A novel approach to forcing companies to improve their candidate experience when applying for jobs was aired last night at a debate in the Monster Buzz series.

The London event, attended by Recruiter, asked the question ‘The Candidate Experience – Does it really matter?’.

It saw debate chair Keith Robinson, director of workplace communications firm Ecom Digital, posit the solution: “Get every board director to get their kids to go through that [online application] experience and the results would be incredible.”

A similar observation came from David Henry, the vice president for marketing at job site Monster, also on the panel: “I know a lot of HRDs [human resources directors] that when you show them the candidate experience on their own applicant tracking system they’ve spent thousands of pounds on with whoever, they’re shocked.”

• Check back online for more on the Monster Buzz event – and check out the live tweeting stream from the night via the #mbuzz hashtag.