Posts

7 Tired Excuses for a Long Job Application

in /by

So your customer service representative and retail associate jobs have been posted for weeks on end…but you still don’t have enough applicants to satisfy the general managers at all your retail locations.

What’s a recruiter to do? Maybe you should come to grips with the excuses your organization has been telling itself about why it keeps its lengthy, increasingly-obsolete job application.

You say, “but this application used to be a gold mine – ten years ago we were flooded with job applicants!” Well, ten years ago the recession gave you an employer’s market that made it easy to nurture your “woobie blanket” of an employment application.

It seems obvious that employers should regularly evaluate the effectiveness of their hiring process (and more frequently than once per decade); nonetheless, many organizations don’t put it at the top of the HR priority list…until their candidate pipelines have dwindled to a trickle.

Let’s examine the excuses that keep employers preserving their lengthy job applications.

1 – If they really want the job, they’ll complete it.

Once upon a time, this was more true. And, perhaps it will be sort of true once again as economic factors shift over time. In the meantime, your organization–however beloved it is in the eyes of your community–will never be so precious that it engages all of the top talent to complete a 52-question job application in a climate where unemployment is so low.

In fact, according to an Appcast study referenced by SHRM, job application completion rates plummet by nearly 50 percent when an application has 50 or more questions rather than 25 or fewer questions. Others say the impact is worse–Indeed research suggests that employment applications with just 20 screener questions lose 40% of candidates, with abandonment rate increasing as more questions are added.

2 – It’ll be too much work to screen later.

Recruiters and HR professionals understand that if you ask fewer questions up front in the job application, then you have less information to go by when it comes to screening candidates. You may be concerned that it will take too much time to ask these repositioned questions at the interview stage of the hiring process.

However, your lengthy job application is going to dramatically decrease the number of candidates you will put through your hiring process–so, you may have some free time for extra screening on your hands.

In this market, you must decrease your application complexity because the opportunity cost of a long employment application is more time sourcing more candidates because there isn’t enough talent in the pipeline.

3 – Our application “isn’t that bad.”

You agree that a 50+ question application is ridiculous and are giggling alongside me as you read this blog. Of course we can’t expect reasonable job seekers to waste their time on that fool’s exercise!

But wait, when was the last time you actually pretended to be a job seeker and applied to your own company? Hmmm….

Have you ever counted all the fields and questions in your employer’s job application? Go do it now, I’ll wait.

What’s that you say? There are…28 questions for the cashier job at your store?!?

Test your own job application with regularity–at least once per year, if not more frequently, as you notice significant changes in your application rates.

4 – We don’t have that many mobile job seekers.

Should no one in 2019 say ever. You’re in denial about the massive application abandonment rate you experience with mobile job seekers until the Google Analytics statistic of 70% is staring you in your face. Yes, at ExactHire we’ve seen abandonment that high with prospective employers who have not yet implemented a mobile-friendly, reasonably brief, job application.

Remember, an already lengthy application becomes an absolute beast on mobile and tablet views with smaller screens and ample finger pinching, scrolling and zooming.

By reducing the length of your application to appeal to the mobile job seeker, you also stand to improve your diversity and inclusion efforts. According to Pew Research done in the past 5 years, “black and Hispanic smartphone owners are especially likely to use their phone for job-related activities – more than half (55%) used their phone in the past year to find job information, compared with about a third (37%) of whites.”

5 – HR will yell at me.

You think your job application has to be long because Dolores Umbridge in human resources will stalk you if you deviate from the standard.

While certain industries and organization sizes require specific compliance-related questions, there aren’t so many requirements that your application should be painful to complete.

You should absolutely stick to applicable employment law when it comes to questions related to criminal history, pay history, employment eligibility, required licensure, voluntary self-identification, etc. (it will vary depending on employer size, location, contractor status, and industry).

But, that doesn’t mean you need to collect references on the first step of the application. Remember, your job application helps to form the first impression of your organization…do you want that impression to be one riddled with red tape and inefficiency?

6 – Everyone gets the same job application.

“Well, this is the way we’ve always done it.”

