pay gaps from day one - Gender-neutral job titles, salary decisions and progression criteria are essential - Employees must be free to discuss pay without consequence This is about more than compliance - it’s about credibility and trust and making meaningful progress in addressing pay gaps. If your organisation has a pay gap to close and needs identifying how to address this, we’re here to help. #PayTransparency #GenderEquity ************************* I help global organisations close the gender leadership gap - not with quick fixes, but with evidence-based change that lasts, through talent acceleration programmes, coaching and gender equity diagnostics and consulting. Join our mailing list to be the first to hear about our research, insights, and real-world solutions > shapetalent.com