Corporations and Staffing Agencies often have career portals with a repository of their open positions. Many times it is through these portals that a candidate has their first glimpse of a company. A first impression is made. Good or bad, this impression, made through the candidate’s experience in the process of applying for a job, can be a lasting one.
Currently, an incredible 54% of companies globally report a talent shortage, the highest figure in a decade. Companies cannot afford to be casting bad first impressions. Especially because of inadequate or faulty processes. Online applications on career portals need to be seamless and candidate-friendly. Making the application process challenge-free and simple.
A typical scenario like this may unfold:
A person is looking for a job. They’ve beefed up their LinkedIn profile. They’ve researched and honed their resume including all of the criteria that a recruiter could dream of.
They have followed advice and suggestions on what to include in a resume and how to present it. Their resume is concise, yet replete with the data required to fill open positions.
They have uploaded their resume to job boards and social sites and have been alerted that they may be the perfect fit for any number of positions. In particular the open position you have posted.
Excitedly, they go to your career portal page to read more about the opening and decide this is something they would like to pursue. They click the “Apply Now” button which prompts them not only to upload their resume but to fill out an application as well.
They upload their resume but feel a bit frustrated when asked to complete the requisite online application as it’s asking for the same information that’s already within their resume. They begin to fill it out but get interrupted and their information doesn’t save.
They begin to fill it out again, but the copy and paste from resume to application is tedious and defeating.
In the meantime, another “perfect job” pops up in their notifications. They abandon the annoying application to look at other job opportunities.
You’ve lost their interest and potentially the perfect candidate for the position. This negative experience has also left them with a negative impression of your brand. Two strikes.
How do you remedy a growing drop-off rate and a potentially negative image reflection on your career portal page?
Technology to the rescue
There are technologies like DaXtra Apply & Match that map criteria over from a resume document, populating the online form.
Admittedly, there are going to be candidates whose resumes don’t reflect all of the criteria your online application requires. But, it will be a very good start to have the material every resume contains, auto-populate into your online application.
Contact information, job history with dates, duties and skills should populate. Even if the candidate has to edit or fill in some of the criteria, at least they have a head start and will find the ease of use in your portal.
The ability to save an application in the midst of applying will give applicants peace of mind as well. This way, should a candidate need to leave the application for any reason, they can pick up where they left off.
These small changes can reduce your candidate drop-off rate by up 60-70%. And through this positive experience, the candidate will leave with a good impression of your company.
Candidate matching
How many times have you advertised a position and gotten a great candidate, but they were just not right for that particular job?
Don’t let these valuable unicorns get away! Match them to other job openings within your company.
The state-of-the-art matching technology built into Apply & Match can find other job openings that a jobseeker may be a good match for and send the jobseeker listings.
Couple this technology with candidate engagement software like Herefish by Bullhorn, TextUs and Sense, to keep in contact with the candidate. Nurturing them along the way will build a solid relationship between your company and candidates.
Now is the time
Amid a war for talent, a worker shortage and the “Great Resignation,” recruiters need all the help they can get when it comes to finding and retaining candidates.
According to our Market Research, 83% of candidates say they would expect that filling out an application would take no more than 30 minutes. 31% expect it to take 10 minutes or less.
On average, candidates will give up filling out an application form if it takes longer than 27 minutes.
To meet the demand of what the job seeker expects companies need to up their game and create user-friendly experiences for potential candidates.
Don’t let valuable candidates slip through your fingers. You’ve done a great job writing a job description to lure candidates to your site. Don’t lose them with a lengthy, difficult online application process.
For more about how DaXtra Apply & Match can help your recruiting processes, please contact us here.
