7 Ways You’re Losing Good Candidates in the Hiring Process
The current labor market is driven by historically low unemployment rates, meaning that candidates have an abundance of options when choosing where they want to work. Employers according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are roughly 10 million job vacancies and about 5 million fewer people to fill them since the onset of the pandemic. This means that candidates can be very selective about which opportunities they pursue.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
In a tough job market, your hiring approach and the candidate experience really matters. With so many jobs to fill and so few qualified and competent job seekers to fill them, you must make your hiring process as smooth and appealing as possible to keep your best candidates engaged.
To achieve that, you’ll need to avoid these common pitfalls that make candidates walk away:
Unclear job description and expectations - if a candidate doesn’t understand what the job actually entails, they will move on to the next ad. Avoid this by updating the job description before you write the ad, and creating a job benchmark.
The application process is too difficult - if your application process is too long or convoluted, you are losing applicants. According to CareerBuilder, 60 percent of job seekers quit in the middle of filling out online job applications because of their length or complexity. Use a quality applicant tracking system to streamline your application process.
The screening process is too long - gone are the days when an applicant would be willing to jump through multiple hoops to secure a position. Phone screening, two or three interviews, several personality assessments, plus a work sample or presentation results in a protracted and annoying hiring experience. While you want to be sure you’re hiring the right person, question every step to make sure it is necessary and ensure you’re using the most applicable assessments.
You take too long to make a job offer - as with the point above, you want to be sure you’re hiring the right person. However, take too long and your top talent will have accepted a position with a competitor, and may even have posted a negative review of your business for “ghosting” them.
Lack of employer branding - the pandemic has changed workers’ priorities, and health, wellbeing, and workplace culture are much more important to today’s job seekers. If you’re not selling your company culture, benefits, and perks in the job ad, you’ll be losing applicants to those that do.
Vague on salary, or don’t include it at all - salary is important to job seekers, and job-focussed websites like Glassdoor let them know exactly what they’re worth. Salary transparency in the job ad allows the candidate to evaluate the job based on this crucial metric and ensures you don’t get turned down at the offer stage when your dream employee is unwilling to take a pay cut.
Lack of flexibility - Future Forum’s Global Pulse Survey found that workers want flexibility in not just where they work, but when. 78% of all survey respondents say they want location flexibility, and nearly all (95%) want schedule flexibility. Companies that fail to embrace this future of work will inevitably lose out, while those that embrace it can capitalize: 72% of those dissatisfied with the amount of flexibility their employer offers said they’re likely to look for a new job in the next year.