A poor candidate experience often stems from several factors. Lack of communication, clunky assessment journeys, unstructured processes and lack of transparency can turn job seekers away and tarnish an employer’s reputation.

In fact, as many as 60% of candidates admit they would drop out of a recruitment process they find overly complicated, and 49% would turn down an offer after a bad recruitment experience. To make matters worse, of those who have a negative candidate experience, 72% go on to share that information with others.

And bad publicity comes with a cost. Virgin Media calculated that a poor candidate experience can cost large enterprises as much as £4.4 million per year, both due to the inability to attract top talent and the direct financial impact of a damaged brand reputation.

Engaging candidates while maintaining scientific validity

Making recruitment processes engaging and accessible shouldn’t come at the expense of the science behind assessments. In fact, a well-designed aptitude test or personality questionnaire can help reduce ambiguity and provide a clear sense of purpose, creating a fairer environment where candidates can demonstrate their true abilities. A structured assessment journey that includes clear guidance and feedback opportunities helps candidates feel more confident, improving both their experience and the accuracy of the results.

For instance, test anxiety can have a negative effect on performance. Designing assessments that alleviate this anxiety by making certain adjustments – such as not displaying timers during completion or providing guidance and feedback after every stage – can benefit both candidate experience and the scientific validity of the results. By controlling for variables such as anxiety, employers can offer a recruitment journey that is not only more enjoyable but also fairer and more accurate at identifying suitable applicants. Ultimately, balancing engagement and scientific rigour can help organisations create more inclusive and effective hiring processes.

Sky’s candidate journey

As one of Europe’s leading media and entertainment companies, Sky goes through several recruitment cycles every year, which translates to thousands of applicants, all potential customers and advocates or detractors of the brand.

In a recent talk at the IHR Live London event, Puja Kumar, Sky’s Senior Talent Assessment Manager, the company’s talent acquisition explained how they provide applicants with a simple, enjoyable hiring experience. Sky’s team partnered with Sova to develop a recruitment process that seamlessly progresses candidates through every stage of the assessment journey, all in the same platform.

For assessments, Sova and Sky worked together to create a blended assessment that measures the skills, aptitudes, and values they were looking for in their new hires. Traditional personality questionnaires and situational judgement tests, as well as cognitive ability tests, were blended into a single assessment that made the process more agile.

After completing the assessment, Sky’s candidates can progress through the following hiring stages by using the same link. This continuity ensures candidates feel supported and can access all resources without disruption.

To ensure that applicants and can gain a comprehensive view of Sky as an employer, Sky’s hiring team designed transparent instructions and recorded explainer videos that candidates can watch on the same platform as they progress through the video interview and virtual assessment stages.

Valuing transparency, Sky uses Sova’s automated feedback function to ensure that candidates don’t have to wait days to find out their results. The reports include contextual information on their performance, providing insights that candidates can learn from and use to improve their future applications.

Sky’s commitment to candidate experience paid off: since introducing Sova for their volume hiring, 90% of their candidates have reported finding the assessments engaging, and 85% have appreciated the clarity and ease of instructions, Puja explained during her talk. Assessment completion rates have also increased from 56% to 86%, indicating that the instructions are clearer and that the test is more engaging and easier to follow, she added.

The importance of a straightforward recruitment experience

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