Recruiting (3)
Recruiting
How to Optimize Your Recruitment Funnel
The employment market looks much different today than it did a year ago. It’s a candidate’s market and the employer that provides the best candidate experience while remaining agile is in the best position to win. Symphony Talent summarizes the recruitment funnel as: Career Website Application Process Interview Offer Hire The goal of a recruitment funnel is to find the best hire in a large candidate pool. Here are a few tips to perfect your recruitment funnel. Be clear on what’s included in your recruitment funnel. Your funnel can be as long or short as you wish; however, you need to be clear on what each step means, why each step is important, and the expected outcome of each step. Without clarity in each step the last step may not result in the best hire. Have buy-in from all partners. There is nothing as frustrating as starting a process and then mid-step needing to change the entire process because something new is revealed that wasn’t known before. When this happens, you can taint the entire funnel, decrease candidate satisfaction, add unnecessary time to time-to-hire, and more. This often happens when there is a lack of transparency in the process. When all partners – within HR and especially outside of HR – are in alignment the overall process is more effective. Automate were possible, without decreasing candidate satisfaction. At the end of the day, your candidate is your customer. It may not seem like it, but their satisfaction is just as important as your customer’s satisfaction. When you automate in a way that makes the process more efficient for the company and the candidate, you keep candidate satisfaction. An example of automation is correctly parsing a resume’s information into an application. Another example is automating the interview scheduling process by using a SaaS that allows the candidate to view the interviewer’s availability and schedule accordingly. When automation is used this way, it enhances the candidate experience and shortens time-to-hire. This should also include the use of texting to speed candidate communication. Have standard processes that you do not delineate from. Every step in your process should have a standard operating procedure. The procedure should clearly define the process, supply step by step instructions for how to complete the process and show what a successful outcome looks like. This should not only be for every step in the funnel, but for the treatment of every candidate. If you need a process for each department or function, as hiring an engineer can look different than hiring a customer success manager, then do so. You want every candidate to receive the same treatment because creating a fair and unbiased process is not only the right thing to do, but often, is tied to your company’s mission or core values. Minimize where possible. Minimization is not the same as automation. Minimization simply means to trim unnecessary fat in your hiring process. Does a candidate really need to go through five interviews before you know whether you want to extend an offer? Is an assessment necessary to decide whether a candidate can do the role? The goal of minimization is to deliver the best candidate experience in the shortest amount of time. This isn’t just important for the candidate’s sake, but also your company’s sake. In today’s market, candidates are often juggling multiple offers at once. Don’t let an overly long and unnecessary process be the reason why you lose a great candidate. Be clear on when one part of the funnel ends, and the next part begins. The best job postings I’ve seen have an application deadline and an outline of the hiring process. It sets expectations for candidates while making the process transparent for all involved. While the first level of the funnel – candidate website – may not have an end date, the rest of the funnel should. This ensures that a curveball isn’t thrown at the last minute that deviates from the process. Treat each candidate as if they are a customer. Often, your candidate is your customer. They’re familiar with your company because something piqued their interest before applying to your opening. Far too often the candidate who is hired is the only candidate to receive great treatment. But when you consider each candidate as your brand ambassador, it changes how you perceive their treatment. A great candidate experience not only has the potential to amplify your brand, but ensuring every candidate gets a wonderful experience also ensures successful sourcing for future roles. Have you assessed the effectiveness of your recruitment funnel lately? If you haven’t, today’s a great day to start. Article contribution by Timara Nichols
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Recruiting
Major Gaps in the Hiring Process
When it comes to the hiring process many employers are failing to live up to candidate expectations. They ask for too much information and take too long to make key decisions. Our friends at Greenhouse, the hiring software company have a new report out that contains some numbers to be aware of. Entitled the Greenhouse Candidate Experience Report, a survey of over 1,500 employees and job seekers, Greenhouse discovered a staggering statistic; It found that over 60% of job seekers are unimpressed by time-consuming recruitment processes and are demanding companies create a more modern recruiting experience. Candidates who face lengthy initial applications, slow recruiter response times and follow-ups, unprepared and late interviewers, inconsistent feedback, and ghosting will be quick to move on and companies will suffer as a result. 