A realistic job preview shows candidates what the job is actually like before they accept it. Here are the five benefits organizations see most often, and how to build a preview that delivers them.
Five things change when candidates get an honest look at the work before they say yes:
Each one is covered below, along with what goes into a preview and how to measure whether yours is working.
Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) are powerful tools for aligning candidate expectations with the true demands and environment of a job. Job descriptions are designed to attract a broad pool of applicants. RJPs educate and help candidates self-screen early in the process, correcting misaligned expectations and preventing disappointment once the candidate begins working.
RJPs provide a precise and comprehensive view of responsibilities, challenges, and even work conditions associated with the job. Think about the obstacles and road blocks that most frequently cause disappointment. What aspects of the job and your culture lead to lackluster performance in new hires? This is information that can be used to guide candidates through the RJP experience. Here's a short list of job expectations and qualities we've built into RJPs for organizations across industries:
Importantly, after responding to these questions, candidates receive feedback on how their performance matches, or falls short, of what your organization is seeking. Candidates are always welcomed to apply after the RJP: even if their responses miss the mark on each criteria.
This is why the RJP is so powerful. Its transparency enables candidates to make more informed decisions about whether the often overlooked demands of the role suit them, ultimately leading to greater job satisfaction and reduced turnover.
Below you can see a mock-up of a RJP experience. Candidates share information about themselves and indicate their true preferences. In most cases, the organization choses to never see their responses and this is communicated to candidates. After answering the questions, candidates are shown how their responses connect with the culture, performance expectations, and other demands. Photos and videos showing your unique work environment can also be included.
If this assessment style method seems daunting, consider a checklist, video, or other media that could educate and engage your candidates about your culture, opportunity, and requirements. Shift follows and the opportunity for job shadowing are also stellar opportunities to reap the benefits of delivering a realistic understanding of the position, your operations, and the culture.
Companies across industries, including organizations we support in long-term care and retail, have successfully employed RJPs to reduce turnover and improve candidate experience. By giving potential employees a realistic understanding of what the job involves, we've seen turnover rates fall while building the overall candidate experience. If you read our articles for a bit you'll know we talk a lot about trust and authenticity in leadership. Earning trust is an uphill journey in recruitment and by sharing direct feedback of the ups and downs of the role, employers build that trust and stand out for their transparency and concern about the success of the new hire. This builds a strong foundation before the candidate's first few, and often challenging, months on the job begin.
When researchers study the impact of realistic job previews the impact of this short pre-hire experience carries a meaningful buffer against stress and strain on the job on top of increased job satisfaction and retention. Consider how RJPs have -
Finding candidates that live your culture, perform, and hold the potential to stay long-term is never a final destination but always a journey. In other words, the cultures of our businesses and the nature of our enterprise will always be evolving, as will the job market. RJP experiences are a low-cost opportunity to reinforce not only your expectations, but attract candidates who align with both the job requirements and the organizational culture.
Almost anyone with more than a year or so of work experience can attest to the frustration and loss of productivity stemming from turnover; a hire that's well-intentioned but not a fit for the role. Early turnover and churn are especially pernicious. Realistic Job Previews help us prevent this by offering a transparent and honest portrayal of the job and company culture. We can make the process even more powerful by reinforcing key points from the RJP in the interview, which is fantastically easy to make happen with structured interviewing. This provides a consistent drumbeat and multiple touchpoints reinforcing the key parts of your culture, job expectations, and operations.
It's not just about screening out those who aren't a great fit. Your openness allows candidates to more fully envision their potential role and contribution, resulting in better connection between the employee and the organization.
Our potential to perform can be understood through a crayon-simple equation that industrial-organizational psychologists are quite fond of:
Performance = Ability x Motivation x Opportunity
Companies like Southwest Airlines, with a unique employee and customer value proposition, built hiring efficiency, and retention, through candidly educating candidates about their mission and culture. In competing with United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines, Southwest prioritizes its organizational culture as a strategic competitive key for operations and organizational efficiency. Through its values and beliefs, the company tackles the competitive environment by focusing on its mission, care for people, and a strong focus on celebration and recognition. From their culture statement -
People come first. We’re a Company that takes care of its People and its communities, and our People take care of each other. (We’re Cohearts, after all!)
Our unique Southwest® Culture is woven into all aspects of our business, from how we treat each other to how we provide Next-Level Hospitality to our Customers.
By offering candidates a realistic perspective of the job and company culture at each touchpoint, Southwest Airlines has attracted and retained employees who live its values and expectations more consistently than those who choose industry peers.
Enhancing the candidate experience through RJPs drives positive outcomes in employee retention and satisfaction. When candidates clearly understand what to expect from their roles, they are more likely to feel confident and prepared upon joining the company. We've talked about the 'honeymoon hangover' where the excitement of a new opportunity dissolves and we're confronted with the excessively rose-colored glasses we've been wearing.
This confidence translates into higher levels of engagement and job satisfaction, as employees feel more supported, valued, and know what will be expected of them. By prioritizing transparency and equipping candidates with the information they need to make informed decisions, companies can foster a more positive and supportive work environment - from their first touchpoint with an employee.
As we write this the labor market is slowing down, more in some industries than others. Employees feel a little stuck, and that new opportunities may not be as wide ranging as they were just six months ago. A 'stuck' labor market means candidates might jump at any opportunity that comes their way. A strong candidate experience that focuses not just on screening, but also educating applicants about the opportunity can push back on the tendency for them to take any opportunity that heads their way.
High turnover rates can greatly affect a company's financial health, leading to increased expenses related to recruiting, hiring, and training new staff. Job previews help alleviate these costs by increasing the degree to which the candidate pool is informed and genuinely interested in the recruitment process. By offering a clear and honest portrayal of the job and company culture, RJPs allow candidates to make better-informed decisions about their suitability for the role.
This efficiency reduces the time and resources spent on hiring, as fewer unsuitable candidates join the workforce. Discipline in the process is what makes the saving real. Across 600 units of a national restaurant chain, we found that units following the hiring procedures most of the time had significantly lower turnover and significantly stronger financial results than units that did not. A realistic preview is one of the least expensive places to add that discipline.
Learn more with the ROI of hiring assessments.
A strong connection exists between job satisfaction and employee engagement, with realistic job previews setting the stage for engagement and enduring commitment. By setting clear expectations from the beginning, RJPs pave the path for positive employee experiences. This clarity allows new hires to feel more confident and engaged in their roles, as they gain a better understanding of what to anticipate and how to excel. When employees are aware of what they are entering into, they are more likely to align with the company’s goals and values, boosting their overall engagement and commitment.
We're best set up for success when we have a clear definition of what we want to achieve and a plan to measure it. While post-hire assessments of engagement and satisfaction generally reveal that employees who have undergone an RJP process show stronger commitment and performance, we want to know this is the case for our own organization. In this case, candidate experience surveys are a low-cost and actionable way to not only understand how the RJP is functioning but other aspects of our hiring process like assessments, communications and even your applicant tracking system.
Consider assessing engagement and retention post-hire and comparing results before and after implementing the RJP. Collecting and acting on candidate feedback is what keeps the preview honest. By continually refining the RJP process based on feedback from new hires, companies can ensure they are offering the most accurate and beneficial information to prospective employees. This iterative approach not only enhances the candidate experience but also contributes to a more engaged and satisfied workforce. Costing the hiring process before and after RJP implementation justifies the spend and time invested and gives you confidence the solution works as intended.
Transparency is core to a robust employer brand, and job preview tools significantly enhance employer credibility by demonstrating honesty and openness about job roles. By providing clear and precise information about job responsibilities, companies set realistic expectations for potential hires. This transparency builds trust and goodwill among candidates, making them feel more informed and respected during the recruitment process. By being candid about the challenges and rewards of a position, employers can cultivate a reputation for integrity and reliability, which are essential elements of a strong employer brand.
