When you have an open job in your department, group or company, you likely post the job online and have a trusted recruiter hired to help you find the next member of your team. And based on all the interest you receive on your open position, it might feel like everyone wants to come work at your company. This is a good “problem” to have. But have you ever stopped to evaluate how people feel after they go through your application and hiring process? Do you know if your hiring process matches the great experience your employees have working at your company each day?
If not, here are four things you can do to assess your candidate experience.
How long does it take you to apply to a job posting on your company’s web site?
Did you know that if your application process takes more than five minutes your application completion rate will plummet 365 percent? According to a study by Appcast that tracked over 500,000 job seekers and their process to complete over 30,000 applications on a variety of platforms, job openings that had online applications that took less than five minutes to complete had the best completion ratios. So do you know how long it takes to complete an application on your company’s web site? Did you have to re-type job history even though you submitted your resume? Or did you have to cite references when you don’t even know if you’ll be asked to interview for the position? -Those are two things that job seekers cite as very unnecessary when going through the application process.
How many interviews does each applicant get asked to complete? How much notice is given before each interview?
Before you, your company, or your department posts a job opening, is an outline created to distinguish who each candidate needs to meet with in your organization and how the interviews will be structured to accomplish this? How many interviews does the average applicant being considered for a role get asked to complete before they are ruled out or provided with an offer? Oftentimes, if it’s a C Suite role, a candidate can be asked to complete six interviews because of the importance and complexity of the role. However, for most roles two or three interviews is oftentimes considered average. If you’re averaging more than two or three interviews for most of your open positions, you’re running the risk of alienating candidates that really want the job simply due to the amount of time they have to carve out of their schedules to meet about the role. If you can put yourself in your candidate’s shoes and understand that the average employee doesn’t have two doctor’s appointments in a week, or show up to work an hour late two times in two weeks, you’ll understand why it’s difficult for a candidate to give you that much time, even if they want the job. Bottom line, have your interview structure in place when you start considering candidates and you’ll know how much time you’ll need from your own schedule, and from your candidates.
How do you give application feedback?
Do applicants receive any acknowledgement after the initial “thank you for applying” email? The biggest complaint job seekers have is that they apply online, and their resume goes into an application black hole, never to be heard from again. Do applicants receive emails that give them an update on where their application is in the process? Do they receive an “Amazon” like email that suggests other open positions they could apply for after their initial application? Have you thought about other strategies to keep your applicant pool engaged after they apply with you? These applicants want to work for you, how do you keep them interested in you?
How do you keep candidates informed throughout the process?
Is there messaging your organization has in place for each stage of the interview process? Or does each hiring manager handle it differently? If you don’t know the answer to that question, you’re not alone. Employers can reach out to candidates by sending a letter by mail, email, phone call or text message. Do you know how your candidates prefer to be communicated with? If your company or department doesn’t have a standard process in place to communicate with candidates that are interviewing with you, there’s no time like the present to figure out how your candidates want to hear from you. You can determine this by asking candidates to take a survey about the process, and simply asking recently hired candidates about what you could have done better during the interview process when it comes to communication.
If you haven’t taken a look at your hiring process through the eyes of an applicant lately, you might be missing out on great applicants because your process is too unfriendly. This is never a fun project to take on, but if your process becomes one that applicants actually want to go through, and word spreads about your candidate friendly hiring process, you’ll likely have even more talented people who want to join your company! Your company is great, let your hiring process match what your employees say about working for you!