You feel compelled to have every job seeker, regardless of position interest, complete the same, one-size-fits-all application. It feels safe, right?

You can have different job application versions to meet the needs of different job categories and locations. And, our ExactHire applicant tracking software makes it a cinch to customize and manage application templates. After all, not only do questions sometimes vary depending on state, but the knock-out questions that you’d present an hourly worker are probably different than for a white collar executive.

7 – I don’t know which questions to ask at which step.

You’re starting to relent in your desire to preserve your lengthy job application. Fantastic!

Now you must figure out which questions to ask at which stage of the hiring process. First, examine your existing job application and consider questions that you really don’t need to ask in the initial step. Keep only the deal-breaker questions.

Deal-breakers for hourly positions at a retail location may be as simple as evaluating

  • which shifts the candidate may fill,
  • whether the candidate is available to work overtime, and
  • whether the candidate has reliable transportation to and from work.

Don’t be afraid to go to your general managers and ask them for the short list of questions that actually matter when they consider someone for this type of position. Of course, your short list will likely vary quite a bit when considering questions for your general manager positions.

No more excuses for your employment application

Be aware of these seven excuses so you can keep your organization from falling back into the trap of the dreaded, lengthy job application.

By regularly evaluating your application fulfillment rates and testing your own application versions for different job categories, you’ll increase the number of qualified candidates in your recruitment pipeline. You’ll improve your employment brand, too.

Optimize your job application

Schedule a demo of ExactHire to see how you can customize and manage multiple employment application templates to suit different job categories.

Schedule Demo

Should I Ask This on the Employment Application?

in /by

Useful Employment Application Guidelines

Whether the positions an organization is seeking to fill are temporary or permanent, it is important for Human Resources representatives to reflect on the content included in their organization’s employment application(s) to determine if the content is within the scope of fair hiring practices. In this blog, I’ll identify a few employment application audit ideas to help you determine whether you need to eliminate or rephrase any questions that could lead to discriminatory hiring practices.  Please note: ExactHire does not provide legal counsel. If you are in doubt about the compliance of your employment application, please speak with your organization’s legal team.

Download our hiring process questions guide

Background Check Guidance

Many companies complete background checks on the individuals who have been offered employment. For a background check to be completed accurately, the social security number and date of birth are necessary to properly identify the individual. However, an individual’s social security number and date of birth should NOT be included in the application in any format; this highly sensitive information can be collected from the individual at the time of background check consent. If a minimum age is necessary for employment in a particular position, an organization may ask if the applicant is 16, 18, 21 or older (or whatever the legal requirement may be for that position type). No questions regarding the years of attendance should be asked on an application or in an interview.

Avoid Questions Related to Religion

Religious affiliation is one element that should not be asked or discussed in the hiring process. Even though many religious organizations have events and practices which occur regularly throughout the year, for certain religions, there are increased numbers of worship activities in the winter season. An employer can specify the hours/days/shifts for the vacant position but also include that the employer provides reasonable accommodations for religious practices that do not pose an undue hardship towards the employer.

Language Fluency and Employment Applications

Another component that needs careful phrasing within an employment application involves any questions related to language(s) spoken. If relevant to the position for which the applicant is applying, an employer can ask about language(s) spoken, read or written. If speaking, reading or writing another language(s) are irrelevant skills for the position, there is no need to ask for that information so it is best to omit that question. One of the many features of ExactHire’s HireCentric applicant tracking system is that you may create groups of job specific screening questions where an organization can ask applicants questions focused and relevant to the particular position.

Asking About Prior Military Experience

Military veterans offer a tremendous amount of knowledge and skill that can provide long-term benefits to your organization. These brave men and women are seeking to use their skills to enhance an organization’s growth, and if you are looking to start a veteran-focused hiring initiative within your organization, the Department of Labor is ready to help. Organizations can benefit directly in the social and interpersonal capacity, along with the financial capacity, when veterans are on the organization’s payroll. On an employment application, an employer can ask if an individual was in the military but dates and type of discharge should not be asked. An applicant should include the training and skills acquired through the military as professional experience.

