Could Your Hiring Process Use Some ‘Mystery Shopping’?

What kind of experience do you offer to job candidates who apply for open roles at your organisation? Your talent acquisition team might think they have a pretty good idea of your company’s candidate experience. But when was the last time they really put themselves in candidates’ shoes to get a firsthand look at your organisation’s hiring process, from beginning to end, from the jobseeker’s perspective?

To get this behind-the-scenes look, they could consider borrowing a technique used in retail and other customer-facing sectors like hospitality: mystery shopping. A mystery shopper is essentially “undercover” — someone who is hired to observe, interact and report on their experience with a store or company. Organisations use this method to see how shoppers are treated and, ultimately, to understand and improve their customers’ journey.

In my previous work, I have seen these programs in operation and interacted with mystery shoppers, whose research runs the gamut from asking store employees hard questions that require thoughtful responses to interrupting an employee mid-checkout with something trivial, like how to find a product. The goal is to create varying circumstances and live through the customers’ experience. And this is where mystery shopping can benefit your candidate experience — by letting your talent acquisition team live through the hiring process from the jobseeker’s perspective. 

Go with the flow

The first thing your team can do when mystery shopping of candidates for your hiring process is to apply to all of your company’s open roles. They can take notes as they go and keep a record of typos, inconsistencies, confusing information and, generally speaking, anything that looks or feels off. They should also count each click they make throughout the application process. 

Why? In a recent report on the state of the apply flow in the US, InFlight, an employee experience platform, mystery shopped the career sites of Fortune 500 companies to gain insights into the application process for software developer applicants. On average, it took 51 clicks to complete an application. Even then, the candidates were not finished; they still had to hit ‘apply now’ three or more times before their applications were finally complete. That is not exactly making the process any easier. 

The application is only one part of the candidate experience, so once your hiring team have hit submit, it is time for them to sit back, wait patiently, and see what happens. Do they hear back from a recruiter? Do they get to schedule an interview? Do they receive feedback? Or does their resume go into that big black hole and get lost? They should consider how this would make them feel as an actual applicant — and what that experience could mean for your company’s employer brand.

Now, your team should repeat the same exercise with one of your competitors. They can just go as far as they can through the application process to develop a sense of their candidate experience from different angles. From here, they can assess how your company’s hiring process compares to your competitor’s.

Pay attention to detail

Beyond the number of steps in the process and any errors they find in the job description, your team should dive deep into the application details. A job description is not only what is written — what your hiring team are not saying is also worth noting. If your goal is to have more inclusive hiring processes, is your team communicating that to candidates? Are they explaining what steps your company is taking to support a culture of belonging? The same goes for other important employment aspects, such as work-life balance, flexibility and remote work. They should make note of how much information your company shares in the job description and where the information they have shared could be clearer.

As your acquisition team takes a closer look at your company’s hiring process, they should consider ease of use and accessibility. If your applicant pool is applying on mobile devices, for example, your team could remove any upload fields and make sure buttons and dropdowns display accurately across devices. They should also be keeping applicants with motor, sensory and neurological differences in mind. A study conducted by the International Labour Organization offered suggestions for designing a user-friendly experience that is accessible to all. It also discussed how some well-known companies like IBM and ITC Hotels, among others, have incorporated these and have been recognised for their advocacy of employees with disabilities.

Draw a map

When I was younger and worked in retail, a mystery shopper came up to me in the store I managed and said we needed a map. Her take was that the store was well-lit and clean and offered everything it should — but that customers did not know where to find what they needed. Though I realised it later, this was brilliant advice. 

Everyone in talent acquisition knows that candidates want to learn more, be that about the job, the hiring process or what it is like to work for your organisation. When your acquisition team uses mystery shopping to live through and analyse your company’s candidate experience, they are able to create a better map. Mystery shopping helps them fill in gaps in your existing map, adding the details they need to understand and improve the experience. From revealing missing bits of information in a job description to highlighting ways to improve hiring processes, these mystery shoppers collect data that is otherwise inaccessible. And, by allowing your team members to temporarily transform into the role of job candidate, mystery shopping provides the firsthand, human perspective that turns your map from greyscale to colour.

To keep your map up to date and nip any potential issues in the bud, I recommend your team performs mystery shopping on a quarterly basis. They should refer back to your map and update it each and every time they go mystery shopping. They can then use it to guide candidates on their journey — and keep everyone on the same page.