60% is a huge number considering the state of the current job market where companies cant find enough talent to staff their organizations. Hiring technology is holding these employers back as candidates get lost in the system. Other findings in the survey showed consistent themes around poor candidate experience and recruiter responsiveness: More than 70% of job seekers said they will not submit a job application if it takes longer than 15 minutes to complete. Almost 58% of candidates expect to hear back from companies in one week or less regarding their initial application. Over 70% of job seekers want feedback on an interview. More than 60% said that receiving feedback during the interview process, even if they do not receive a job offer, would make them more inclined to apply to future jobs at that company. More than 75% of job seekers have been ghosted after an interview. The survey results also found that many employers are failing to create a positive and inclusive interview experience. Almost 43% of candidates have had their name mispronounced in a job interview. Pronouncing every candidate’s name correctly is not just common courtesy, it’s a crucial behavior for achieving true workplace inclusivity and creating a culture of belonging. “The results of our latest survey are a call to action for all companies. We’re in the midst of a real role reversal, and the talent pool has never been more selective and vocal about what they want from an employer,” said Daniel Chait, CEO and Co-founder, Greenhouse. “Whereas employers previously ruled out candidates for trivial issues like spelling errors on their resume, now it’s the candidates who are rejecting employers. Companies who are too slow in responding, are careless with how they treat candidates, or who don’t show their commitment to DE&I are losing out on talent.” In 2021, the average Greenhouse customer created 46% more job listings than in 2020, meaning that job seekers have more options in open roles available. During this same timeframe, the data shows the volume of applications per job has decreased by 21%, showing that candidates are becoming more selective on how they spend their time searching for jobs. “In 2019, just before the start of the pandemic we had historic low unemployment and just had hit the plateau of more jobs than those on unemployment,” said Tim Sackett, TA & HR Expert and President at HRU Technical Resources. “We should have predicted The Great Reshuffling, which is about opportunity. Opportunity for candidates who have been stuck in a job and company they didn’t like. Because now, it’s companies who are being interviewed by candidates. From the job application to your website and every communication touchpoint, candidates are making decisions on who they want to work for and companies need to up their game. Companies who deliver a great candidate experience and a great employee experience will reap the benefits of this great reshuffling.” As demand for talent intensifies, companies need to do better at making the hiring process as seamless as possible for prospective employees. Not doing so imperils your efforts.
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Recruiting
Skill Assessments Help Make Better Hires
It wasn’t that long ago that employers had few ways of knowing if a candidate who looked good on paper actually had the skills to do the job. Today, they have hundreds of ways making sure. Skills assessments testing has become common practice among companies of all sizes. One in four businesses now conduct skills assessment before hiring new college grads. A survey of large corporations in 2016 found 82% were using some type of pre-employment assessments. The rising popularity of skills assessment testing is do in no small part to technology. Most skills assessments today are taken and scored online, with the results available to the recruiter and hiring manager as soon as the test is complete. Besides eliminating delays in hiring, it also lets the candidate know where they stand. Democratizing Skills Assessment Even more significant is how the internet has democratize skills assessment. The cost of standardized skills assessments can be as little as only a few dollars. Indeed.com even makes many of the most popular ones free. This has made it possible for even the smallest of employers to have a measure of confidence in the quality of the people they hire. Mercer, the global investment, health and HR consulting firm, says, “The most striking benefit is that (the tests) can screen out applicants not meant for a specific work environment early in the process. These tests can be utilized for entry-level recruitment and also employed when hiring for middle and senior management roles.” Beyond learning if a candidate has the basic skills, assessments help a company identify any gaps in their abilities so training can be tailored to the specific needs of the candidate. Skills assessments also make it possible to “map” the existing skills of the workforce so managers know who can cover vacancies, who may need additional training and what other skills workers may have. Skills assessments provide management with greater insight into the organization’s pool of talent and helps identify the more versatile and skilled high performers. With literally thousands of tests available from over 100 companies, selecting the right skills assessments can be challenging. The most important step is knowing just what to test for. That depends on the nature of the job and the duties and responsibilities of the position. Selecting a Skills Assessment Mercer lists a few factors to consider in selecting a skills assessment: Objectives: Is the only purpose of the test to decide if a candidate can do the advertised job or will the test be used to identify other skills and candidate potential? Or develop a workforce skills map? What to measure: While the nature of the job will dictate the primary purpose of the test, there may be other aspects, such as a candidate’s soft skills. What are the characteristics of the assessment: Consider such factors as whether the skills assessment is proven valid by scientific testing. This is essential to avoid potential bias in the test. Tests should also be customizable to accommodate special needs and situations. While testing the ability to do the required work is the most common use of assessment, companies are also going beyond the technical requirements to assess a candidate’s soft skills, such as their communication, problem solving, initiative and the like. For jobs handling money, such as cashiers, candidates may take an integrity test to measure their basic honesty. The general aptitude test measures candidate’s skill at solving problems. Emotional intelligence tests seek to determine how well the candidate handles conflict, works as a team and is adaptable. While the types of tests are nearly endless, the question most important to a hiring manager is “Can the candidate do the job I need?” Skills assessment give that manager the confidence that the answer is yes.