Restrictions on Applicant Criminal History Information

With the Ban the Box movement, many cities and states have enacted some form of legislation that affects how and when an employer can ask an applicant any questions related to convictions. The following states listed below have enacted both public and private sector Ban the Box legislation which means an applicant typically cannot be asked about convictions on an employment application or prior to the interview stage of the hiring process.

  • Hawaii
  • Massachusetts
  • Minnesota
  • Rhode Island
  • Illinois
  • New Jersey
  • Oregon
  • Connecticut (Effective January 2017)
  • Vermont (Effective July 2017)

There are exceptions within the legislation that may allow an employer to ask an applicant about convictions early in the hiring process so please consult your organization’s legal team to see if you qualify. To keep abreast of the Ban the Box movement, visit the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

Professional Organization Membership

Many employers view membership in professional organizations as beneficial to the growth of an individual. It is important to encourage individuals to pursue lifelong learning opportunities; however, these opportunities should not negatively impact an applicant’s pursuit of employment. On an employment application and during the interview process, it is important for an employer to seek only job-related memberships and service and avoid asking anything about memberships that could reflect ethnicity, gender, religion and other protected information.

Test Your Own Employment Application

Organizations periodically need to take a moment to reflect on the content of their current employment application(s) and peruse it from a potential applicant’s eyes. We encourage our clients to periodically test their employment applications so they can determine if any changes need to be made. Changes to the content of your HireCentric ATS employment application(s) must be made by a member of the ExactHire Support Team.

ExactHire: At Your Service

At ExactHire, we take pride in doing our best to ensure our clients’ satisfaction.  After you speak with your legal counsel, and if you and your legal team decide changes need to be made to your employment application(s) for compliance, the ExactHire team will work with you to create a new application with the verbiage you specify. Also, one of the benefits of using ExactHire’s HireCentric software as your applicant tracking system is that you can create multiple employment applications, each specific to your needs or hiring practices within a particular state. If you are an existing client looking for more information about updating your current employment application(s) and/or creating additional employment applications, please email support@exacthire.com, and let us know your needs.

4 Guidelines for Optimal Job Application Conversion Rates

in , /by

We live in an age of distraction and it’s wreaking havoc on your talent applicant sourcing process. Despite your efforts to write engaging job descriptions, post them far and wide and publicize your amazing corporate culture, your click-to-apply ratio is dismal. So what gives?

While the aforementioned items are undoubtedly important factors in the talent acquisition game, another critical component is the length of your job application. The likelihood that you’ll make your very next priority about researching your ideal application length will depend on the supply and demand for job categories in your local market. However, know that the very best candidates always have options, so even in a seller’s…ahem…employer’s market, top talent still won’t fill out your 50-question job application.

The proof is in the numbers, and it’s pretty staggering on both desktop and mobile devices. Check out this statistic from a study referenced in an ERE post:

“For every 100 candidates who click through from a job advertisement to a recruitment portal on a desktop device, an average of 8 will complete a job application. For mobile click-throughs, the completion figure is just 1.5 percent.”

I was curious about how the same numbers would stack up across all of our own HireCentric applicant tracking software client job portals. During the last six months, our own click-to-apply ratios for site visitors who make up the referral traffic category* are listed below.

  • desktop – 9.23%
  • mobile – 4.96%
  • tablet – 3.34%

*Referral traffic category visitor = visitor referred to a client’s HireCentric ATS portal from a link on another site like a client’s corporate website or an external job board.

While our ratios come out slightly more favorable than those referenced in the study, it’s still pretty disheartening to think about the fact that out of 100 job seekers referred to your careers portal, only three to nine of them will actually finish the application process, depending on their device. So how can you improve your own job site’s click-through numbers?

Ditch Traditional Job Application Length Thinking

Start to ask yourself the tough questions about what you really need to know from applicants at the onset of the hiring process. Then, dump traditional thoughts like these:

Employer thinks: “I want my application to be long enough that I won’t get overwhelmed with unqualified applicants.”

High potential job seeker thinks: “This is taking too long…I won’t be applying here now…or ever.”

While there is some logic to making your process long enough to be a speed bump to candidates that are just looking to claim their next unemployment check, if it’s too lengthy you run the risk of disengaging the best potential applicants from finishing your application now…or anytime in the future.

