What Job Seekers Hate About Your Hiring Process
The experience you create with your hiring process can make or break you in the employment market. In fact, 83 percent of candidates share their experience of the process with friends and family. If the process wasn’t up to their standards, you could be losing the candidate and all the people with which they are close.
What could be turning talent off about your hiring practices? Here’s three places that applicants have admitted to hating in the past:
1. “I hated how the interview was conducted.” The world of technology is in full motion. Most people have smartphones, computers and a general understanding of how it all works. Chances are, even with a decent grasp of the tech side of life, problems aren’t totally avoided. Nothing beats a good face-to-face conversation, but with applicants who may have to relocate, this may be a little harder to accomplish.
Video interviewing is a fantastic way to conduct a preliminary interview. If your company is using this first step, relying on something like Skype could be a challenge for both the applicant’s patience and the overall connectivity process. Video interviewing companies are equipped with the software, support and experience to guide both the recruiter and candidate through a potentially rocky experience.
2. “I had to go through three interviews…and didn’t hear back from you.” Interviews take time from your day, but an interested candidate will move an entire schedule around in order to make it to the office. Once the candidate makes that time, it is only courteous to give some sort of response. In fact, 82 percent of job seekers expect to hear back even after sending in an application. Yet, 60 percent of surveyed job seekers said they didn’t hear anything after meeting for an interview. When an interview is conducted, the candidate should be told whether they are a fit or not. It’s just courteous.
3. “You were late and unprepared.” Candidates who really want a position in a company will show it. A prepared candidate will be on time (probably early) and will expect to see the same from the interviewer. They will have read up on missions and goals and will expect an interviewer to ask them questions to show off just how much they cared. The candidate will also expect the interviewer to have thoroughly looked his or her resume and its details. They want to talk about the accomplishments and explain short comings.
Simply having manners and interest in what the candidate has to say could create an encouraging environment for your candidate and future candidates. Ninety percent of candidates who felt they were treated with courtesy would encourage other people to apply for a company.
So, what can be done? Airbnb Recruiter, Jill Riopelle, considered her sources when she had a not-so-great experience when first joining the company. Her first choice: her new coworkers. Who knows the hiring process better than the people who lived it? Ask what parts your employees struggled with and consider what would have helped solve them.
While paper work and resumes pile up, it can be easy to forget that the world of recruiting and HR is all about people. Because the whole purpose is to find the right candidate in the job market, the focus should be on who the individual is and what they can do for the team. Unfortunately, with that hefty goal, the candidate experience is often overlooked or not entirely considered. The pressure to not scare off talent is fierce, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be navigated. The best start is to look within your own employees.