5 ways technology could be screwing up your recruiting
Ah, the joys of the Digital Age. As more and more companies adopt software tools to streamline the hiring process, it’s clear that sometimes those weapons can backfire on you.
A recent CareerBuilder study has identified five major technology-related barriers that can kill your candidate experience and your chances of landing great talent.
The study is part of a larger report titled How Candidate Experience is Transforming HR Technology, which was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder last summer.
Five recruiting roadblocks unearthed by the study:
1. Letting the good ones get away
Not all job seekers – especially passive ones – have the time to apply to a position when they first come across it. In fact, 39% of jobseekers feel the ability to leave their contact information with an employer and apply later is extremely or very important.
Considering the fact that more than half (57%) of HR professionals don’t use any tools to capture candidates who didn’t apply to their jobs, there are a considerable number of missed opportunities to connect with more elusive talent. Only 23% of HR professionals use a shortened version of an application to gather candidate information.
2. Discarding good applicants you didn’t hire
Another challenge HR professionals are facing is maintaining relationships with viable candidates who weren’t hired, but could be a good fit for a job opening down the road. More than one-third of HR professionals (36%) reported that they don’t re-engage job candidates who weren’t offered a role – generally because they have moved on to the most current applicants (69%) or because no one has time to do so (28%). While 38% of HR professionals reported that they re-engage candidates every six months or more often, a significant number aren’t tapping into the talent pools that have already expressed interest in their companies.
What’s more, job seekers welcome continued communications. Two in five (42%) would like to receive emails about new opportunities opening up at companies.
3. Robot responders
HR departments were one of many casualties of a recession that caused deep cuts in staffing and budgets, making it difficult to acknowledge and build relationships with applicants. While automated responses have become a popular means to inform candidates that the company received their application, many candidates (39%) feel it’s not enough. Sixty-two percent of job seekers expect more personalized communications. Sixty-seven percent even expect a phone call from a recruiter after submitting an application.
4. Not going mobile
The ubiquitous use of mobile technology has fueled the expectation that the job search experience should be the same whether you are on a desktop or mobile device. However, nearly half (46%) of HR professionals don’t offer candidates the option of accessing their ATS via a mobile device, mostly due to technical or resource constraints. Although one-third (33%) of HR professionals reported that they saw a bigger drop-off rate because their ATS was not mobile-optimized, only 24% of all HR professionals think the ability to apply to a job via a mobile device should be considered part of the candidate experience. This raises a serious concern in light of the fact that when job-seekers can’t apply via a mobile device, 65%t said they rarely return to their desktop to finish the application.
5. Killing them with questions
The majority (53%) of HR professionals feel a long application process is good because it weeds out less enthusiastic or less qualified applicants. This may be true to some extent, but they’re also weeding out highly skilled, currently employed talent that is less likely to tolerate filling out multiple pages. Sixty percent of job seekers said they have begun an online application, but ultimately didn’t finish it due to how long and complex it was.
More than half (54%) of HR professionals said their application process takes more than 20 minutes to complete. Nearly three in ten job seekers (29%) believe the application process should take 10 minutes or less; 62% said it should take no more than 20 minutes.
Thirty-seven percent of HR professionals said they typically ask more than 15 questions during their application process. Half (51%) of job seekers said there should be no more than 10 questions.
The survey was conducted online among 374 HR professionals (employed full-time, work in Human Resources and are involved in decision-making about the HR system at their company) and 319 job seekers (unemployed, employed full-time or part-time and have applied for a job in the past six months) ages 18 and over.
