Don’t Let the Digital Bugs Bite!

How is high tech affecting your applicant experience?

Every CEO is well advised to periodically apply for a direct support position at her agency. By “walking in the moccasins of your applicant” you will get a good sense of how difficult or how easy an applicant can navigate your process.

Many agencies, particularly the larger ones, have invested in high tech Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that are in fact counter-productive. They drive many applicants away; one authority reports a 60% abandon rate after three clicks.

Whether the applicant journey begins on a job board or at your website career page, and whether or not they are pushed through an ATS, your first objective is to get a job application completed. Big mistake!

Google states that “their client” in job search is the job applicant, not the employer. They will rank “good” applicant experience higher than poor experience. Perhaps more importantly, the best applicant experience will always yield the highest applicant flow, a critical component of selection success.

We developed an applicant experience audit to help you measure the applicant experience. Some of the many content considerations include the job description, the location of each specific job, transportation options for that location, specific compensation, motivational messaging and images, redundancies, irrelevancies, etc.

Some of the technical considerations include the number of required clicks, text boxes, question difficulty, time required, required interruptions to retrieve requested data, etc.

How much grief do you impose on an applicant for a relatively low paying job? How much grief does your process generate compared to McDonald’s or other competitors in your local labor market?

Let’s talk.

Get your Applicant Experience Audit to find out steps you can make sure your applicant experience is the best it can be and where you may be losing applicants and not even know it. The answers might surprise you!