Make Your Hiring Process Friendly for Applicants
I’ve read a number of articles over the past few months about how impersonal and cumbersome the hiring process is for most employers. Given the space we operate in, we pay particular attention to those comments, as those same comments may apply to our clients and their applicants.
The underlying issues for these opinions appear to stem from two things:
- Applicants not hearing back from employers after they’ve submitted an application or resume
- Employers making the application submittal process more difficult than it needs to be
Keep in mind — these are viewpoints shared by applicants…not by me.
Keep Applicants in the Loop
Because we specialize in paperless HR solutions (especially applicant tracking software for the purposes of this discussion), addressing the first issue is pretty easy to do. Most any reputable online application software tool will allow you to automate the process of keeping applicants in the loop regarding current job openings. While there are many ways to do this, the end result should typically be the same. That is, applicants know where they stand and what to expect next in the process as it evolves. This protects your employment brand and will more readily ensure that good applicants, while perhaps not hired initially, will continue to follow your job opportunities and apply again for relevant openings.
Simplify Application Process Without Sacrificing Candidate Data
As you look at addressing the second issue, the answer may not be quite so apparent. This is true, even if you’ve used an applicant tracking software tool before. Until recently, there were two polar opposite paths that solutions like ours used to remedy this:
- Allow applicants to “parse” information from their resume directly into their online application.
- Advantage: Time savings for applicants and the potential for a quicker, simpler user experience from their perspective
- Disadvantage: Frequency of error in terms of information from the resume being pasted into the wrong section of the online application
- Require applicants to complete a full online application to be considered for a given position.
- Advantage: Applicants have the opportunity to try to differentiate themselves with answers to questions on the application unique to that opening
- Disadvantage: It can take more time than applicants are willing to spend
Then our team came up with a third option — one that more closely resembles the sequence of events in most hiring processes. This unique, two-step application process seems to resonate well with both applicants and employers. Here’s how it works:
- Once applicants select the position for which they’d like to be considered, they are prompted for some very basic information. While this is customizable by client, the information typically consists of name, address, phone, email, resume upload, and some basic job-specific screening questions. For most applicants, they are able to complete this sequence in less than five minutes.
- The employer may then use the results of the screening questions to determine which candidates meet the basic requirements of the position.
- For those who do, the employer may generate an email, with only one click, to invite those qualified applicants back for the next step in the hiring process.
- Since the applicants who receive this email know they are being considered more seriously for the position, the request is seen as a natural progression in the hiring process.
As you can see, this follows how most organizations hire today. Instead of forcing them (or their applicants) to change anything dramatically, we’re simply using our technology to move them toward a paperless HR environment…without worrying about losing passive applicants who will not take the time to complete a lengthy application at the onset of the selection process.
If you’d like to learn more about our applicant tracking software’s two-step employment application feature, please contact us.
