Employers lose out on top talent due to long recruitment processes and complicated applications

While the optimum length of a company’s recruitment process has been a debatable topic for some time, an extensive recruitment process can cost employers money, time and in some cases, a strong candidate.

New research carried out by e-recruitment platform, IrishJobs.ie, reveals that 90% of employers have experienced candidates dropping out of the interview process in the past twelve months.

Seven in 10 employers who experienced a drop out said that the candidate was offered another job during the process.

Interview process length  

75% of employers said their interview processes take one month or less. However, over a quarter of job seekers have experienced a lengthy interview process of between two to five months, with a further 3% of interview processes taking more than five months to complete.

Common frustrations  

As Ireland remains at full employment, employers need to dedicate significant time and resourcing to recruit new hires. This should involve an appraisal of current recruitment and interview processes, to avoid losing candidates to competitors.

Some of the biggest frustrations felt by job seekers during the interview process include the nondisclosure of salary data (27%) a lack of communication as to their stage in the process (25%) and long application forms (12%).

Almost half of jobseekers (48%) would like to see more face-to-face engagement while a further 64% felt as though the process didn’t allow them to demonstrate their skills and expertise.

Comment  

Commenting on the results, Orla Moran, General Manager of IrishJobs.ie said:

“Employers and hiring managers should seize the candidate interview process as an opportunity to demonstrate their organisation’s people-focused internal culture and employer brand.   Even unsuccessful candidates can become champions of an organisation if they have a positive experience of the interview process, and leave feeling valued and respected.

“Ensuring that the hiring process avoids some of the most common frustrations for job seekers, will keep candidates engaged throughout the process.

“Process length should be a key consideration during the process. There is a fine line between taking enough time to identify the best candidates and taking too much time to make a decision.

“We are now in a job seekers market, and as the results suggest, if a process is too long employers risk losing candidates to their competitors.

“Every company will have different recruitment priorities and their hiring methods will inevitably be dictated by these. However, by avoiding common errors and frustrations, employers can optimise their interview process and maximise the return from their recruitment efforts.”

METHODOLOGY IrishJobs.ie analysed the data collected from 1,550 respondents to a survey posted on the IrishJobs.ie platform in Q4 2019.