The recruiting process can be pressure filled, with urgency to hire. Most positions are advertised after a vacancy is created. Leaving companies tunnel visioned towards finding their new employee, at the expense of considering the value of all the people that apply. Even those that do not make the cut.
Recruitment HQ recently completed a survey about candidate satisfaction, and its effect and found important information about the effect of your company’s process and possible upside from all the candidates that do not make the cut.
55% of candidates have either used a product or service, or know someone who has used the potential employer’s product.
This means that your applicants are also potential customers. More than half have made the decision to consider your company based in some part on someone’s experience with your company as a consumer. On average an employment ad gains 59 applicants, according to Indeed’s latest research, resulting in a hire. This leaves 58 unhired candidates, that could become customers if handled properly. Depending on the size of your business and number of employment ads you run per year, hundreds or thousands of future customers are on the line.
What makes candidates happy? Here are the top two responses, based on our survey.
#1 – Ease of application and screening process
#2 – Speed of decision and communication
People that apply to your jobs want to be able to do it with a minimum of fuss or hoops, and get a response as fast as possible. Everything comes down to time. Applicants want to get from apply to decision as efficiently as possible. In short value your applicants time and process as much as your company’s.
Here is what we do to make that happen:
- Ensure all online applications are short form with no more than 10 questions
- Only use online formats that work well for mobile, tablet, and desktop
- Complete quick phone interviews with candidates to engage applicants faster
- Give candidates the ability to self-schedule their initial phone interview if they meet basic criteria
- Respond to every applicant within 24 hours, with clear instructions as to your process
- Communicate decisions, including alerting all applicants when a job is closed, immediately
According to our candidates our streamlined and efficient process makes them much more likely to use our clients, regardless of whether they win the job or not. Based on our survey:
68% of candidates state they are more likely to, or definitely will make a purchase from our client strictly based on their treatment during the application process.
When you are building your company recruiting process keep speed and efficiency in mind. Consider your process as much from the candidate perspective as the company view. You will not only hire the people you need, but will gain a huge potential client base.