Canva's commitment to its candidates

Anyone who has ever job hunted is likely to have a story to tell about being treated poorly during the recruitment process. The Circle Back Initiative has been created to change this experience for job seekers.

In conversation with The HR Leader, Charlotte Anderson, talent attraction lead at Canva, shared why the organisation has signed up to be a member of The Circle Back Initiative. Steve Gard started the initiative to promote a 'fair go' for candidates, and Canva is one of the many organisations who have committed to those values.

Ms Anderson commented: "The Circle Back Initiative is a brilliant structure for our recruiters to hold onto because it builds relationships, even for later down the line when potentially something more appropriate comes up."

"These processes that Steve and The Circle Back Initiative should have put in place to ensure that that communication is very clear, but also very human, I think really rings true to candidates so it's a very strong partnership," she added.

Discussing when Canva first became a member of the initiative, Ms Anderson said: "From a values and alignment perspective, it totally made sense. It was a very obvious and kind of easy partnership for us to establish."

She continued: "From there it's been a case of, as Steve mentioned [earlier in the podcast], ensuring that our technology is set up correctly so that we're adhering to what we've agreed to, what we've committed to. And then looking at our processes and reassessing those to see where we can maximise tech, where we really need to ensure that we're getting that one-on-one time with a candidate to ensure that they're getting the feedback that we need."

Explaining how following the ethos of The Circle Back Initiative is good for employer branding, Ms Anderson stated: "Firstly, it's holding ourselves accountable to the standard that we set. But then particularly from an EVP perspective, we work really hard internally to maintain that, to maintain that really just incredibly unique experience at Canva. And part of my team's responsibility is to bring that to life externally for candidates and for them to see themselves as part of it before they've even applied."

"We talk about main character energy a lot at Canva, and it's not about us, it's about you. It's about you as a candidate, and establishing that relationship from the get-go, from the way that we communicate in employer brand content, all the way through to when you're offered and then when you're onboarding," she added.

For more of The HR Leader's conversation with The Circle Back Initiative and Canva, listen to the full podcast.

The transcript of this podcast episode, when quoted above, was slightly edited for publishing purposes. The full conversation with Steve Gard and Charlotte Anderson is below.