Use Analytics to Convert More Career Site Visitors to Applicants

This is a topic that we hear a lot from newer clients and potential new clients. It’s a valid issue, as organizations certainly want to attract as many high-quality applicants as possible. If they’re making the effort to automate tracking all of their applicant activities through an applicant tracking system solution like ours, they’re usually interested in building a solid pool of talent that they can dip into when needed.

For that reason, the first step we always recommend for these purposes is to utilize the site analytics information available in our ATS offering. Much like your organization may look at website analytics for marketing purposes, these analytics from the recruiting perspective allow you to determine what’s working and what may need to be adjusted.

Mind Your Recruiting Metrics

Below are some examples of key metrics our clients may use to keep their career sites as productive as possible:

• Number of visitors each day
• Length of time spent in the careers site
• Which pages were visited and how much time spent on each page
• Number of “bounces” and at what point visitors tended to bounce from your site after visiting just one page
• Where visitors came from (organic vs. referral)
• Number of visitors who started the application process
• Number of visitors who completed the application process

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of data that can be mined through these types of analytics. The list above is just a small sample of what may be pulled. However, understanding just these core metrics can help you to more quickly identify things you can adjust to keep your conversions of visitors to applicants high. For example, if you find that you have a high number of visitors who start the application process but don’t complete it, that’s likely a sign that you need to consider asking applicants for less information. Or, perhaps you need to change the format in which you gather that information.

Another example: if you see your daily visitors remaining stable but see the number of visitors beginning the application process drop, that’s likely a sign that your visitors are having trouble seeing quickly how to apply for an opening. Or, perhaps your job descriptions aren’t capturing visitors’ attention the way you’d like.

Recruiting ROI

The point I’m making is that the web is a constantly-changing environment. Unlike a few years ago, the goal isn’t simply to get more traffic to your site — for marketing or applicant purposes. The goal is to convert a higher percentage of that traffic to the actions you’re seeking. Your organization likely spends a good amount of time and money on these strategies from a marketing/sales perspective. We want to provide you the same opportunity to do this for your hiring needs.

If you’re a current client and you’d like to explore this further, please just let us know. This is a standard part of our offering and is available to you at no additional cost. If you’re not yet a client and would like to better understand how these practices may work for your organization, we’ll be happy to share more information with you.

Visitor our resources section for more information or schedule a live demo with ExactHire today to see how analytics tools in our applicant tracking software can help your organization assess its applicant conversion rate.

Image credit: Google Analytics Hacks by Search Engine People Blog (contact)