How candidates use your hiring process to assess your culture.
Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: Candidates are absolutely judging your hiring processes. Constantly. From the moment they land on your careers page to the moment you send that offer letter.
In fact, an organisations hiring process in the UK has become one of the strongest signals of organisational culture – and job seekers know it.
In the wider health and social care sector, where compassion, trust and values are at the heart of everything we do, that assessment matters even more.
The hiring process reflects your organisation in miniature
Think of your recruitment process as a window or “day-in-the-life” of working or volunteering for you. Candidates no longer will just hear about your culture; they will experience it in real time. They will also make assumptions based on the process they experience:
- Slow to communicate with applicants? = “this organisation doesn’t prioritise me”
- Automated emails / rejections? = “this organisation is no different to any other”
- Warm, human interaction? = “this is a place that cares about its staff”
- Confusing job advert? = “do they actually know what they need this role to do?”
- Direct engagement with a hiring manager? = “this team must be led really well”
And the data supports this… A study by HRlineUp found that 78% of candidates felt that their hiring experience reflects how an employer treats its staff. A study by CareerPlug reported 66% of candidates said a positive recruitment experience influenced their decision to accept a job offer.
Candidates are doing their homework (and then some)
Especially in health and social care, done are the days of quick glance at a job description before applying. Quality, serious candidates in 2025 are doing far more detective work:
- Reviewing Glassdoor ratings
- Checking your website for values (and if they feel genuine)
- Reading staff stories and social media posts
- Comparing your organisation and role against others
We will always receive applications that seem like someone hasn’t researched us at all. But the good candidates, the quality you are searching for, they have a standard they expect to see before they apply. In health care specifically, nearly half of candidates research employer reputation before applying (jobtrain).
For hospices, this is particularly important and where we can shine – candidates are not just choosing a job, they are choosing a mission, values, and a commitment to their community.
Small moments, big signals
This is a bit that often gets overlooked: it’s not about large gestures that shape a candidate’s perception, it’s about the little things.
Such as:
- Did we acknowledge their application?
- Have we communicated a timeline?
- Do all candidates receive an outcome?
- Are we providing feedback?
- Do our interviews feel like a conversation, or an interrogation?
This is because:
- 49% of candidates have turned down a job offer due to a poor hiring experience (hrlineup)
- 72% of candidates admitted to sharing bad experiences with others (standout-cv)
That second point is particularly important. Healthcare professionals, for example, talk to each other. Hospices, recruit from their communities. That one candidate that didn’t hear back from you? Could have told their entire team, members of their family, friends, even their pets!
That ripple effect can be significant.
Values matter more than ever (especially for hospices)
Here is a point that is really interesting!
Across 2025 and so far into 2026, candidates are weighting organisational values as a priority far more than ever before – in some cases, as much as or even more than salary.
For hospices, this is a huge opportunity. But there is a catch – if your hiring process feels impersonal, rushed, too long, or transactional, it can undermine that message. We can’t say “we deeply care about people” and then ghost candidates or send an automated rejection email. Candidates will pick up on this immediately.
So, what should we actually do?
Here is the practical bit:
- Treat your recruitment journey as a culture show case. Every touch point should reflect your values.
- Design your process for people, not systems. A common mistake organisations make, is to automate and streamline everything first and try to add value and personability later. Streamline after the process has already been improved to offer a great experience, not before.
- Communicate like you mean it. Acknowledge every application, send update emails, have your teams speak with positional candidates. Communicate and engage with applicants as you would hope for if you were applying.
- Set clear timelines. And most importantly, stick to them. Yes, even when you are busy! Remember that these applicants could be your future workforce.
- Be transparent early. Include salary ranges in your adverts (“competitive” does not count…), include working patterns, your benefits, expectations of the role.
- Make interviews feel like your organisation. In a hospice context – are our applicants experience warmth, empathy, and respect? Or does our process feel cold, rushed, and transactional?
- Close the loop (properly). Feedback does not need to be a novel, but it does need to exist (and be useful). Candidates that feel respected, even when unsuccessful, are far more likely to apply, recommend, or support your organisation.
Summary
In health and social care, we often talk about delivering compassionate, person-centred care. Your recruitment process is the first chance to prove it. Long before someone cares for your patients, supports your families, or joins your team, they experience how you treat them, how you live your values, your leadership. If that experience doesn’t reflect your culture - candidates will assume the culture isn’t real. If you show one thing during the hiring process, and another when they work for you, they will leave.
But the good news? When you get it right, the opposite is just as powerful. A thoughtful, human, values-led recruitment experience doesn’t just attract candidates - it builds trust, creates advocates, and lays the foundations for a workforce that stay, grow, and truly believe in what you do.
Gareth Bowley
Head of Recruitment at Dorothy House Hospice
Care Talent Acquisition Consultant and Labour Market Economist