How Emphasis on Communication with Job Seekers Led to Business & Technology Resource Group, Inc. Winning a Candidate Experience Award

Job seekers do not want to be neglected in the application process.  Once they have submitted their applications online, they should not have to think about whether or not they will receive a response.  Instead, applicants should know their status every step of the way.  That is why companies need to focus on building a recruiting system that provides effective communication.

Since 1993, the Business & Technology Resource Group, Inc. (BTRG) has been a leading provider of IT software consulting and solutions services to customers, backed by strong partnerships with Oracle and IBM.  BTRG provides full-lifecycle support and staff augmentation services for HCM, SCM, and Financial applications, as well as data management and performance management projects.  Their project teams work with both public and private sector customers throughout the United States and Canada.  BTRG has offices in Buffalo, NY, Chantilly, VA, Media, PA, and Mississauga, ON.  In addition, BTRG’s emphasis on communicating with job seekers in a structured fashion helps them stand out as a 2012 Candidate Experience Award Winner.

Now in its third year, The Candidate Experience (CandE) Awards and benchmarking program is designed to evaluate the job candidate experience companies offer through their recruitment cycles and honor those companies that implement outstanding strategies to provide a consistent and positive experience for jobseekers. The CandE Awards program consists of three survey rounds designed to capture and evaluate a company’s recruitment processes and practices that impact the candidate experience. Companies that complete the first round submission process receive a complimentary Employer Benchmark Report, and those that meet the standard for candidate experience are invited to advance in the competition.  The CandE Awards program is complimentary and confidential, and all CandE Award winners will be celebrated at the HR Technology Conference in Chicago this October.

Employers interested in competing or receiving benchmarking data must complete their applications by June 28, 2013. To learn more about the Candidate Experience Awards and the application process, please visit http://www.thecandes.org/apply.

The Candidate Experience Awards (the CandE Awards) was created by veterans of the recruiting industry to help employment candidates have a better experience when they apply for work.  Although the CandE Awards is a competition, it exists to enable any company to benchmark and improve their candidate experience.  The organization behind the CandE awards is the Talent Board, a non-profit research organization.  The Talent Board recognizes that finding new employment is inherently stressful for most job seekers and their families.  Its mission is to help employers and candidates to have a more effective, efficient, and humane exchange during the recruiting process.  The Talent Board believes that the best way to improve candidate experience is to provide corporations with research that helps them to benchmark and improve their operation.

Here is what Chloe Hansen-Toone, Associate HCM Consultant at BTRG, Inc., says about why her company applied for the Candidate Experience Award.

Because of the dynamic nature of the consulting industry, recruiting at BTRG is in ongoing process. As an IT Solutions Provider, we continually seek and vet qualified resources to add to our talent network for current and future opportunities. Recruiting plays a critical role in ensuring the success of our projects, thus it’s vital that we maintain a positive candidate experience at BTRG. We work to ensure that every one of our candidates has a memorable and valuable experience, regardless of the outcome. This award was an excellent opportunity to both evaluate our efforts internally and also glean insight into our candidate experience from our actual candidate pool. We knew that win or lose; we would be rewarded with valuable information by which to improve.

Hansen-Toone also shares what makes her company unique, yet important with respect to the candidate experience.

With the explosion of internet recruiting, it’s all too common for candidates to feel as though their resumes are dropped into a “black hole.” From the moment a candidate applies to a posting at BTRG, through the evaluation and interview processes, and up to the final decision, we keep our candidates in the loop.  Through defined processes and by utilizing a customized recruiting system, we make it a point to ensure that our candidates do not feel as if they are struggling to receive communication or information from us. Our recruiting team takes the time to give personal and transparent communication to our applicants and candidates, which is truly unique in today’s market. Our recruiting team members also are dedicated to studying and learning best practices by evaluating other recruiting-heavy companies to learn from what they’re doing right or wrong. By committing to ongoing improvement and staying conscious to the candidate’s situation, we’re able to deliver our best possible recruiting efforts.

–Article by William Frierson, staff writer for CollegeRecruiter.com, the leading niche job board used by college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities. Steven Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, is a member of the 2013 Candidate Experience Council which helps to steer the future of the CandEs awards and benchmarking program by drawing on the expertise and knowledge of the HR community’s thought leaders.