Episode 143
Transforming Candidate Experience with Paul Peterson of Grant Thornton
Paul Peterson shares how Grant Thornton transformed hiring by mapping every candidate touchpoint, measuring emotional response, and acting on feedback. Discover the simple changes that doubled survey completion and improved offer acceptance rates.
Episode Key Takeaways
Mapping 25–30 candidate touchpoints and defining the desired emotional response at each stage creates a measurable framework for experience. Rather than chasing perfection across all touchpoints in year one, focus on the two or three weakest areas, then iterate annually—this prevents team burnout and compounds improvements over time.
Paul Peterson’s team discovered that a single open-text survey question outperformed incentivized multi-question surveys by a factor of two. Simplicity drives completion rates far more than financial rewards; one recruiter doubled response rates by simply asking candidates for help and feedback as a human gesture.
Automated status notifications at every stage—application received, resume review, phone screen, interview—cost nothing but deliver outsized candidate satisfaction. The gap between offer signature and start date emerged as a critical vulnerability; candidates remain impressionable and need continued engagement, not silence.
Detailed, specific feedback is the single highest-value lever in candidate experience. Recruiters initially believed generic rejection reasons sufficed; survey data revealed candidates craved granular, honest feedback on performance in specific areas—a behavior shift that also improved employer brand among rejected candidates.
Sentiment analysis tools absorb large volumes of open-ended feedback without manual coding, enabling teams to scale personalized experience as applicant volume grows. Grant Thornton also publishes its recruitment methodology transparently (no AI in assessment, human-led sourcing) to build trust and differentiate in a commoditized talent market.
Frequently
Asked
Questions
How do you measure candidate experience if it's subjective?
Define the emotions you want candidates to feel at each touchpoint—inspiration, intrigue, clarity, confidence—then design surveys to detect those signals. Brief, single-question surveys with open text boxes yield 25–30% response rates. Segment feedback by candidate quality (hired vs. rejected, local vs. international) to weight insights appropriately.
What's the biggest weak spot most recruiting teams miss?
The period between offer acceptance and start date. Most teams treat it as ‘done deal’ and go silent. Candidates remain vulnerable and impressionable during this window. Simple touchpoints—welcome emails, onboarding previews, check-ins—significantly reduce post-signature regret and improve day-one engagement.
How often should you review candidate feedback data?
Quarterly is optimal once your system matures. Monthly reviews generate noise and false signals early on. Semi-annual reviews work for low-volume stages. Tie review frequency to sample size—only act on process changes when you have enough data to validate the insight, not on 35 responses out of 1,000 applications.
Can you really improve offer acceptance rates through experience alone?
Yes. Grant Thornton tracks acceptance rates by city and manually interviews declined candidates to isolate experience factors from market factors. Campus hiring acceptance rates improved to 85–90% through better onboarding communication and expectation-setting. Retention rates also correlate with hiring experience quality, proving the business case.
How do you scale personalized feedback as applications grow?
Use sentiment analysis to process large volumes of open-ended feedback and identify themes without manual coding. For high-volume campus hiring, reallocate resources temporarily to maintain feedback quality. Be transparent about where you use technology (sourcing, sentiment analysis) and where you don’t (assessment, final decisions) to maintain trust.