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Recruiting
You’re the Blackberry of Recruiting!
I remember the first time I got my first Blackberry phone! I was so excited, it was such a corporate status symbol! My first one was the Blackberry 5810 with the full keyboard where I could send emails from a phone! It was so awesome. My last Blackberry was the Pearl with the trackball! I loved that phone! Then came the iPhone and Blackberry died before it even knew it. Blackberry refused to believe that anyone would want more than what they were delivering with their phones. Power cell phone users are business people who only want and need office-type functionality. Super secure email. Texting. Calendar. Notes. Who the heck would want to search the world wide web on a phone!? Play games? Apps? Take pictures and video? Blackberry didn’t see the future. They were the market leader and only saw the past. By the time they figured out their error, it was too late and Apple and Android passed them by so fast, they could never catch up. You are the Blackberry of Recruiting! You died but you don’t know it yet. What are some ways to know if you are the Blackberry of Recruiting? You post and pray. I mean posting and praying is your primary recruiting strategy. You post a job and basically pray someone will apply. You refuse to believe that “your” candidates will respond, or even prefer, a text message over email. (Pro-Tip: Every level of candidate and salary range, prefers texting recruiters by a lot!) You have great talent in your ATS database, but every time you get an opening the first thing you do is post the job to see what “fresh” candidates are out there. You believe that a candidate should be willing to jump through your hoops “if they really want the job!” Any of this sound familiar? If it does, you might not be long for this recruiting world! How do you make sure you don’t become the Blackberry of Recruiting? First, you can’t ever get comfortable believing you have it figured out. Just because you get a lot of candidates doesn’t mean you’re great at recruiting, you might just have a great consumer brand. What happens if and when that fails? Or maybe you have a ton of applicants but the best talent isn’t applying. Great, you’re great at attracting the walking dead! Constantly question your process and test new ways you think might make it better. Can you change something to decrease the candidate drop-off rate? Is there a way to increase the number of applicants you’re getting from your best sources of hire? Make sure you are always reaching out to candidates to see how their experience is with your process. Blackberry’s biggest failure was not listening to their buyers and thinking they knew better. Right up until they lost their buyers! Don’t lose your buyers, your applicants, because you refuse to listen to them. Look into the future. Demo recruiting technologies on an ongoing basis. Stay on top of what the newest trends are, and how you can add those into your recruiting technology stack. Copy what others are doing that is working, don’t get caught up in making it your own way. Copy. Make it better. Repeat. I LOVED my Blackberry, right up to the moment that I didn’t. That is your candidate dilemma you must constantly be concerned with. They love you right now, but will they love next year when something better comes along?
