What Candidates Hate About the Hiring Process

Recruiters and employers understand that candidates want to know certain information before accepting a job offer. They want to know about things like the company culture, possibility for career advancement, salary and more. While all of these aspects are critical to communicate, you should also pay attention to what candidates don’t like about the hiring process. The job hunt is often a stressful and time-consuming task, and challenges can arise at any moment.

Once you start identifying candidates’ dislikes about the hiring process, you can take actions to resolve them, hopefully making a much stronger and positive impression. We’ve shared some of the top candidate pet peeves below.

Seeing job ads that are totally unrealistic

Put yourself in a candidate’s shoes. How would you react if you saw a job posting that asked applicants to have over 7 years of experience, but the compensation was in keeping with an entry-level position? You’d probably scoff at it! Well, that’s how candidates react too. Not only do they end up moving on to the next job ad, they will likely have negative feelings towards your company moving forward.

What to do about this: Since candidates consider compensation to be the most important information in a job posting, it’s in your best interest to present a fair and realistic salary. This involves conducting research to find out the average salary of a position (and seniority level) in a specific location. A staffing and recruiting software such as Mindscope can help you access this information. By doing your homework and offering a competitive salary, you’ll draw in more candidates instead of turning them away.

A long and drawn out hiring process

Candidates despise being strung along a tedious hiring process. On average, the overall process takes up to 23.7 days. For top candidates with multiple opportunities on the table, this could be far too long.

When candidates have to wait for long periods of time after interviews, they may get a negative impression of you and your company. They might assume you’re unsure of who to hire or that you’re still looking for potential employees. Understandably, these candidates often end up pursuing different opportunities to ensure they don’t end up with no offer at all.

What to do about this: Fixing this problem starts at the very beginning of the hiring process: the job application. If your job applications involve multiple questions and pages, consider streamlining the process a bit. Studies have shown that when job applications have 50 questions or more, completion rates drop by nearly 50% compared to shorter applications. It’s recommended that any repetitive or unnecessary questions be removed from your application to keep candidates from losing interest.

Multiple rounds of interviews can also deter candidates. When possible, keep the number of interviews to a minimum. If not, you could risk losing your candidate’s patience, pushing them in the direction of another company’s offer.

Inconsistent communication (or none at all)

Candidates put in a lot of time and effort into the hiring process. From editing their resumes, filling out job applications, preparing for and attending interviews; well, as the saying goes, “job hunting is a full-time job”. Considering the energy that is put into the job search on their end, it’s understandable that candidates can get frustrated when they don’t hear back from the interviewer. No matter what the outcome is, candidates want to hear back about their standing in the hiring process, so they know whether or not to move on with their search.

What to do about this: Make an effort to connect with your candidates on a regular basis. We know that recruiters often deal with several clients and candidates at once, so keeping constant contact isn’t always easy. At the very least, you can set-up automated email responses within your applicant tracking system to keep candidates informed at all times. You can also send text messages through Mindscope to provide candidates with quick job updates.

With our ATS software, you may want to set-up reminders notifying you to follow up with candidates. For example, you can prompt yourself to contact a candidate and check in with them or to share the latest news about the job in question. Candidates appreciate hearing from you. It allows them to feel prioritized and more than “just a number”.

Make the hiring process smoother for candidates

Searching for a new job isn’t an easy task. For many candidates, it can be a long and stressful experience. As a recruiter, you can help make it a smoother process, and create a reputation that precedes you. Start by keeping candidates’ pet peeves in mind and think about how you can solve these common gripes. Without a doubt, you’ll provide an exceptional candidate experience that won’t be forgotten.

Do you want to see how Mindscope can help you find and identify quality candidates? Get in touch with us today.

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