Engaging applicants in digital recruitment processes
Digital recruitment processes are providing benefits to businesses in terms of speed and accuracy. With the widespread introduction of digital right to work checks being launched last year, as well as countless new innovations designed to streamline and improve the hiring process hitting the markets, employers have a host of digital solutions to choose from.
However, with digital processes comes the risk of applicants feeling disengaged from your company and hiring process. Without putting measures in place to mitigate this risk, a digital recruitment process can feel cold, distant, and unwelcoming to applicants, meaning more drop-off and less engagement.
The dangers of poor applicant engagement
Applicants not feeling engaged within the recruitment process can have a number of negative effects, not only on your recruitment efforts and candidate pool, but also on your business.
A large media organisation are an example of how a poor candidate experience can affect your bottom line, with applicants who had experienced poor treatment, lack of communication, or negative interactions changing their media provider away from the organisation, resulting in a loss of revenue of £4.4 million per year.
According to Glassdoor, 86% of job seekers check a company’s reviews and rating on the site before deciding to apply, meaning that reports of a poor candidate experience can lead to smaller talent pools, fewer applicants, and therefore lower quality hires.
Engaging applicants with digital hiring
The good news is that it’s possible to benefit from digital recruitment processes and ensure applicants are fully engaged. Here are our suggestions as to how you can leverage digital processes for better candidate engagement:
- Communication
One way of alienating applicants and reducing future talent pools is to not provide a clear channel of communication or to not provide updates on the status of their application, even and especially when the applicant is unsuccessful.
According to a survey by CareerArc, 65% of candidates say they never, or rarely, receive notice about their submission, and those who are not informed are 3.5x less likely to reapply to the company in future.
The use of AI powered technology to schedule communication at key parts of the recruitment process can help to ensure all applicants are engaged with and feel noticed. This in turn helps to boost candidate experience, which helps to widen future talent pools.
- Adapt to your candidates
Digital hiring offers a range of methods to engage and communicate with candidates, from email, to text message, to WhatsApp, to LinkedIn messages and more. When choosing which form of communication to use, it’s important to think not only about your employer branding and the image you want to present to candidates, but also the most appropriate or accessible form for the candidates you’re looking to engage.
For example, in general, older applicants might be more comfortable with email communication, while younger, gen Z applicants might find texts or social media contact more convenient. Of course, it’s important not to make assumptions or generalisations based on demographic, but the benefits of digital communications means you can offer candidates a choice of their preferred contact method.
- Self-scheduling
Ensuring your applicants are able to fully engage with your recruitment process means employing digital tools to improve convenience. Dictating a date and time for digital interviews, for example, can cause some applicants to fall off the process. Instead, self-scheduling not only ensures that applicants can choose a time that best suits them, but also gives them a sense of autonomy. It can also give candidates the feeling that the company values their time by giving them the opportunity to manage their own schedule throughout the process.
Additionally, this also means that your team’s time isn’t eaten up with scheduling and organisation, as the self-scheduling tools such as Calendly manage the administration of this for you.
- Make processes quick
The UK has one of the slowest recruitment processes in developed countries worldwide, and a global survey conducted by Sterling of more than 1200 HR professionals and more than 3700 recent jobseekers found that 78% of jobseekers would drop out or consider dropping out of long or complex recruitment processes.
Digital processes in hiring are designed to speed up the recruitment journey, ensuring less drop-off from candidates. In particular, screening processes are cited by 22% of respondents in the same survey as being a significant issue.
In recent years and months, developments in streamlining screening processes using digital solutions have been making waves, the most significant being the introduction of Digital Right to Work checks as a legitimate method of screening. Other developments include solutions for basic referencing using open banking and payroll data, as well as the roll out of Digital ID for use in criminal record screenings.
How can Reed Screening help?
Ensuring your candidates experience a positive recruitment and onboarding process while maintaining the integrity and compliance of your screening procedures means building a robust process.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks, to bolster your candidate experience. Our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally.
For more information, get in touch with our team.