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Recruiting
The Talent Acquisition Process Explained
The talent acquisition process may be the most important of all an organization’s human resources functions. As every CEO knows, having the right people in the right jobs is the most essential ingredient for success. Yet building a talent acquisition process that consistently delivers the right people is far from easy. It’s a process with as many parts that need to work together as smoothly as a fine watch, and it can be just as delicate. In the broadest sense, these parts fall into just a few key steps: marketing, recruiting, qualifying, interviewing, selecting and onboarding. Depending on the size of the organization, each of these steps will have multiple parts. Yet every talent acquisition process starts, or should, with a strategic plan and objectives, as the Society for Human Resource Management describes in its A Guide to Understanding and Managing the Recruitment Process. MARKETING YOUR JOBS The goal of recruitment marketing is to stimulate job seeker interest in the company, a job and often both. Employer branding gives potential candidates a look at the company’s management style and what it might be like to work there. Sometimes described as sourcing or lead generation, at its simplest, this step in the talent acquisition process involves advertising available jobs by posting them to the company career site and externally to commercial job boards. Recruiters will also seek referrals from company employees and may also search online networks like LinkedIn and resume databases find candidates. Prior to launching a search, a recruiter will meet with the hiring managers to learn what skills, experience and other attributes candidates should have. During this step of the process, the recruiter and hiring manager will also discuss the type of personality that will be a good fit with the team. RECRUITING PROCESS While it’s common to refer to the entire talent acquisition process as recruiting, increasingly it is considered a distinct step. It overlaps with marketing to the extent that the employer brand plays an important part in enticing candidates to apply. The recruiter’s job here is to sort through the applications to identify those that best meet the job requirements and interest them in the opportunity. Compensation, benefits, the company culture and other factors, such as whether the job is remote or on-site all play a role in getting those candidates to move on to an interview. Recruiters will hold an initial phone call – a phone screen, sometimes done by wideo – with each of their top choices. The purpose is to assess their interest, clarify or supplement their resume and get a sense of how well they are likely to fit in. At the same time, the recruiter will also be “selling” the company and the job to the candidate. QUALIFYING THE CANDIDATE Qualifying a candidate before scheduling an interview can be as simple as ensuring they have the required licenses and documentation for the job. Or it can involve testing, completing sample assignments, job simulations and other objective methods of ensuring a candidate has the necessary skills. Many companies also include personality tests as part of the qualifying process. Thousands of different tests and assessments are available from dozens of independent companies, nearly all of which are offered online. Testing is especially common for software and related technical jobs. Many customer service jobs require potential hires to participate in a simulated customer calls. INTERVIEW PROCESS There are many different types of interviews. Most often, hiring managers will meet one-on-one with candidates. However, there are also interviews with a panel, sequential interviews that include a candidate’s future colleagues. Since the pandemic interviews have become more common, particularly for remote jobs. A company’s talent acquisition process may require structured interviews in which each candidate is asked the same questions, then scored on their responses. This reduces the possibility of bias in the selection process and makes comparisons easy. Behavioral interviews help an interviewer discover how a candidate is likely to act in the future, based on specific examples of what they’ve done in current and previous positions. Recruiters rarely participate in interviews, though they may help hiring managers and interview panels with questions and methods. In most cases, they also debrief interviewers and will review the responses and interview scores. Recruiters will also connect with the candidate to get their feedback and reaction. At this stage, it’s not uncommon for a candidate to drop out. SELECTION PROCESS The last step before making an offer is to check references. The goal is to get a candid appraisal of the candidate’s performance, teamwork and working style from their current employer. This step in the talent acquisition process can be especially challenging because so many companies limit the release of information Where a hiring manager has a personal connection, they may be the ones to do the reference check. A previous employer may be more willing to offer an assessment. Choosing from among the group of finalists is rarely easy. It often happens that two or three candidates are all highly qualified and each is an excellent choice. With labor in short supply, some companies will make an offer to each, rather than lose them to a competitor. When making an offer to only one, wait until the offer is accepted before notifying the runners up. Candidates often will reject an offer, choosing to accept a counteroffer from their current employer. You talent acquisition process should plan for this possibility by having the recruiter and hiring manager keep in close and regular contact with each finalist. ONBOARDING NEW HIRES This is the final step in the talent acquisition process, and one of the more crucial. It’s also the one most frequently taken for granted. Too many companies see this as a formality, limiting the involvement of human resources to having the new hire fills out all forms, signs up for benefits, scheduled raining and similar administrative details More progressive organizations see onboarding as a long-term strategy for the success of the new worker. With these companies, onboarding has managers meeting weekly with new hire for the first two or three months to discuss their progress, set goals and to provide coaching. ANALYZING YOUR TALENT ACQUISITION PROCESS No talent acquisition process can be considered complete without a regular review of metrics. This is an ongoing profess, rather than a separate or distinct step. There are dozens of measures recruiters use to track the success of the recruiting program. Time to hire, cost of hire, source of hire, offer acceptance and retention are just a few of the more common metrics. One of the newest and arguably the most valuable, is tracking the performance of a new hire. Together these metrics don’t just report on the success of a talent acquisition process, they inform the strategy for improvement. The steps we outline here are just the basics of what is required for a strong and successful talent acquisition program. Each step has multiple ingredients. What’s right and works for one company will almost certainly be different for another. The best will reflect the needs and strategic goals of their organization. Contribution by John Zappe
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Recruiting
Quality of Hire Should Correlate to High Performance!
