Why are candidate drop-off rates increasing and what to do about it?
After a lot of searching, you finally decided on a candidate who ticks all boxes when it comes to both the required skills and a role fit. Everything is going well so far.
However, this champion of champions, the chosen one, is not so keen on taking up your offer anymore.
Do you know what just happened? Another got added to the ever-increasing dropoff rate that is plaguing the job market right now.
Is the recruitment process you use helping you in screening for the best candidates fast? The answer lies in the candidate drop-off rate. A Glassdoor study shows that most companies range in at around 80%.
No pressure at all!
Let’s ask some relevant questions first.
1. The job description is not doing its job
The following pointers will be helpful in zeroing in on the bottleneck in your hiring process.
After spending precious time crafting a job description (JD) you think has all the details, candidates are still not interested. What might be the problem here?
Employees are very clear on what they want and leave no room for ambiguity. The Great Resignation is a testament to this. So, ask yourself if your job description is clear enough.
Do the words that describe what is expected of a potential employee also talk about what they can expect from the job in return?
Does your JD contain all there is to offer in terms of growth, opportunity, and learning?
Are you giving equal importance to the role and the company culture?
2. The interview process is taking too long
Depending on the job role, an average pre-hiring process lasts for about 23 days. The average includes the total time from the application to the job offer.
23 days is plenty of time for the applicant to get other offers.
23 days is plenty of time for the applicant to change their mind.
Are you willing to take this risk?
So, how can you mitigate the problem at hand here?
The applicant is bound to get other offers, you can’t control that. Neither can you force a candidate to change their mind?
But here is what you can do – Speed up your interview process
Make it engaging Leave a good impression through sought-after candidate experience
3. Candidate engagement can definitely be better
A poor hiring experience is a major attribute of companies experiencing a rise in candidate dropout rates.
Before we dive into the quality of candidate engagement, ask yourself if the candidates are involved during the entire hiring process.
This is arguably the most frequent mistake companies make, not keeping the candidates in the loop. A lack of communication from the employer’s side is now justly labelled as a red flag.
You can hit two targets at once by creating a streamlined candidate experience which results in high candidate engagement.
4. Are you following up?
If a top candidate suddenly stops responding to your emails, it is disappointing. Imagine if the tables were turned.
The hiring process often involves a lot of technicalities and a plethora of steps, it is not unheard of for candidates to be confused. This is where a stellar candidate experience will do you good.
Regardless, when you ask them to reach out to you in case of any doubts, are those queries addressed?
Maybe there is another company out there with a not-so-glamorous offer but a definitely up-to-date follow-up process that makes the candidate feel heard.
It is all these small details that can make a difference
5. What are you doing with the feedback?
Are you even collecting feedback from the candidates? In order to work on the kinks and smoothen the process you first need to know where they lie.
And, who better to ask for feedback than the ones going through the entire process end-to-end?
If a candidate informs you that they are no longer going through with the offer, drop them a mail requesting the reason. Make it sound like you want to learn what you could have done better and not like you are asking for an explanation.
After each relevant stage of the hiring process, make sure to send out feedback forms to gather an overall idea of how the candidate felt about it.
Finally, do something about the insights gathered from the feedback.
Chop chop!
Key Takeaways
Recruiters put a lot of time and effort into every step of the hiring process. Some candidates drop out after the first step itself, whereas there are others who drop out even after a job offer is made.
Dropouts are also known to occur after a candidate has accepted the job offer. No one is ignoring the efforts that go into attracting the right talent. But if it takes too much effort on the part of the right talent, the chances of dropouts see a significant increase.
Now that we have identified the key problem areas, the solution becomes clear.
To summarize, Provide your candidates with a clear and crisp job description, and don’t keep them hanging on too long with delayed interview processes containing redundant steps. Involve the candidates in the loop, ask for their feedback, and act on it.
By using zapilio’s assessments library, take some load off your shoulders.
Step out of traditional hiring processes that did not take candidate experience and engagement into consideration.
