Reducing friction in your hiring process can help you fill positions faster
A report released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in August says employers of all sizes and in every industry are facing unprecedented challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs.
“Right now,” the report says, “The latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.—but only around 6 million unemployed workers.”
With numbers like that, the last thing an employer needs in its hiring process is friction.
What is friction?
Friction is defined as resistance to motion. In the hiring process that means job applicants are getting hung up somewhere, and employers can’t afford any hang-ups in today’s candidate-driven environment.
Eliminate the friction in your hiring process by making sure it’s easy for people who are interested in working for your organization to apply for positions. A time-consuming and overly complicated application process only serves to frustrate potential employees and may cause them to give up or take a job from a competitor with smoother process.
5 factors to consider if you want to reduce friction
- How can you save applicants’ time? Figure out how long it’s taking applicants to submit an application. You could go through the process and time yourself. Determine if you are asking for information up front that you don’t need until much later in the evaluation process.
- How can you make applying easier? It’s a pet peeve of job seekers that after uploading a resume, they must fill in an online form with the same information that’s on the resume.
- Is it easy to apply with a mobile device? Not everyone has access to a laptop; make sure applicants can easily read your information and apply using a smartphone. Test it out yourself.
- Are you providing timely updates? Do your applicants get status updates upon submission and then throughout the process without the need to type each message out?
- Are you following up? Don’t leave applicants hanging with questions, or without follow-ups about the status of their application. This can alienate candidates—and it may discourage them from applying again in the future, too.
Key to remember
If you’re not sure how much friction your job candidates are experiencing, ask people who were recently hired what was good and bad about their experience, from first learning of the job through onboarding. Also ask any great candidates who turned you down. They may have taken another offer because your process was too slow.