Employer thinks: If someone wants to work here badly enough, they’ll jump through whatever question “hoops” we present.

High potential job seeker thinks: If the employer cared enough about its employment brand, they’d only ask the deal-breaker questions early, and save the other stuff until later.

Evaluate your own application process to determine what works best for your organization and job market. And, remember to consider how the applicant might feel while completing your employment application. Use the following sections as a checklist to help make adjustments…and know that what works for one job category may not be ideal for another.

 

Mobilization

Make it easy to apply from a mobile device

The statistics don’t lie–the conversion rate for job seekers viewing your site from a mobile device are even worse than from a desktop. Smaller screens make lengthier applications appear even more intimidating and stop potential applicants in their tracks. Implement these enhancements to improve your odds for success.

  • Mobile-friendly jobs site – make sure your careers portal is developed with responsive web design so that your employment application automatically adjusts to the size of the screen on which it is viewed.
  • Mobile apply integrations – Look for an applicant tracking system that integrates with well-established sites from which candidates may pull application information.
    • Apply with LinkedIn – can your candidates authorize their own LinkedIn profile to populate some of the fields of your application?
    • Indeed Apply – Is your application set up in such a way (including responsive web design) that Indeed can empower job seekers to use their Indeed profile to push application info to your ATS? The key to making this setup work is collecting only basic information in the first step of the application process (e.g. applicant source, resume and job screening questions, for example).
  • Dropbox/Google Drive – Candidates can’t necessarily upload a resume file to your jobs site from their phone/tablet. Mobile job seekers will count on your system to allow them to pull their resume files from a cloud-based file storage site like Dropbox or Google Drive.

 

Segmentation

Do not put the cart before the horse

Do you really need to have a candidate’s references in the first step of the hiring process? After all, only a tiny percentage of all of your candidates will have those come into play at the end of the selection process. And, you don’t really need the full employment and/or education histories right away if you get a resume up front.

Look for an ATS provider that offers employment application options such as the two-step application. This feature allows you to ask only the absolute need-to-know-now questions of applicants in the very beginning of the recruiting process. Then, once applicants are pre-screened and a few top candidates are identified, you can always ask those top candidates (who are now more motivated to respond having been identified) for more robust applicant information in the second step of the application.

Additionally, limit the number of essay questions in your application, and instead opt for multiple choice questions to facilitate informative, quick answers that don’t lengthen the time it takes to complete an application, but at the same time, do allow your staff to use answers to automatically score and/or disqualify applicants. In fact, the aforementioned study found that the length of time it takes one to complete an application is an even bigger driver of applicant drop-off than the number of questions asked.

 

Customization

Identify the information you need in each job category

Help job candidates help you. That is, customize their application experience to be hyper-specific to the information you need early on to assess their potential qualifications for a position. For example, if you are sourcing applicants for an exempt position, then don’t make them answer an application question that asks whether they are willing to work overtime…as that would only be applicable to non-exempt job candidates. This can be accommodated either through job screening question groups customized for each of your job categories; or, via multiple application layouts for different hiring needs (e.g. executive-level, different geographic locations, etc.) that are set up by a trusted applicant tracking software provider.

Think about other potential considerations to ease the candidate experience. Do your graphic designer job applicants have a designated place on the application to reference their online portfolio? Does the application associated with the recent college graduates’ hiring track allow candidates to link to a copy of their student transcript?

 

Communication

Paint a clear picture of the path to employment

Many effective writing styles preview a piece of content’s focus before getting into meaty topics. In a sense, you’ve got to tell readers what you’re going to tell them before you tell it. Redundant or not, a lot of people like to know what they are getting themselves into to determine if it’s worth their time in the first place. Job seekers are no different.

