3 Reasons Your Recruiting Process Sucks

Having been on both sides of the hiring process (as a job candidate and as a marketing expert for a staffing agency), I feel I can share some reasons most companies need to take a deep-dive look at their job candidate experience.

Let's start by looking back....

Hiring these days is not as easy as it used to be. When the unemployment rate was high, there were a lot more qualified candidates in the pool and companies weren't looking to fill as many jobs either. It’s a much different market now — from a high of 10% unemployment in October of 2009 to 4.1% in October of 2017. The tough news for companies to digest is simply, you're in a candidate-driven market now.

What does that even mean?

Basically, a candidate-driven market means waves of hiring surges are bringing competition back to the job market. 

A candidate-driven market means now is a great time to be looking for work as there are more jobs for talented creatives, but it also means a tough time for hiring and retaining happy employees. A high demand for specific skills paired with the longer amount of time companies take to fill open roles is good news for job seekers, but not so great news for those doing the hiring.

Inc Magazine says “the most difficult step these days is finding employees — any employees at all. We're in the midst of one of the most difficult hiring markets of all time.”

What The Market Means: Companies Need to Woo ??

Hiring is like dating now. The best candidates have to be convinced that your company is a place they want to work, which means it takes time and effort to find them, and often the best hires are passive candidates. That means tough news for hiring when most company recruitment is still based on the old model of posting jobs and waiting for the resumes to pour in.

3 Reasons Your Recruiting Process Might Suck

Here are three signs your recruitment efforts might need improvement from the candidate-experience side of things.

1. Your Process Relies Strictly on Technology

Let's be honest, most companies’ job application systems are tedious. According to a survey of more than a 1,200 job seekers and HR pros done by Career Arc, 60% of the candidates said they had a poor experience trying to apply for a job.

• 65% said they never got any notification that their material had been submitted
• 51% said it took a month to receive any notification that their submission had been reviewed
• 85% don’t believe a real person looked at their submission

Don't worry, it gets worse; 72% of people said that if they had a bad experience with your company in a hiring situation, they would share their experience with others. Often, they share it online, on sites like Glassdoor or Indeed which hurts you when potential hires search for info on your company.

The number one complaint most job applicants have? Uploading a resume and then having to retype everything into your system.

Every touch point a job candidate has with your company should be as efficient and speedy as possible. Make sure you actually complete your company's application process as if you were a job candidate (from starting on your job board with a mobile device through submitting an application, resume, and scheduling an interview) to see where the kinks are.

2. The Hiring Process Takes Too Long

Once you have identified a candidate and your company’s in-house Recruiter, staffing agency Recruiter, or HR Professional starts the process, every moment from that starting point until someone gets a job offer is an opportunity for someone else to offer them a job.

In the U.S., the typical length of the interview process is 23.7 days; stray longer than that and you're in danger of losing out on the highly sought after talent. I've sat in several morning talent agency meetings where the answer was "she took another job" to the question of coming in for another interview.

Time kills all deals as they say.

Your Career Intel seconds this opinion: "Companies that drag their feet, let too much time elapse between interviews, and require too many meetings before making an offer give the competition the benefit of time." The early bird does, in fact, get the worm. "When employers make their hiring decisions efficiently, early offers may tempt candidates to make a deal."

3. Your Recruiters Can't Answer Questions

The recruiting force rarely expands as multiple openings occur, so that means the same number of people are looking to fill your job, no matter how many jobs your company has open. This can be a big problem if you have several important roles open at once, and especially tough if your team isn't versed in all the details of the roles — or if you've outsourced to a staffing firm and haven't given that Recruiter all the details.

Job descriptions can cover basic job duties, but intangibles also play a significant role in hiring decisions. You may find that what appears initially to be a strong pool of applicants doesn’t actually yield any of the traits you actually value, and that could be because you're not interviewing for culture fit/culture add, OR because job candidates are having a tough time getting a clear picture of the role.

Ask yourself these questions about the person doing your in-house recruiting:

• Are they expert interviewers?
• Are they a great brand ambassador?
• Are they fully conversant in the smallest details of the job?
• Can they speak to the company culture of the hiring office location?
• Are they current in their skills?
• Are they taking advantage of social media, LinkedIn, and networking opportunities?

If the answer to all of these question is a resounding YES, congrats! You’re in a small minority and probably fill all your positions quickly with qualified candidates. If the answer is no, you might want to amp up your HR training program.

*A version of this article originally appeared on ArtisanTalent.com here. Want to learn more about hiring in a candidate-driven market, hiring for culture fit, and retaining employees? Check out my "Hiring and Recruiting in a Candidate-Driven Market" blog post.

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