Mistakes in Your Recruitment Methods: How Not To Hire me

The most common errors in your recruitment methods and how to stop them? Recruiters are becoming innovative, streamlined, with different ways to apply. In the past decade, the recruiting landscape has changed a lot, so it’s even more critical for recruiters to optimize their hiring processes and make sure they’re having the best applicants onboard.

There are few recruiters who excel at that. Others, who do not track the recruitment process properly, cause gripes of candidates to emerge. To stop this, I will sum up my top five grips and explain how they can be easily avoided:

1. Applications never stopping

Remember online application resources that included a small button, once pushed, will in just a few seconds magically fill all the blank fields on a form?

That was awesome! But job applications no longer really function like that. In fact, I gave up on the sheer number of job posts asking me to connect to my LinkedIn profile or upload a resume, only to fill out my information incorrectly. By the time I was spending correcting the parsing button’s well-meaning feature, I typically lost interest in the article.

When you need to use them though, put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. Go your own way through the application process. When you get overwhelmed or discouraged and give up, you can be very confident that job seekers do the same. Always, make sure that you ask questions on the form that a quick glance at the candidate’s resume couldn’t answer.

2. Job specifications which aren’t mobile-optimized

I’m pretty much on my phone throughout the day. I enjoy using my mobile device to access my emails, social media, and news content. I like scouring job ads on my phone as well and am not the only one. According to Glassdoor, by using their mobile devices 68 percent of job seekers look for work, 80 percent of job seekers use mobile apps in their job search and 41 percent of traffic comes from mobile devices. The list continues.

From my mobile device experience, I’ve seen too many “split” on mobile pop-up menus or non-standard fonts. Other factors that make the application process more complicated include excessive scrolling, pinching or zooming. However, bear in mind that an overly long, multi-step application process on a mobile device might feel much more drawn out.

Job seekers should at the very least be able to view job posts on their mobile devices. At best they ought to be able to submit from any computer to the place.

3. Odd job descriptions

While we’re on the topic of unclear job descriptions, I remember once spending a couple of hours on two applications where the job posting sounded like a perfect fit for my background. When I got to speak to the recruiter it became clear in both cases that proficiency in either Dutch or German was essential to the role. Nowhere did the job description mention this!

4. No follow-up messages

There were several occasions when I submitted an application or performed a pre-screening assessment or conducted a telephone interview and received zero acknowledgment or response. All applicants — whether they have just applied for the position or have passed the application stage to the point where the recruiter is recruiting consideration — deserve a follow-up contact on their status.

It can be done easily with a robust ATS program, full of good data, which can be used regularly by the recruitment team so an applicant never feels left in the dark again.

5. The hiring process takes so much time

I have seen the recruiting cycle stretched out over the years with numerous interviews, ability assessments, and other recruiting barriers. In reality, I once waited a whole month to land a gig I wanted after a final interview.

I understand that from the point of view of a company these additional screens are intended to do a better job of evaluating which applicant is the best for the position. But you have to ask yourself: If it takes nearly twice as long, is it really more efficient?

Rather than prolonging the hiring process with further steps, make sure that those you add are more comprehensive and efficient. Say you’ve recruited Steve for example, because you were impressed by some of his interview answers. But if Steve turns out to be a less than the stellar employee, it’s time to reconsider what questions you’re asking applicants for.

Conclusion

I know I want to be able to communicate with the recruiters and establish relationships while I’m on job searching. I want to be heard and treated with dignity and genuineness. I want to be sure it will control my expectations. I want to keep myself completely updated throughout the recruiting process.