Create content that illustrates not just your employer’s application process, but the entire hiring process including interviews, background/reference checks, the offer letter and employee onboarding activities. Here are some communication strategies:

  • Job description length – If you want more qualified candidates to apply, then you generally need to describe the position in more words than found in one short paragraph. However, your job listing should not be a novel either. Look to recruiting metrics available in an in-app ATS dashboard to help you start to diagnose which of your job listings are performing best when it comes to organic search results…this could be a partial clue into which of these descriptions have a more optimal, keyword-savvy, length.
  • Career-focused content – Include pages within your jobs site that share Q&A narratives about what candidates can expect from the hiring process. Incorporate video and images as often as possible as it makes it easier and more entertaining for job seekers to process the information presented.
  • Clear application instructions – Take another look at the actual directions listed at the start and end of your application process. Do they set expectations that additional information may be collected later, if applicable? Could they be lengthened (or shortened) to be more effective?

By heeding these guidelines for converting more job applications, your organization can make strides toward improving your hiring efficiency.

Oregon Ban The Box Legislation

in /by

As we approach the final quarter of 2015, it is never too early to start preparing for new legislation that will affect hiring practices in 2016.  Effective January 1, 2016, Oregon will become the newest state to implement “Ban the Box” legislation for both public and private sector employment.  Other states that have already enacted this practice in both public and private sector employment are Illinois, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Hawaii and New Jersey.

Oregon governor, Kate Brown, signed House Bill 3025 on June 26, 2015.  This law, H.B. 3025, will take effect on January 1, 2016 and prohibits an employer from requiring an applicant to disclose a criminal conviction on an employment application or prior to an interview.  If an employer does not conduct an interview, the employer is prohibited from requiring an applicant to disclose a criminal conviction prior to a conditional offer.  

Employers are able to notify applicants that they will later be required to disclose convictions or that a criminal background check will be conducted as part of the hiring process.  This legislation does include the caveat that an employer may still consider convictions when making hiring decisions.  For additional information on what this legislation includes, visit the Oregon State Legislature and The National Law Review.  

Upcoming “Ban the Box” Legislation

To keep abreast of states and cities who enact “Ban the Box” legislation, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) has an interactive map that provides an overview of the current legislative status.  For the actual legislation, you will need to go directly to the state or city government website to access the passed law(s) in its comprehensive language.

Employers need to be aware of the legislation that exists and what legislation is pending to be prepared for the potential impact on their organizations.  If your organization currently has hiring practices in multiple states and cities, or posts job listings nationally, it is important to be cognizant of the locales’ legal expectations and determine if you need to alter verbiage on your employment application(s) and/or change specific steps in your hiring practices to be compliant with “Ban the Box” legislation.

Please note:  The ExactHire team is not legal counsel, and we do not offer legal advice, so any questions regarding your company’s eligibility for exemption with the “Ban the Box” legislation and/or proper verbiage for your company’s employment application(s) should be discussed with your company’s legal counsel.  To learn specifically how Oregon’s H.B. 3025 affects your organization’s hiring practices, please contact your company’s legal team.

ExactHire Clients

At ExactHire, we take pride in doing our best to ensure our clients’ satisfaction is the highest possible. We do whatever we can to resolve clients’ current needs and identify potential needs.  After you speak with your legal counsel, and if you and your legal team decide changes need to be made to your employment application(s) to comply with legislation, the ExactHire team can work with you to create a new application with the verbiage you specify for compliance.  Also, please know that one of the benefits of using ExactHire’s HireCentric software as your applicant tracking system is that you can create multiple employment applications, each specific to your needs.  If you’re an existing client looking for more information about updating your current employment application(s) and/or creating additional employment applications, please email support@exacthire.com, and let us know your needs.

Learn More About ExactHire Solutions

If you are not yet an ExactHire client, for more information about HireCentric ATS, please visit our resources page or contact us today.

Test Your Application Through The Applicant’s Eyes

in /by

Finding the right employees can be daunting. Have you ever thought about how equally disheartening it can be to find the right job? I strongly encourage our clients to play the role of job-seeker by searching and applying for open positions at their organization. What they find is often times surprising, but it almost always leads to improvements in their recruiting and hiring processes.

Hiring managers usually do a great job of developing the job description, but they often overlook the application process itself. Having a few applicants who start an application, but then abandon it, is common. But when this trend increases, an organization can benefit from taking a few minutes to go through the application process as a job-seeker would.

