Imagine for a moment the job seeker. She finds a job opening that looks like the perfect fit. She goes to your company’s HR site to apply for her new career. She’s immediately turned off by the requirement to re-type all of her prior work experience, even though she’s submitted her resume, but does it because she really is interested in the job. She dutifully cuts-and-pastes this information and hits enter only to find that she is now only 3% of the way through the application. An hour later, she is complete and uninspired. She decides not to keep looking for opportunities because, maybe her current job isn’t that bad after all. Maybe, she even decides your company isn’t the one for her.
Virtually all job seekers have experienced this reaction at one time or another when completing a job application online. If your application process resembles the above example at all, the chances are that some great candidates will never get your attention.
Their Time Is As Valuable As Yours
Danette Nolte, V.P. of Talent Danette Nolte, V.P. of Talent at AimHire, puts it this way:
“When a potential candidate confronts an overly long, tedious application and is at the same time faced with the challenge of applying to as many jobs as possible to maximize their chances, many qualified applicants are choosing to skip the unreasonably long process in favor of positions that require a more reasonable amount of effort”.
Like every other aspect of your company’s image and reputation, the job application experience is a direct reflection of its culture, approach to work, ability to prioritize and overall attitude toward employees. Careerbuilder.com’s 2016 Candidate Behavior Study notes that one in five candidates are not willing to complete an application if it takes 20 minutes or more to complete, and 76% of applicants want to know how long it will take to complete an application before they begin.
If an applicant’s time is not respected in this first interaction with your company, it might be looked at as a predictor of life inside the office and could lead the best candidates to look elsewhere.
The Law of Diminishing Returns
Not only does an excessive job application procedure potentially turn off talented job-seekers, it sometimes creates a self-defeating situation for the HR professional trying to fill these positions. Lengthy applications usually call for specific information critical to candidate evaluation, but their sheer length will often yield less than useful responses as the applicant gamely attempts to get through the cumbersome obstacle course. You are not only failing to get the information you need, you are leaving an impression of a company that values volumes of busy work over succinct, productive output.
The questions then to ask yourself are these: Is this actually critical information that I need or am I just causing the applicant to jump through a flaming hoop? Is there a way to use the application to get to the core of what we need more succinctly? How specific can we be to easily eliminate the “no” candidates and reduce the bulk of “garbage” applications to sort, rather than using a laborious job application that causes our high talent, busy (and likely passive) searchers from applying?
With candidate sorting technologies already in place, it seems silly to have applicants who are clearly unqualified spending an hour completing an application and then getting no response to whether or not the application was even received. Often the candidate has no clue if it was reviewed, what to expect for follow up, or if their hard work, resume, and application went straight into the recycle bin.
Right-Sizing the Process
Fortunately, there are actions that can be taken to streamline the process and increase the response rate from the right candidates. This can begin by reducing the number of questions on the application. Nolte suggests that fully half of the questions asked usually do not get to the heart of the job or to the candidate’s qualifications, so in many cases they can safely be eliminated.
Ensuring that your application is reasonable and focused will provide a good first impression. Once you have attracted the right candidates you can utilize first and second round interviews to get into the detail that didn’t make the cut on the initial application. Additionally, creating a mobile-friendly application capability will not only reflect your understanding of the way today’s applicants prefer to work, it will also help you get to the essence of the information you really need to go on to the next phase of candidate selection.
Attracting, evaluating and hiring the right candidate can be difficult, but a staffing and recruiting agency can help you identify and bring in the perfect candidates for your mission-critical positions. AimHire is a Denver employment agency looking to pair enthusiastic and knowledgeable candidates with quality employers. Learn more about how our staffing company can support your goals by pairing you with qualified employees looking for the right company fit, or request a candidate here.
