Like many employers, Residence Depot struggles with labor shortages because it tries to fill vacancies. The ironmongery shop just lately introduced that it was shifting to a brand new “expedited recruitment course of” the place job presents are submitted inside simply in the future of the appliance.
However when job seekers click on the Apply button on the corporate’s web site, they’re introduced with an Applicant Monitoring System (ATS) login web page. Like many different employers, Residence Depot requires candidates to first arrange an account and password with the ATS earlier than continuing with the appliance — doubtless leading to many simply shifting on.
Obstacles to the web utility course of have at all times been an issue, and whereas analysis exhibits that candidate churn remains to be astonishingly excessive, a latest Fortune 500 audit revealed some fascinating knowledge factors: Utility move has improved, however there at all times remains to be too many steps to get candidates to their vacation spot.
In keeping with Appcast, one of the vital revered suppliers of recruiting knowledge within the trade, the applicant dropout fee for individuals who click on apply however by no means full an utility is a whopping 92 %.
“Candidate utility quantity has at all times been necessary and has at all times had its personal distinctive challenges,” mentioned Christy Spilka, vice chairman and international head of expertise acquisition at recruitment expertise firm iCIMS. “The occasions of the final two years have elevated the significance and the challenges. Candidates are shoppers and need quick, straightforward and informative processes. With out that, they are going to transfer on. A robust expertise attraction technique and a fantastic employer model, mixed with an interesting and genuine careers website and a simple utility course of is vital.”
Chris Russell, CEO of RecTech Media, a recruitment expertise consulting agency in Trumbull, Connecticut, has been banging the identical drum for years. “You must maintain hammering that message into HR and recruiters,” he mentioned. “Utility move is so necessary as a result of hiring velocity is required in as we speak’s hiring setting. Corporations must streamline their processes. The quicker you may get a candidate down the funnel, the quicker you may rent them.”
Karl Wierzbicki, vice chairman of promoting at InFlight, a consumer expertise expertise supplier in Easthampton, Massachusetts, added that when candidates drop out of the method, conversion charges drop and key recruiting metrics undergo. “A 90 % dropout fee will skyrocket your price per utility,” he mentioned. “It’s going to drive up your price per rent. It’s going to enhance your occupation time. It harms your setting high quality. Just about each expertise acquisition metric could be improved by bettering the conversion fee of your utility move. And one of the simplest ways to attain that is to enhance the appliance course of for candidates.”
InFlight just lately performed an audit of Fortune 500 corporations by asking researchers to use to open positions to see what job seekers might anticipate. They timed the general expertise from the primary click on to affirmation of utility submission, and counted the variety of clicks it took to finish the appliance.
“Efforts are clearly being made to supply candidates a greater utility expertise,” mentioned Wierzbicki. “However candidates nonetheless have to leap by many hurdles to use for a job.”
Many clicks
The InFlight audit discovered that the common time to finish an utility is 4 minutes and 52 seconds, with the massive, older ATSs offering the longest utility processing occasions and the newer, extra versatile programs offering quicker outcomes.
“It’s optimistic that purposes solely took 5 minutes on common,” mentioned Wierzbicki. “But it surely requires an exorbitant variety of steps and clicks. After clicking ‘Apply’, candidates must make a mean of 9 extra clicks earlier than they even get to the appliance. Alongside the best way, they are going to be requested to create consumer accounts and passwords, both they are going to be requested to reply the identical query greater than as soon as, or they are going to be requested to enter knowledge that’s already included within the CV that they may even add.”
InFlight discovered that it takes a mean of 51 clicks to get by an utility. Researchers even encountered a brand new impediment: job seekers should authenticate their id through e-mail earlier than they’ll log again in to finish their utility, presumably for safety causes.
“Given the recruitment advertising and marketing prices related to attracting certified expertise, particularly in a extremely aggressive job market, establishing pointless boundaries is counterintuitive and creates friction within the utility course of,” Wierzbicki mentioned.
Russell mentioned progressive employers are taking a a lot easier method to steer era for the preliminary utility course of and are dropping the resume requirement. “They use a brief kind asking for title, telephone quantity, e-mail and possibly a LinkedIn profile – that is it. Simply get the fundamentals nonetheless want their complete historical past. Recruiters can use these results in ask for extra info in the event that they wish to proceed with the applicant.”
Many have advocated taking out pre-registration and account creation altogether, ways corporations use to gather applicant info for advertising and marketing functions.
“Login websites are nonetheless quite common, and that is a straightforward factor to do away with,” Russell mentioned. “Folks have dozens of logins for dozens of ATSs. It is one of many causes job searching is so irritating for folks.”
Nevertheless, Spilka mentioned consumer accounts could be useful for candidates as they permit them to trace their utility standing. “They’ll log again into the positioning, take a look at their dashboard and see the standing of each place they’ve utilized for,” she mentioned.
share branding
Practically half (48 %) of Fortune 500 corporations use ATS logos and branding within the utility course of, doubtlessly creating confusion amongst candidates as to the place their info goes.
“Seeing the ATS brand on the appliance creates an uncomfortable feeling and the impression {that a} candidate is leaving the employer’s location and shifting to a different location,” mentioned Wierzbicki. “It is worse when the ATS portal is much less subtle. This uncertainty about which aspect they’re on causes some candidates to drop out.”
If the switch is finished nicely, it isn’t an enormous deal, Russell mentioned, but when “clicking ‘Apply’ opens a brand new tab in your browser and the ATS website appears to be like utterly totally different, it isn’t interesting.”
Consultants agree that the appliance expertise ought to be constant and that employers ought to ask their ATS companions to take away their vendor branding and replace the appear and feel of the ATS pages to mirror the employer’s careers web page.
“Corporations make investments closely of their model and this ought to be authentically demonstrated all through the expertise expertise, even past the appliance, proper by to all candidate interactions,” mentioned Spilka. “It should not really feel like you are going to a very totally different web site. At iCIMS we work along with the employer [feature their branding] within the utility portal to take care of model consistency.”
Steady enchancment
Consultants advocate that expertise acquisition practitioners ought to expertise their very own group’s utility course of. “Look how lengthy it takes you,” mentioned Wierzbicki. “Whenever you’re achieved, ask your self the way you felt in regards to the expertise. Then streamline the method, simplify account creation and take away redundant and pointless questions.”
Spilka mentioned everybody concerned in hiring, together with recruiters and a spotlight group of consultant hiring managers, ought to assess the appliance course of and establish areas for enchancment and alternatives to have interaction extra with candidates.
However she mentioned it is necessary to trace applicant abandonment charges and different conversion metrics first, so measurements could be in contrast as soon as modifications are made.