From the amount of candidates in your pipeline, conversion rate peaks and troughs and monitoring the number of drop-outs, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But only when you understand the numbers, can you start to pin-point where problem areas lie and consider potential solutions.
We’ve put together this handy list of tips to help you identify and overcome the problem areas of your process. You can thank us later!
1. Too many applications
Although high interest in your employment opportunities is great, large volumes of applications can place immense pressure on your resourcing team, eating up time and money – especially when huge proportions of applicants are unsuitable. It’s a challenge we’ve seen our clients face time and time again.
A key reason for unsuitable applications is a lack of understanding from applicants around the role or recruitment process.
Faced with this challenge, Yodel implemented Candidate Experience Chatbots into their careers site to accurately sign-post interested candidates to opportunities suitable for them and educate them about the role and process at any time of day, even out of office hours.
Well curated job descriptions that encourage both, interest and applications are also vital when it comes to boosting applicants’ understanding of the role and process. To do it effectively, ask yourself three simple questions;
- Is it clear?
- Does your audience understand what’s required of them during the application process?
- Do they know enough about your company culture?
A strong employer brand can not only encourage more candidates to apply, it can also lead to 50% more qualified candidates.
With 79% of job seekers using social media in their job search, it’s a no brainer to be utilising social media to give prospective candidates an insight into the culture of your organisation and employer brand.
Our tips:
- Go back to basics and review your job description – Does the language resonate with your audience? Is it inspiring?
- Ensure your candidates know what each stage of the application process entails. Whether it’s top tips videos, an updated and simplified FAQs section on the website or an infographic – Help your candidates perform their best
- Utilise social media to leverage your employer brand and communicate your company culture.
2. Drop-outs
If you’re finding candidates are dropping out, it’s important to take a look at the points of the process where drop-outs are highest.
Candidates tend to drop-out early if the application process is too long and over-complicated or they may have untapped fears about a particular stage.
One of our Policing clients implemented a Meet & Engage 1-2-1 live chat that pops up for candidates during their application. This has had a huge impact on the candidate experience during the application stage and has helped them tackle the drop-out challenges from a clunky application form.
Today’s candidates want to be reassured, they’re used to information available in an instant at the click of a button, they don’t want to be waiting days for a response. And this isn’t just Gen Z. 53% of people will leave a mobile page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Instant responses are expected and when candidates do get a response they want to hear from the people they feel they’ve already started to build a relationship with. After all, although we refer to resourcing as a process it’s always been about relationships.
The more informed people feel, the more confident and empowered they are to perform at their best – and this goes for recruitment as much as any other aspect in life.
We joined forces with Bright Network to survey a group of graduates and found that they felt employers had a role to play in helping them prepare for the assessment and selection process – and hearing from those who’d been through the journey i.e. last year’s intake, was a smart way of doing this.
84% of candidates feel the experience they received during their recruitment journey has an impact on whether they’d recommend you as an employer…
Chivas Brothers identified high drop-outs from candidates before video interview stage and so, decided to directly focus on engaging with candidates at that key point in the process. They ran live group messaging chats for their candidates to demystify concerns and encourage them to complete this stage confidently with much success.
Our tips:
- Support your candidates throughout the recruitment process. Have a designated point of contact for example, an application support email so candidates can share any queries and concerns
- Create connections between the people who matter. This could be an email campaign coming from a director or one of your current employees. Candidates appreciate being kept in the loop and knowing they’re time and effort is appreciated
- Engage with applicants during the parts of the process where drop-outs are highest.
3. Too few applications
Preconceptions and information (or a lack thereof) that candidates are finding online could be holding them back from taking the time to apply.
Candidates are willing to do their research before they apply with 50% looking at online reviews on sites such as Glassdoor and so, it’s important to keep an eye on the brand’s online perception.
Put yourself in a candidate’s shoes. Is it easy to find information and apply?
With so many candidates using various channels in their job search it’s important to open up available opportunities to as many as possible to make candidate discovery as simple as possible.
As mentioned above, social media is a huge channel for candidates during their job search and without utilising social networks effectively there’s likely to be a reduction in interest.
People relate to people – especially those in a similar, or previously in a similar position to them.
Show off your top talent and inspire your candidates by connecting your existing employees to your future talent. You can read more in our article from Nicola discussing Bright Network’s 2019 research. There she shares a quote from one of the graduates who said;
“… you can read a lot about a company, but the company comes to life and becomes real when you meet its greatest assets – the people”
Many of our clients have hosted hugely successful live messaging chat events for their existing employees to share details about their journey, projects, and the company culture with candidates. It’s powerful and authentic.
Our tips:
- Research what your competitors offering. How do they engage with candidates? If you have the opportunity, speak to prospective candidates at networking events and careers fairs
- Create meaningful conversations with your candidates by building awareness of your opportunities. Whether it’s through email, social media or group chat sessions give them the chance to explore what you have to offer, ask questions or simply have a chat
- Get your people involved – This was our tip for drop-outs but it’s so important it deserves to be listed twice! Peer-to-peer connections are invaluable when it comes to candidate engagement.
Tackling the challenges of early-process engagement doesn’t have to be difficult and, with these tips you should be well on your way to keeping your candidates happy and engaged throughout the recruitment process.
To find out more about our Live Chat Messaging and Candidate Experience Chatbots request a demo with us online.