We have an obsession in talent acquisition about Quality of Hire (QoH). We try to tie everything we do to the fact if we do “this thing” it’s going to increase our QoH. If we just use this one source more, our QoH will be better. If we use this one assessment our QoH will be better. If we interview better our QoH will be better. Sound familiar?! The problem is, most of us don’t even really measure our quality of hire! We’ll measure our 90-day turnover and call it quality of hire, but just because someone stays for 90 days has zero correlation to whether they are actually a good hire or not. They just stayed around for 90 days! Our reality is quality of hire actually correlates to high performance. Meaning, if you hire better, the better higher, on average, should have higher performance. So, the only true way you can measure quality of hire is to correlate the performance of an employee to their hire, source, etc. This means you really don’t know your quality of hire until you have some sort of measurable performance from an employee you hire. Do you really mean Quality of Applicant and not Quality of Hire? What I find is most organizations actually mean Quality of Applicant, but use the term Quality of Hire. Quality of Applicant can be measured by a simple metric of what percentage of the applicants you forwarded onto a hiring manager does the hiring manager choose to interview? Example: A recruiter screens ten applicants and passed them onto the hiring manager. The hiring manager decides to interview five of the applicants. The QoA measure would be 50%. I get asked a lot about what level of QoA should an organization or recruiter strive to achieve. In my mind, if a recruiter is good at screening and has a great relationship with the hiring manager, that QoA should be 90%! There really should be very many reasons a hiring manager doesn’t interview someone I send them if we are both doing our jobs at a high level. As a recruiter, if I know the job and the type of candidate the hiring manager wants, and the hiring manager has told me everything I need to know, there really shouldn’t be any reason for them to turn down a candidate I send them. The problem is, most recruiters and hiring managers aren’t giving each other what they need to be successful at a 90-100% level. Quality of Applicant is a Recruiting Measure, Quality of Hire is Not! In most organizations, a Recruiter does not make the final candidate selection and that same Recruiter does not manage the onboarding, training, and performance of the employee. Thus, Quality of Hire is a Hiring Manager metric, not a recruiting metric. Almost all organizations get this wrong. Quality of Applicant is by far a better measure for recruiting and for measuring the recruiting function effectiveness. As a recruiter, if I’m sending candidates to a hiring manager that they don’t want to interview and hire, I’m not doing my job very well. QoA is a direct measure of how well a recruiter is doing. Okay, I hear you, “but, Tim, what about a recruiter who finds great candidates but the hiring manager is just super picky!?” You are still not doing the job! Part of the job of recruiting is not just finding great talent, but having a relationship with the hiring manager so you are not wasting valuable resources of the company. The better relationship you have, I guarantee you the fewer misses you’ll have when sending applicants to that hiring manager. What did we learn today? QoH correlates directly to employee performance, but doesn’t correlate at all to recruiter performance! QofA directly correlates to recruiter performance. Recruiter performance also correlates rather high to the positive relationship they have with the hiring managers they support.
