Bonnie Johnson
September 09, 2019
Newsletter Article
Discouraging Candidates: Is Your Organization Guilty?
Hiring the best candidates requires a welcoming recruiting environment. Is your process daunting, complicated, lengthy, and frustrating? Or have you implemented a smooth, responsive system?
Recruiting top talent depends heavily on your candidate experience – how the job seeker is treated throughout the hiring cycle. How an applicant perceives they are treated can impact their likelihood to accept the offer, stay on-the-job, and what they communicate to others about your organization. Word-of-mouth is a powerful recruitment tool and candidates WILL tell others!
Even if an applicant doesn’t receive an offer this time, it doesn’t mean that they won’t be the perfect fit for an alternative opening or a different position in the future after further training and/or experience.
So, is your organization contributing to applicants’ feelings of dejection? AgCareers.com surveyed job seekers in the 2018 Candidate Experience Survey. We asked candidates about the most discouraging aspects of the application process. The most discouraging aspect was lack of response from employers. More than half (53%) of respondents said “no response from employers” was the worst faux pas. The next indiscretion noted by 28% of respondents was “no salary included” in the job description, followed closely by the “length/complexity of process” (27%).
Respondents could also specify other discouraging aspects in an open-ended format. The most common other complaints included submitting redundant information during the process, and employers posting a job that wasn’t actually available or was filled by an internal candidate.
Organizations need to let candidates know where they stand. Unfortunately, one-third of respondents said they “rarely” or “never” heard back from employers with confirmation of their application receipt. Your first step may be taking advantage of the auto-response features that many application systems provide.
To learn more about candidate experience and how your organization can improve, download your free copy of the full 2018 AgCareers.com Candidate Experience Survey Results & Analysis. For further discussion and tips, order our Delivering a Meaningful Candidate Experience webinar on demand here.
