Experience matters. (And not just as a line on your resume!)
Focus on the experience you want to create before you tackle the process or tech that will get you there.
If you’ve taken our Make Recruitment Your Superpower quiz and gotten your ROX™ Scorecard Report, you might be wondering: why all the focus on experience?
Maybe we overdid it.
But the reality is, a lot of organisations aren’t getting recruitment and onboarding right, and it’s leading to a ripple effect of issues:
Missing out on great candidates
Longer ramp-up times for new hires
Hiring managers pulled in too many directions
A reactive HR cycle that never quite settle
These challenges aren’t new, but they persist - often because the focus is on process and efficiency rather than experience. I like to ask, ‘Does your recruitment process feel like an assessment or an invitation to experience your brand?’
It’s not just one experience
When we talk about Recruitment & Onboarding eXperience - or ROX as we call it - we mean the full picture. The candidate experience (which hopefully becomes the new starter experience) is just one part. There’s also:
The hiring manager’s experience (because hiring is rarely their full-time job)
The team’s experience (since new hires impact existing dynamics)
And others who play a role along the way
Recently, while working with a hospitality client, we saw this in action. Their hiring managers were deeply invested in recruitment but simply didn’t have the time to prepare the way they wanted to. Like their own wellbeing, it was something they knew was important but often took a backseat to the constant firefighting of daily operations. As a result, candidate experience suffered - not because they didn’t care, but because they weren’t set up to succeed.
By making a few intentional changes, we helped optimise their experience - enabling hiring managers to be more prepared and present, particularly during interviews. The result? A better experience for them and their candidates.
Why this matters
No matter how much effort goes into writing the perfect job ad, refining interview techniques, or designing onboarding programs, what really matters is how it feels to the people experiencing it. A well-designed process on paper doesn’t always translate to a great experience in practice.
And that’s the key - understanding the real experience, not just the intended one.
Not all experiences are created equal
Like anything in business, there are trade-offs. Investing in recruitment and onboarding experience means prioritising it over something else. It won’t always be the top focus, but if the experience of joining your organisation is an afterthought, it can have long-term consequences.
The best talent has choices. What kind of experience are you creating? And are you making your organisation an easy ‘yes’?
Haven’t taken the quiz yet? Take it now and get your commitment-free ROX™ Scorecard Report in the time it takes for a barista to make your next coffee.
Need to dig deeper and get an action plan tailored to your organisation’s specific needs?
Talk to our team to get our ROX health check to understand from our independent experts how the experience you’re delivering today stacks up.