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Recruiting
The Benefits of Hiring International Employees
It wasn’t that long ago it was rare for any but large, multinational corporations to hiring international employees. Now, with domestic labors in short supply and remote work the norm, even smaller employers are looking to a global market to fill vacancies. While nowhere nearly as commonplace as hiring overseas contractors, hiring international employees is becoming more so every day. And why not? By hiring international employees companies benefits by sourcing talent from a global pool, almost guaranteed they’ll find candidates with exactly the specialized skills they want. That might be reason enough to hire internationally, but G2.com, the technology and software peer review site, lists four other benefits of hiring international employees: Gaining a competitive edge because of the diversity of culture and experience. Increased problem-solving prowess due to the variety of perspectives and problem-solving approach. Greater productivity as a result of having workers across multiple time zones. Opening new markets. Growth, diversity, and innovation, says WeHireGlobally, a global PEO (professional employer organization), are the primary reasons for hiring international employees. As U.S. businesses have discovered the advantages of sourcing talent globally, they’ve also discovered that hiring international employees can involve a maze of legal requirements and regulations. Even in the EU where there is some standardization, each country has its own set of hiring and employment rules. A September update of labor laws and regulations across the globe by the international business legal firm Eversheds-Sutherland runs to more than 70 pages. There’s also the challenge of sourcing and vetting candidates. Steps to Hire Internationally Indeed.com, the global recruitment marketplace, says the first steps to hiring international employees are to clearly define the role, the requirements and whether it’s a temporary job or permanent, full or part-time. The six-step guide to global hiring is an overview, providing employers a broad sense of the challenges involved in hiring international employees. So important are the preliminaries, that it’s only after touching on the importance of meeting the legal requirements of each country and those of the U.S. does Indeed mention developing recruiting and onboarding plans. A more detailed discussion of how to evaluate remote international candidates by the global PEO firm Safeguard Global offers advice about the differences in hiring international employees. The firm cautions, “With many cultural differences in resume style and work style to account for, extra care must be taken when assessing a foreign worker at a distance.” Amon the suggestions the Safeguard Global article makes is to have candidates record video responses to interview questions and to insist on skills testing. The latter is especially important because training and mentoring remote workers is difficult. For that reason, “Skill related tests can help you determine if someone already has most, if not all, of the experience and academic training required to excel in a certain position.” Employers can avoid the difficulties and limit the risks of the do-it-yourself approach to hiring international employees by working with a local employment agency or with a global PEO that provides recruitment services. International Hiring Vendors Describing what a global PEO does, Craig Dempsey, found and managing director of a Latin America PEO, says, “A PEO will hire and manage staff on your behalf in the foreign country via a co-employment model.” In that way, the services of a global PEO are just like those of domestic PEOs. G2 has a list of global PEOs, some of which also have U.S. operations. Many are members of the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations. While a global PEO will handle all the details of employment management including hiring international employees, a local agency offers highly specialized recruitment services. As Global Expansion, a PEO itself, explains, “As the recruitment agency will be local, they will speak the local language and understand the job market better.” There’s also a new crop of vendors that specialize in international payroll. These companies have established business entities in various countries across the world to allow employers anywhere to pay them. Companies in this space include, Deel, Oyster HR and Remote.com. This approach is best for employers already experienced in hiring international employees and willing and able to deal with the legal regulations and tax issues. Even with multiple options for hiring international employees, “sourcing great hires across borders can be challenging at the best of times,” writes Julie Torres in Forbes. “Employers shouldn’t have to go it alone.” Contribution by John Zappe
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Recruiting
Candidate Experience Management
A new study from Phenom has revealed that while many Fortune 500 employers are making strides in attracting, engaging and converting candidates in today’s brutal talent market, there is still significant room to improve the candidate experience with personalization and automation especially driven by AI. Thanks to the pandemic, talent acquisition is now a business priority among the C-suite — especially across industries with high-volume hiring needs — such as healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, retail and transportation. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, job openings and resignations simultaneously reached highs at the end of March. But instead of using AI to effectively and efficiently scale hiring, the majority of Fortune 500 companies are falling short. In fact, Phenom says 91% scored poorly in this key area. Candidate Experience Breaking Points Here’s what happened when researchers visited the Fortune 500 career sites; Only 10% had an intuitive job search and application process Only 1% communicated application status beyond initial confirmation 89% did not display recently viewed jobs 88% did not present job recommendations based on browsing history 87% did not use a recruitment chatbot 73% lacked a job cart or favorites function to save jobs 88% did not send applicants a satisfaction survey How Employers Can Improve the Candidate Experience Simplify search and apply. Requiring three or more clicks to apply for a job is a major roadblock for candidates. The longer it takes for a candidate to find and apply to a relevant job, the