Find out what recruiting moves jobseekers hope companies won’t make
Whether a job candidate is hired or not, employers should want to make a positive impression during the application process.
If they don’t, the company’s reputation could be at risk. Seventy-two percent of jobseekers who’ve had a discouraging candidate experience have shared their frustration with a colleague or friend — or told a larger audience by posting about it online, according to Future Workplace and CareerArc study.
A negative employer brand can discourage potential candidates from pursuing opportunities within the company — and, a LinkedIn survey analysis suggests, also be costly. Companies with a poor reputation could need to pay 10 percent more to attract candidates than other organizations.
Employers who aren’t engaging well with jobseekers may struggle to see recruiting effort results. If your organization isn’t sure how to improve candidate experience, correcting the following application process issues can be a good place to start:
Having a lackluster online presence
Eighty-nine percent of candidates feel an employer’s career site should be an important informational resource; yet only 45 percent say they can typically tell what it would be like to work for a company based on its career site, according to CareerBuilder research.
Candidates also sometimes find initial online interactions aggravating. Nearly three in five potential candidates say they’ve abandoned filling out an online application because the website had bugs or other issues, according to an iCIMS Inc. survey.
Employers can improve the process with some fairly simple tweaks — removing the need to fill out fields manually after a candidate has uploaded a resume, for example, which 29 percent of job candidates told CareerBuilder they found frustrating. Adding salary information and more detail about what jobs entail could solve some career site problems; a survey conducted by Software Advice found those are the two most common elements that contribute to a bad candidate experience.
Not contacting candidates
Sixty-five percent of jobseekers say they rarely or never hear back after applying for a position, according to CareerArc data — and they aren’t particularly fond of the practice. More than two thirds (68 percent) feel it’s unreasonable or very unreasonable for a company to ghost an applicant, according to a survey conducted by Clutch.
Following up with candidates slowly
More than half of job candidates feel the wait to hear from an employer after an interview is too long, according to a Robert Half survey. Thirty-nine percent of respondents — the largest proportion — chose seven to 14 days as an overly extensive time period.
The trouble may stem from employers failing to set clear response expectations at the beginning of potential hiring interactions, a criticism CareerBuilder found more than half of candidates shared. Providing continuous communication during the hiring process through frequent status updates would greatly improve the overall candidate experience, according to 81 percent of jobseekers. Text messages might help remedy the situation: Nearly 90 percent of iCIMS survey respondents said it’d be beneficial to receive them during the application process.
Thirty-eight percent of respondents in a 2017 LinkedIn survey said candidate experience was one of the top three investments they’d prioritize if budgets weren’t a constraint; however, improving the recruiting process doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor.
Companies can write stronger job descriptions, for instance, to attract potential candidates who will be a better fit for a role — or focus on emphasizing specific elements when conveying their employer brand without incurring extra costs.
For additional thoughts on strengthening your recruiting efforts to prevent bad candidate experiences, read our blog posts on attracting better job candidates, 3 ways to improve your tech recruitment practices and finding the perfect candidate culture match.
If you’re concerned about your organization’s reputation in the industry, our white paper on building an effective employer brand provides a number of suggestions that can help companies better position themselves in the talent marketplace.