How a Hands on Approach to Interviewing Led to SapientNitro Winning a Candidate Experience Award

Completing an online application process may seem like a victory by itself.  Now, though, you have been called in for a job interview.  While you are excited, you might be a little stressed when it comes to preparing for this all important meeting.  As a job seeker, wouldn’t it be a plus to have some support during the interview process?

SapientNitro is a new breed of agency redefining storytelling for an always-on world.  They’re changing the way clients engage today’s connected consumers by uniquely creating integrated, immersive stories across brand communications, digital engagement, and omni-channel commerce.  They call it Storyscaping, where art and imagination meet the power and scale of systems thinking.  SapientNitro’s unique combination of creative, brand and technology expertise results in one global team collaborating across disciplines, perspectives and continents to create game-changing success for their Global 1000 clients, such as Chrysler, Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Lufthansa, Target, and Vodafone, in 31 cities across The Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.  For more information, visit http://www.sapientnitro.com/.

SapientNitro was also named 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 Emily Brewer, Senior Manager of Global Marketing at SapientNitro, says about why her company applied for the Candidate Experience Award.

The experience a candidate has while interviewing with your organization can have a huge influence on their decision at offer stage. It is a great opportunity to demonstrate your company personality, ethos and culture as well as show how you value employees. Since we strive for excellence in all aspects of our candidate experience we decided to put it to the test and apply for the CandE to see how we measured up.

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

We have a team of recruiting coordinators that are assigned to a candidate throughout their interview process, in addition to their recruiter relationship. They are there for candidates every step of the way and help manage some of the aspects of interviewing that can be more stressful than meeting the hiring managers like booking travel, providing detailed interview day agendas and scheduling post interview follow-ups.

–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.