Your candidates are king!

 

 

Following on from our last article[1] looking at how you can stand out in a crowded job market, it’s logical to consider how you can make your recruitment processes more appealing.

Research [2] has shown that jobseekers have higher expectations of the recruitment process than they often experience. As a result, they are voting with their feet and taking their talent to the businesses that offer them the very best candidate journey. After all, if your recruitment process doesn’t make candidates feel valued – how will it feel to work for you?

Headline figures

Before we delve into ways to improve your candidate experience, let’s take a quick look at the headline figures in order to understand where the problems are – they may not be where you expect to find them!

The biggest complaint candidates had was that recruiters failed to show respect for the candidate’s time during their interviews. This accounted for a staggering 46% of jobseekers who took part in the survey.

The second biggest complaint – raised by 26% of candidates – was that the recruitment process was just too long.

Other headlines, that may or may not be surprising, is that 52% of applicants were still waiting for a response after three months, and 46% of candidates said they would sever a business relationship due to a poor candidate experience (let’s not forget, candidates are often customers too).

If that doesn’t hit the spot then how about this? Virgin Media reported poor candidate experience was costing the business $6 million in lost revenue.

SIX MILLION DOLLARS!

Now for the good news

It’s not all doom and gloom though. The good news is that there are four key things you can do immediately that will change the experience of people who want to work for you.

Streamline processes

Review what you currently do and challenge your recruitment team to find a better way. For example, do you really need a multi-stage interview process? How can you screen applicants more efficiently to eliminate this?

Only ask relevant questions

What are the key things you need to know in order to screen your applicants effectively? Make sure you only ask highly relevant questions. Anything else is a waste of time.

Be available

OK – maybe not you personally, but someone from your recruitment team, or the team the successful candidate will be working in, should be readily available to speak to applicants.

How else will they know if you’re the right company for them to work in?

Embrace new technology

If you’re still relying on email, phones calls and online forms to administer your recruitment process you need to make some changes. Research shows that 92% of consumers find communicating with businesses via live chat to be satisfying. It stands to reason that in the modern mobile world, the same will apply to jobseekers.

Use short codes on your social media channels, implement ‘text to apply’ options, screen candidates via live chat and make it easy for candidates to speak to company representatives.

A bonus tip

Feedback isn’t only important to candidates. Seeking feedback from candidates, before they have been successful or not, offers you a valuable insight into how your processes are viewed from the other side. Even those who dropped out of the process can add value by telling you why. Maybe they took another job – but maybe your processes put them off!

How The Talent Hub can help

These days you need more than a few ads on a job board and an online form to appeal to decreasing numbers of jobseekers. It’s highly likely that you won’t have those skills in house – and that’s perfectly understandable – your primary focus is on the sharp end of your business after all!

That’s where The Talent Hub can help. Our recruitment experts understand what the latest trends are and how to appeal to the people you want to attract.

Contact The Talent Hub on 0800 634 4477 for more information.

« All blogs