With an Applicant Tracking System like HireCentric, you can create a ‘dummy’ account to serve as your test applicant. Some of my co-workers create pseudo-profiles using names of celebrities that include quirky and funny answers to education and employment history questions. You can do the same, or keep it boring, and name your test applicant ‘Company TestAccount’, holding applicant answers to a similar standard.

Concerns may arise about reporting criteria or skewing your data for REAL applicants. It is important that you develop a standard for answering those EEOC and source questions. We suggest choosing the option “I do not wish to answer” for the EEOC and VEVRAA questions; and we always choose the company website as the source. As a best-practice, we also put a note in the applicant record identifying it as a test account, change the status to not qualified, and archive our mock application when testing for clients.

Testing your application process is a best practice, and it can have a huge impact on improving the quality of your new hires. You want the job-seekers to find your open position, apply for it, and be excited about the prospect of working at your company.

Test Your Application – 3 Considerations

Now that you have the basics, and you are ready to test your application, here are a few of the top things to consider when testing the process as a job seeker:

How easy is it to find your job listing?

Most job boards will list jobs by the date they were posted, but most applicants will land on your open position by filtering for keywords and location. Make sure that you are using a multitude of keywords that apply to both the open position and your company. By using specific terminology, you can reduce the number of clicks it takes to land on your open position.

How long does it take to complete the application?

Consider not only how long it takes to complete the application, but what are the implications that arise from an application being too short or too long? If you have a short application, you might find that you receive way too many unqualified applicants. Alternately, if the application is too long, you may find that ideal candidates are abandoning the application. Testing the application to understand how much time you are asking candidates to commit is imperative.

If you find that your application is extensive, but that all points are necessary, it may be time to consider a 2-Step application. This feature makes the initial screening short for applicants and allows you to invite only qualified applicants to complete the second application step.

Are you creeped out by the questions on the application?

Test your application so you can see the process as an applicant sees it. You may find out that some of your questions are throwing red flags to the applicant–like asking for social security numbers. Maybe you are asking for an over-abundance of essay questions. Or, you may just discover that you are asking questions in a confusing fashion.

 

Download our hiring process questions guide

Visit ExactHire’s Resource Page to download a tip sheet with more specific examples of how to test your application and improve the applicant experience. To learn more about our HireCentric Applicant Tracking System, contact us today!

 

Image credit: Job Application 2 by T Hart (contact)

Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act: Ban the Box in Illinois

in , /by

Due to the velocity of business, companies need to be up-to-date on the latest industry news to remain competitive. Perhaps more importantly, businesses are also required to stay abreast of changes in legislation. Legal changes that apply to the state, country, or other specific regulations for the company can seem overwhelming. Legislation is progressive and therefore, always changing our work environments. Businesses that operate across several states often yield to the least common denominator when it comes to designing applications and obeying regulations.

Many states are now adopting a law to ‘Ban the Box’ – that is, the box regularly found on employment applications that asks if you have ever been convicted of a crime. Illinois will be the newest state to join the trend in the near future, following the lead of other states and cities such as: Massachusetts; Minnesota; Rhode Island; Hawaii; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Seattle, Baltimore; Newark and Buffalo. This list may not be all-inclusive and one should also note that different geographic areas often have their own specific version of the legislation to ‘Ban the Box.’

Qualified Applicants Act – Ban The Box

Effective January 1, 2015, the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act will prohibit Illinois employers from pre-screening candidates based on their criminal history. The law requires that applicants not be asked about criminal offenses until the interview stage of the hiring process. Full details, including exceptions to the rule, can be found by clicking the link above.

At ExactHire, we recommend our clients take care to be aware of the state requirements for the states in which they hire. This may mean that multi-state companies opt to avoid issues by removing any criminal history questions from their applications (unless of course they are required to include them for the position and meet the exceptions listed in their specific governing body’s legislation). However, the best course of action is to always check with your employment law attorney for legal counsel on how to word employment application questions for your areas of operation. This recommendation is also encouraged for employers that use electronic job listings that can be viewed nationwide.

ExactHire’s HireCentric applicant tracking software allows employers the ability to have different employment applications for use with jobs that are listed in different states, if desired. For more information about our customizable employment applications, please view our video demo or contact us today.

