Online applications are supposed to fast-track the recruiting process. “Supposed to” being the operative words in that sentence. In reality, you’ve run into a snag. You keep getting incomplete or abandoned applications.
You must be doing some things right. People are clicking on your job posting, and many seemingly qualified candidates have started filling out your online application. But at that point, something goes wrong.
People keep giving up or start skipping parts. A surprisingly low number of job seekers complete the whole thing. The problem is complicating your search and slowing down the recruiting process.
There are things you can do to improve the situation. Here are some tips to try when applicants keep leaving parts of your job application blank:
Check the Instructions
The process of filling out the application should be as straight forward as possible. Candidates may skip parts of your application because they can’t figure out what to do.
Make sure that your instructions are clear. Let someone outside the HR staff try out the process to see if everything makes sense. Getting a fresh perspective can help you find problem areas.
Simplify the Application
You want to know everything about your candidate. You want to hear about your background, and you want to get a sample of their personality. To do that, you create an elaborate, multi-step process to gather data. Unfortunately, you might be scaring people away.
Check to see if your application is too complicated. If it consists of multiple sections or takes an excessive amount of time to complete, busy job seekers may give up.
Limit the Essay Questions
Essay questions provide a great way to learn about your candidates. You can learn information not included on their resumes and get a sample of their writing style. Unfortunately, essay questions can also take a lot of time.
Requiring too many essay answers will increase the number of incomplete applications. Limit these types of inquiries to the most important topics. Meanwhile, provide a reasonable word limit, allowing candidates to keep their responses short.
Move to a Multi-phase Process
You can eliminate most candidates based on their resumes and cover letters. As such, there’s no need for an elaborate process for each initial applicant.
Don’t make people do everything all at once. Your initial application should be relatively short, but enough for you to make a meaningful cut. From there, contact the people who seem most qualified and provide them with a second phase.
Automate Where Possible
Let technology do some of the work. Most of the candidates’ personal information can get drawn from a resume. The software can extract this automatically.
These programs can also track specific keywords, making it easier to discover whether a candidate has the necessary skills or particular competencies. Used right, these programs can accelerate your search and make the process easier for the applicants.
Qualified Staffing Will Find You Top Talent
Building a winning team starts by finding talented, qualified candidates. This process can be challenging. Why not lean on some professional help? A top-flight staffing agency, like Qualified Staffing, will provide the workers you need to fast-track your business growth.
Contact Qualified Staffing today to learn more.