greater the chance they will abandon the process and look elsewhere. One recommendation is for companies to equip their career sites with the ability to provide relevant suggested jobs based on a candidate’s keywords, skills, experience and location. Create hyper-personalization. Candidates are used to superior tailored experiences in their consumer lives. If finding a job that matches what they want is difficult, they are quick to move on. Dynamic AI personalization is one way companies can automatically match a candidate’s preferences, experience, skills and location with best-fit job openings — and surface content for candidates as they move through their own unique end-to-end talent journey across multiple channels. Automate communication. Job seekers want to know where they stand in the screening and interview scheduling process. Failure to communicate status details jeopardizes employer brand and acceptance rates. Using conversational AI chatbots, text and email campaigns are a few ways companies can automate individualized communications to keep job seekers engaged while differentiating their brand. “Hiring, developing and retaining talent isn’t just an HR priority — it is a business priority. Companies must differentiate themselves by the experiences they provide to their candidates and their employees to sustain,” said Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and co-founder of Phenom. “This benchmark report provides industry-specific insights and actionable recommendations for using automation and personalization to earn and keep top talent.” How AI & Automation Helps All Talent Experiences At a time when there’s never been more pressure for recruiters to fill open roles, AI and automation enables a quick, efficient hiring process that serves up best-fit jobs to candidates — and best-fit candidates to recruiters — while optimizing omnichannel communication that nurture talent communities. Not only do job seekers appreciate a streamlined, personalized experience, but with efficiency at the core, recruiters and hiring managers benefit from decreased time to fill and better long-term fits. Employees are no exception. The same hyper-personalized candidate experience should extend to internal talent, who may be looking to move within their current company. By making relevant open roles and development opportunities visible, actionable and attainable, companies stand a better chance at retaining them. AI-powered talent marketplaces automate the process for an employee experience that unifies all key stakeholders: internal candidates, recruiters and hiring managers. Data like this is key to improving your hiring processes and attracting more talent. I hope that you take these findings and use them to improve your own candidate experience management. Otherwise the talent you seek will go elsewhere.
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Recruiting
Job Application Process Still Frustrating Candidates
Despite employers complaining about a lack of applicants, a big reason why appears to be their frustrating job application processes. InFlight Corporation, maker of the employee experience platform, recently announced a new study of the job application process and related opportunities for improvement. The findings reveal significant gaps between the expense of attracting a candidate and diminishing engagement due to friction in the online application process. They “mystery shopped” the career sites of Fortune 500 companies, using the search term “software developer,” a hard-to-fill role that is consistent across all organizations. The process started on Google, where nearly 70 percent of all job searches commence and followed the number of clicks it took from the first click of “Apply Now” through the application submitted confirmation page. InFlight’s Founder and CEO, James La Brash, said, “When it comes to the candidate experience, the promise of a quick and easy apply process starts with the ‘Apply Now’ button. The reality is quite different: Our research shows that two-thirds of candidates are made to click ‘Apply Now’ three or more times, and an average of 51 clicks are required to get through an application, which is time consuming and undermines the desired outcome.” Given the recruitment marketing expenditure involved in attracting qualified talent – especially in a highly competitive labor market – having unnecessary roadblocks in place is counterintuitive and creates friction in the apply flow. The job application process is often a rapid barrage of questions, fields and clicks that candidates need to navigate to advance through the process. Additionally, as soon as a candidate starts the apply process, InFlight learned that 48 percent of the Fortune 500 are sharing brand positioning with their applicant tracking system’s logo, creating confusion on the part of the candidate as to where their information is going. In addition to the discovery that “Apply Now” experience is far from prompt, the research uncovered a disconnect between the people who are designing the experience and the people who buy and configure the technology. Expecting to see a stronger correlation between employer branding and application experience quality, it was apparent that the candidate experience suffered in the process. Even when organizations were savvy about including recruitment marketing visual brand elements, the corresponding technology experience wasn’t configured to support positive impact and high application completion rates. La Brash concluded, “Designing and executing a quantitative study of your company’s apply flow is a complicated undertaking. Many organizations have pieced together in-house and external systems to achieve their intended goals without considering the overall quality of the candidate experience. With so much competition for workers, organizations cannot afford to have systems that provide a candidate experience that undermines their talent attraction goals.” It is remarkable that in 2021 we are still talking about frustrating the candidates with unnecessary clicks and barriers when it comes to the apply process. Leaders need to demand better from their HR tech staff when it comes to implementing any kind of software that touches the candidate experience. They need to hire more usability experts that bring a candidate focused mindset to the implementation. Any employer that doesn’t take the apply process seriously is putting themselves at risk of not filling roles quickly enough. “Easy Apply” should become the norm in our industry, not the exception.
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