MightyRecruiterMany of today’s job applicants are so busy that they often job hunt while they’re at work. This reduces the amount of time they have available to focus and commit to any job application. No one likes the idea of having to fill out job applications, especially long and complicated ones. In order to get more job applicants to complete their applications, you need to start optimizing your job applies. If you’re having trouble attracting the talent you want to your organization, then it may be time for you to look at your application process. You can have the most descriptive and appealing job descriptions in the world, the best pay and a great work culture, but if your job application process is too complicated, confusing or time consuming, you’re going to lose candidates before they’ve even finished typing in their name.
Keep it Simple
Choose one type of apply process and implement it all across the board with all of your job ads. It doesn’t matter whether you have applicants applying from public searches on Google or from your company’s career website. When optimizing your job applies, you need to keep in mind that any and all ways to apply should be the same.
Inform Applicants Upfront
Technology has made the art of searching and applying for jobs all over the world much easier, so use this technology to your advantage. Make your job descriptions captivating and easy to understand. Consider adding job application instructions at the end of them so applicants know what to expect before they decide to click ïApply Nowï. Inform them of how long the application process is upfront so they can decide when they are ready to commit the time and attention that is needed to complete it.
Eliminate Redundancy
Take a look at your company’s job applications and look for redundancy. All too often an applicant will start to fill out an application only to stop because they are discouraged and frustrated from all of the redundancy that is on it. For example: if the application asks what year did the applicant graduate from high school on one line and then proceeds to ask for the year and date they earned their high school diploma, that applicant is going to question whether or not they should bother to continue with the application, especially since it is asking for the same information multiple times.
Put Yourself in the Job Seeker’s Shoes
Whether you decide to use an automatically generated job application or one that you’ve created yourself, it helps if you put yourself in the shoes of applicants. One tactic that can help you with optimizing your job applies is to approach your job application from the prospective of a potential employee. Gauge your reaction to how long it takes you to provide all of the information the application asks for. Pay close attention to what happens as you submit each part of the application. Does it give you the option to go back and review things and make changes or are you unable to see any of the information you’ve supplied?
Track Your Job Applies
It’s kind of hard to track job applications if you don’t have a good job apply tracking system in place. Optimizing your job applies requires you to implement an efficient tracking system to provide you with vital information about where you may be losing job applicants during the application process. Tracking can also provide you with information as to where applicants are coming from to apply for the positions you post, such as search engines, job boards and websites they used to learn about the job.
Provide Confirmation
When applicants complete your job applications, do they automatically receive some sort of confirmation or does the page load to a blank or unrelated screen? As a courtesy and to help create a good impression with your candidates, make sure your job applications provide some confirmation of completion. This confirmation can be delivered automatically to an email address they’ve provided or onscreen after they have hit the submit button. The application is the first point of contact that many potential employees will have with your organization. It is important for you to make sure they get a good impression from it. Streamline your job application process to prevent candidates from becoming overwhelmed and jumping ship. Of course, your job application shouldn’t be so simple that it fails to capture crucial information for you to use to properly screen candidates. Periodically evaluate every aspect of your job applies so you can maximize the amount of applicants you have to choose from. As you look for ways to increase your pool of applicants while optimizing your job applies, use the resources here at Mighty Recruiter to achieve your goals.