Hiring Managers: How Not to Lose Your Prospective Candidates

by Sarah Todd, Senior Client Service Coordinator, Acclivity Healthcare

As a Hiring Manager, your ultimate goal in the hiring process is to attract and make offers to the most qualified candidates that will bring the best value to your company. You likely put a lot of time and effort into sorting through applications, sometimes wondering why you can’t seem to find anything better than a mediocre candidate. So, what can you do to improve the quality of applications you are receiving? Here are the top three reasons job seekers get discouraged from applying for a position:

1. Unpresentable Advertisements: As a Hiring Manager you see a lot of resumes and you expect them to be presentable, legible, and typo free. Resumes that don’t meet that criteria are not as impressive to you, therefore you are much less likely to call them. So why would a job seeker apply to a posting that contains typos and is not presentable? Remember that posting a job advertisement online is part of your company brand and image, so be sure that it is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
2. Lengthy Application Processes: When was the last time you sat down to review and complete your own company’s application process? How long did it take? Put yourself in the job seeker’s shoes for a moment. They are facing a very competitive market. According to a recent survey, depending on the position type and level, some applicants claim to have submitted over 100 applications before even getting a call back. That’s a lot of time spent filling out applications just to be brought in for an interview. Now this does not mean that you should discard your entire application process, it is simply a reminder that a lengthy application process could drive away the quality candidates you are trying to attract.
3. Questionable Online Reputation: With the abundance of information that job seekers are able to access online in today’s society, it is imperative that you review and maintain your company’s online reputation. Many job seekers start their job search by using search engines such as Google or Yahoo to find top companies to work for. Furthermore, prior to interviews and even before applying to a job posting, job seekers will search for reviews of the company they are interested in. Whether it’s an applicant, a candidate that has interviewed, a past or current employee, or even a customer, anyone has the ability to write a review of your company online.

Next time you have an open position you are hiring for, take some time to analyze your application process. Are there any changes that you think could be made? Testing the application process for your own job may be just the tool you need to help you make a few changes and attract the candidates you are looking for.