Image credit: Springfield Illinois Statehouse Dome by LongitudeLatitude (contact)

Checklist: Use Metrics to Improve the Applicant Screening Funnel

in , /by

Efficiency is my middle name…or I strive for it to be anyway. I prefer to follow processes, and as my co-workers know, when they don’t exist, I’ll create my own even if they are only applicable to me. As you might guess, I’m an 8 (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most likely to follow policies and work within the rules) on the Manageability scale of the ProfileXT (PXT) assessment. I love organization, spreadsheets and color-coding!

But why?

Of course I’m biased, but I’ll say because processes beget consistency, data and therefore the ability to benchmark. And, “big data” allows you to analyze and improve, right? Well, to some extent…but so often when we have the data, we fail to actually do something with it. We forget the improvement part in the strife to collect the data in the first place. We’re proud of our shiny color-coded bar graphs, but now we’re spent from all the data analysis effort.

Good news. Another great thing about processes is that you can put one in place for executing change as a result of your data analytics! Build it in as a step in your checklist and then it will more likely get done. In this blog, I’ll discuss executing change as a result of metrics you collect during each stage of an average candidate screening funnel when recruiting potential future employees.

First Stage – Screen Employment Application Answers

This is the step in which you, as the recruiter, review application submissions for specific positions by candidates in order to deem them qualified or not qualified for the position (i.e. do their answers indicate that they meet your minimum basic requirements for the role?). With the aid of an adequate applicant tracking system (ATS), and your own previous due diligence in thoughtful question design, you can include screening questions that prompt applicants to answer in such a way that will automatically qualify or flag them. Thanks to this automation feature, your time is optimized as you take a closer look at only the applicants who have met basic minimum requirements.

Your ATS will provide you metrics that quantify how many applications are being received, as well as how many make it past this initial screening stage (among other data). But now for the evaluation and improvement part…which applicants made it through the screening question filter, but based on your own personal review of data collected from their resume or other answers, are actually not qualified after all? Ask yourself the questions below and then use your answers to enact change with the goal of firming up this stage of the recruiting process.

Lessons Learned:

  • Did you include enough (or too much) information about the job itself in the job listing description? Could providing different information better set expectations with applicants about what is required and help them to self-select out of the application process if they are unlikely to have the qualifications necessary?
  • Did you gather information from the resume that made it clear that the applicant did not have enough previous experience in a certain area…information that you might have collected had you already put a specific required screening question in place that would prompt the applicant to provide an answer?
  • Where can you record feedback about these “misses” in terms of applicants that should have been flagged by the system? Use it as an opportunity to create additional applicant status codes/dispositions, if necessary, or record more applicant notes in your ATS.
  • Did you receive enough applications to offer you a sufficient number of qualified candidates at this stage of the screening process?
    • Do you need to push the job to more external niche job boards and/or social media sites? How will that impact your recruiting budget for future open requisitions? Do you need to redesign your job requisition form to prompt managers to allocate a portion of their budget to paid advertising for open jobs?
    • Do you have an employee referral incentive program in place? If so, consider bumping up the incentive for hard-to-fill positions, and ensure that your applicant tracking system makes it easy for applicants to name a referring employee during the application process. If you don’t have a referral incentive program yet, start one today!

Second Stage – Conduct Phone Screens

At this stage, recruiters have narrowed down their list of resumes and now must conduct phone interviews in order to determine which of the qualified applicants will be invited for an in-person interview. A great deal of “cutting” can occur at this step, depending on the number of applicants you have, and efforts should be focused on verifying, for each interviewee, that information on the employment application is true, as well as assessing the candidate’s likelihood of being a fit for the company culture. This will also be the candidate’s first opportunity to ask you questions; and, the quality and depth of these questions will often be a factor to determining the candidate’s likelihood of progressing in the process (i.e. based on the questions asked is it evident that he/she prepared; does applicant care enough to ask questions, etc.). Select the candidates who will move on to the next step and then take pause to evaluate your efforts.

