Eploy, CA3 and Talent Labs share insights into removing the disconnect between your EVP and ATS

This practical webinar explored how to turn your employer brand promise into a recruitment reality, removing the disconnect between your Employer Brand and Recruitment Tech, touching on key points: 

• Why disconnects between your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and Applicant Tracking System (ATS) can undermine candidate experience.
• Ways to bring your EVP to life across every stage of the hiring journey, from attraction to recruitment to onboarding and beyond.
• Insight into how you can optimise your ATS to reflect your employer brand and deliver a consistent, engaging experience to candidates.
• The most common drop-offs and disconnects in the candidate journey, and ways you can fix them.

TA industry experts, Thinking Schools Academy Trust’s Simon Arnold, and Flogas' Sonia Morgan also joined the session to share their first-hand experiences and advice.

Creating a strong link between candidate experience and recruitment tech

The UK Candidate Attraction Report 2025 reveals that candidate experience is a priority for 60% of surveyed Talent Acquisition professionals. This is mirrored in the Talent Labs annual survey, where candidate experience was in the top 3 list of priorities for TAs.

The poll from the live session, asking ‘What are the moments that matter most for a candidate?’, revealed that 48% of respondents cited application experience (ease, clarity and ATS usability) as one of the key moments that matter most to a candidate. Yet only 50% shared they’re confident their EVP is embedded in the recruitment and selection stage, with 43% citing the same for their onboarding stage of recruitment.

What are common breakdowns from EVP to recruitment tech? 

The panellists also shared their thoughts on which parts of recruitment process often break away from the organisation’s EVPs:

• Communication and getting the tone of voice right. TSAT quashed this by reworking and personalising candidate engagement emails in its ATS, so candidates don’t feel they’re just receiving automated messages with no connection to the recruitment team, brand and EVP.
• Mobile-friendly experience for applicants. It’s crucial that the careers site and ATS candidate portal are mobile-friendly, allowing candidates to complete required tasks on the go. Simon recommends auditing the candidate journey and how it works on both desktop and mobile to gain a better understanding, rather than assuming how a candidate would go through this process.

How can embedding EVP become a reality for organisations with a limited budget?

• Ensure consistency - getting the basics right, such as spending more time where people are already connecting with your brand (social media for example), and making sure your EVP is shining there, can have a huge impact without increasing costs.
• Employee advocacy - supporting employees who already rave about working in your organisation, using their stories, enabling them to share their experiences, is a great way to build trust, since candidates are more likely to relate to your employees rather than the senior leadership team.  
• Use the tools that you’ve got - Simon shared that embedding a human touch in your tools, providing clear visibility of the candidate journey, giving candidates an idea of what your vision is and what life at your company is like.
• Videos of staff - there is no need for a big production, but sharing real people and their experiences is more effective.  

Further tips – in 5!

1. Map out different candidate touchpoints – all matter, and consistency is key. Have you got data on where the gaps are and the priority?
2. Surveys! Ask candidates of their experience through the hiring process - even if they are ultimately not successful.
3. Technology is an enabler to embedding the EVP when automating the recruitment process. This guide is a free download to explore this topic in more detail ADD ATS GUIDE
4. Sense check brand language used throughout communication online – including job descriptions/policies/externally. Keeping an EVP alive means continually reviewing and not just ‘rinse and repeat’ across different channels.
5. Look at the data – e.g. Application to hire – does this tell you where candidate drop off is and indicators as to why?