The long-term advantages of this transparency are substantial. When potential hires believe a company is honest about its job roles, they are more inclined to see the organization as an attractive place to work. This positive perception can attract a larger pool of high-quality candidates who are genuinely interested in the company and its values. Over time, this can lead to a more engaged and committed workforce, as employees who join with a clear understanding of their roles are more likely to feel satisfied and aligned with the organization’s objectives.
The same principle shows up in how the strongest employer brands write about themselves. Patagonia, renowned for its environmental and social values, tells candidates plainly what the company expects them to care about before they ever apply. Its careers page says it is looking for “highly motivated, unconventional thinkers who love big challenges,” and asks that applicants be passionate about preserving wild places and willing to take action on social and environmental justice. That is a filter as much as an invitation. Candidates who want a job and not a cause read it and self-select out, which is exactly what a realistic preview is meant to do.
RJPs are a potent tool for building a strong employer brand. By offering potential hires a realistic perspective of job roles, companies can boost their credibility, foster trust, and attract top candidates. This dedication to transparency not only enhances the recruitment process but also contributes to long-term organizational success by ensuring new hires are well-informed, engaged, and aligned with the company’s values.
Implementing an effective RJP requires a thoughtful approach. Start by assessing your current recruitment process to identify areas for improvement. Where are both candidates and hiring managers experiencing unpleasant surprises?
Highlight key job elements that should be featured in the RJP, whether through an experiential assessment, video, job shadowing, or detailed written descriptions. Next, train hiring managers and recruiters to maximize the RJP. Finally, evaluate the effectiveness of your RJPs through feedback and metrics to ensure they are meeting their objectives. As your operations change and grow RJPs can be adjusted to reflect your workforce. RJPs can cut job advertisement spend, reduce hours spent on hiring and recruiting, and prevent people from going down a road that will bring them frustration and pain. Take this simple step to build a stronger applicant pool and support the well-being and success of your new hires.
Featured image by Getty Images for Unsplash+
Most early exits trace back to a gap between what the job looked like and what it turned out to be. Schedules, pace, physical demands, and the tone of the team rarely make it into a job posting. When the first few weeks contradict what a candidate pictured, leaving feels like correcting a mistake rather than quitting. We close that gap before the offer, using a realistic job preview that shows the work as it actually runs.
A realistic job preview is a structured pre-hire experience that shows candidates the true demands, conditions, and culture of a role. We build ours as an interactive assessment: candidates respond to real situations from your operation, then see how their answers line up with what the job asks. Most of our clients choose never to view individual responses, and we tell candidates that. Anyone can still apply afterward.
A job description is written to attract the widest possible pool, so it leads with what is appealing and leaves out what is hard. We build previews to do the opposite. Working from your operation, we surface the parts of the role that most often cause disappointment alongside the parts people love. A description fills the funnel. A preview makes sure the people in it know what they are signing up for.
Three things we build into every preview. The nuts and bolts, meaning hours, availability, uniforms, time on your feet, and travel, always with the reason behind each one. The cultural expectations, delivered as critical incidents, which are the frequently occurring moments that decide whether your business runs well. And proof: engagement survey results, performance metrics you are willing to share, and employee testimonials on video or in writing.
In our experience yes, and the size of the effect depends on how wide the gap was to begin with. Organizations whose postings oversold the role see the most movement. We have built previews for clients in long-term care and retail who saw turnover fall afterward. The mechanism is unglamorous: people who would have been surprised in week three decline the offer instead of taking it.
Measure before and after. We recommend candidate experience surveys to see how the preview is landing while candidates are still in the process, then engagement and retention data post-hire compared against your pre-RJP baseline. Costing the hiring process on both sides of implementation tells you what the preview saved. Without a baseline you will have a preview you like and no way to defend it.