Lessons Learned:

  • Which phone screen candidates should NOT have made it to this step of the process due to a lack of skills or previous experience? What about their answers or background could have been fleshed out at the point of the application?
    • Or, what other phone interview questions could be revised/added in order to more quickly determine that this candidate is not a fit earlier in the phone screen conversation?
    • Would the introduction of any job skill tests at the point of application minimize the misfire?
  • For the stars of this round, what makes them more qualified than the others? Where did the star prospects find out about the position so that you can replicate the use of that ad source for future positions?
  • Based on the questions that the interviewees ask you, what additional career-related content can your team create and share with visitors to your jobs portal? Use this technique as another way to better set expectations with future potential applicants, as well as a means to test whether interviewees take time to review resources available to them and prepare for an interview.

Third Stage – The In-House Interview

In this step, you and/or your hiring managers will meet with just a few final interviewees in person to truly understand how their past performance and experience will complement the needs of your open job. Candidates at this stage will have the right skills and experience, but now your team will need to better assess their runway potential and further clarify that their interests and motivations will allow them to thrive in the position. More exposure to this candidate during this step will allow your staff to feel more confident about whether the candidate’s personality and behavioral hard-wiring are well suited for the position and management structure in place. Depending on your company policy, you may or may not have utilized social media screening efforts to verify the candidate’s experience, values and attitude with mutual network contacts. When you are ready to extend an offer of employment, take time to gauge the effectiveness of this round.

Lessons Learned:

  • Were there any final interviewees that were out of place in this round and should have been halted at the phone screen phase? If so, for what reasons?
    • Reevaluate your phone screen questions to capture candidate feedback potentially related to such reasons next time.
    • Use manager feedback in survey form within your applicant tracking software to record peer ratings and comments, and then look for trends that allow you to unearth not-so-obvious missteps at the point of the phone screen.
  • Rather than go with your gut, is it time to introduce a cognitive and/or behavioral assessment to give you a window into more objective, validated information about the interviewee’s motivations, interests and tendencies going into the final interviews?

Fourth Stage – Point of Conditional Employment Offer

Now that you have selected a finalist, at this stage you extend a conditional offer of employment and hope for an acceptance. Depending on your organization, local laws and an evaluation of the job, you may opt to conduct a background check on the candidate with his/her consent.

Lessons Learned:

  • If he/she rejects…
    • What are his/her reasons for declining the offer? Based on trending in answers across various open positions, you might need to make some changes to a variety of areas such as job listing content, company benefits, compensation, management structure, time-to-hire and your overall recruitment brand.
  • If he/she accepts, but then later fails on the job…
    • At the point of failure, what do you know now that you wish you knew then during the interview process? Hopefully this circumstance is continuously minimized due to an ongoing attention to executing change as a result of recruiting metrics and exit interview data collected. This step incorporates all the previous considerations for tightening up the screening and interviewing process, but might also include:
      • onboarding process improvement
      • manager training
      • an adjustment to benchmarks in place for any skills tests and employee assessments
      • employee focus groups

Fifth Stage – Big Picture & Future Planning

It is evident that a sizable task list can be accumulated just from paying more attention to what isn’t working in your recruiting funnel. However, building this incredibly important exercise into your routine will make your work more productive and stress-free in the future as you more quickly engage top talent to join your team and stay for the long haul. But its not over after the post mortem following the offer stage, don’t forget to apply what you learned by making adjustments to the job evaluation process for your next open positions – before they are open and you get caught up in the hustle and bustle of filling numerous jobs at once. Update those job descriptions and screening questions now. Explore new job referral sources and look at the conversion rates for your existing ones.

Stay honest by sharing your milestone goals with other stakeholders and set yourself a deadline for each lessons learned goal. These process reengineering efforts can only improve the quality of candidate you are receiving relative to your time and effort spent, as well as your time to hire. Plus, gain the ability to better predict the number of adequate candidates you should expect at each stage of the funnel based on your first-stage numbers.

How do you keep yourself on task and accountable to enacting real change based on metrics in your organization? We’d love to know!

For more information about ExactHire’s hiring solutions, please visit our resources page or contact us today.

Image credit: Lighting Sequence by Kevin Dooley (contact)

Portfolio Items