Are you seeing a decline in job applicants recently? Your company may be inadvertently spooking away or discouraging job seekers from applying to your open roles.
See if any of these items apply to your hiring process:
POORLY WRITTEN JOB AD
Your job advertisement, whether it’s published on a job board or on your company’s career site, is the first glimpse of a prospective candidate of your organization.
52% of job seekers say the quality of a job description is “very” or “extremely influential” on their decision to apply for a job. This includes the job description’s spelling, grammar, role description, and formatting.
A study using eye-tracking software found that job seekers will typically spend 14 seconds scanning a job post, so if the key information of the job’s requirement is not easily digestible and outlined clearly, you risk losing that candidate’s engagement.
Chris Mulhall, the Head of Talent at PointClickCare, said, “From a candidate’s perspective, a boring and bureaucratic job description probably means it’s also a boring and bureaucratic company to work for.”
UNATTAINABLE JOB REQUIREMENTS
The need to include everything the company is looking for in an ideal candidate could be tempting, however, too many requirements could potentially turn off qualified candidates from applying.
People who are currently employed think they only need to meet 72% of qualifications in order to be considered for a role, while unemployed job seekers say 64% will suffice. If the requirements are too unattainable and lack flexibility, candidates might be hesitant to submit themselves for consideration.
A study by LinkedIn shows that short job posts (1-300 words) tend to do much better than medium (301-600 words) or long (601+ words) ones—typically leading to 8.4% more applications than average. Keeping a job description concise to the core requirements such as degree needed, tools competencies, and desired soft skills could potentially draw more applicants.
NEGATIVE EMPLOYMENT BRAND REPUTATION
This generation of job seekers will research – extensively! Many of them would scour employees’ social media pages, as well as job sites that provide employee reviews to assess the company’s culture and management style before applying. 84% of job seekers say the company’s employer reputation is important. 50% of candidates say they wouldn’t work for a company with a bad reputation – even for a pay increase.
Though 96% of companies believe employer brand and reputation can positively or negatively impact the company’s revenue, only 44% actively track their reputation activities online.
By encouraging current workers to advocate for your employment brand by writing reviews or posting testimonials on LinkedIn, you build credibility and allure with job seekers who would want to be part of your company.
LONG APPLICATION PROCESS
Once you have enticed a job seeker to apply, keeping them engaged in the application process is another ordeal.
When a job application takes longer than 5 minutes to complete, companies see a 50 – 75% drop-off rate. On average, given the longevity of the application process, the candidate drop-off rate for people who click ‘Apply’ but never complete an application is 92%.
A study by Inflight, a User Experience software, found that typically, job seekers have to make 51 clicks before they complete an application process. Providing an easy resume uploading process can get candidates engaged all the way to the finish line.
Karl Wierzbicki, vice president of marketing at InFlight, said, “Given the recruitment marketing expenditure involved in attracting qualified talent, especially in a highly competitive labor market, having unnecessary roadblocks in place is counterintuitive and creates friction in the apply flow.”
Employers can’t afford to miss out on high-skilled talents, especially in this hot job market. Presenting a good front to prospective candidates is critical… and if additional recruiting support is needed to source for hard-to-find engineers, this is where SoloPoint Solutions can help. To get started on your candidate search, contact us today: