Successful recruiting in times of staff shortage?

How do applicants become aware of companies?

Job boards are still in first place. Not only multi-posting interfaces can help companies advertise their jobs, but also their own career site and job ads. According to the speakers at TALENTpro, the job advertisement is particularly important, because 44% of applicants do not actively look around on a career site but are only interested in the jobs themselves. All the important information should therefore be directly visible, and applicants should be prevented from jumping to other pages as far as possible. 

How do candidates find the job postings? Of course, postings on major job boards are important, but Tristan Niewöhner from persomatch also emphasizes that up to 72% of job seekers use Google for their search. With apprentices the number almost reaches 85%! Companies should therefore pay attention to their Google performance, via Google Ads, Jobs or SEO.

In addition to job boards, TALENTpro also highlights the need for another method: internal referral functions. Company members themselves provide an important source of new employees. The easier recommendations are and the better the associated benefits, the more likely this source can be tapped.

At this point, a third resource should be mentioned, namely talent pools. Not all applicants are suitable for the exact position they are applying for, or there is too much competition, especially among high performers. These prospects should not be lost, and companies should approach them directly about joining the talent pool. In times like these, it is important to keep an eye on every suitable person.

By the way: The relevance of career changers, as an important source of new employees, are also highlighted at TALENTpro.

How do candidates feel about the application workflow?

Frightening figures are quoted at TALENTpro: 50-80% of applicants drop out during the application process! The reasons? Too many or complicated questions in the application process, lack of mobile optimization, and too little transparency.

For companies, this means:

• There should be as few questions as possible in the application workflow, and if so, only relevant questions. The speakers agree: 1-3 questions must be enough.
  ⁠According to Madeleine Kern (HR Marketing Kern), no-gos are questions about starting dates and salary expectations. These make candidates nervous and often leads to the abandonment of the application. She emphasizes: “Confused applicants do not apply”.

• Every step should be mobile optimized. This starts with the career page and the job ad and continues through to the application workflow. Prospective applicants should not be prevented at any step from submitting their applications while on the move or without access to a laptop or PC.

• Every step in the application workflow should be transparent for applicants. They need to always know their status, and communication is key. A separate page or information by e-mail with an overview of the entire application process could also help, for example.

Conclusion and outlook

Everything indicates that applicant information gathering and application processes need to become more and more streamlined, intuitive and transparent. HR departments should always put on the applicant's glasses and ask themselves: 

What would make me want to apply to this particular company? What makes it easier to join our company compared to others?

Under no circumstances should hurdles be placed in the way. For this reason, applications via social media channels such as WhatsApp or TikTok are also becoming more and more prominent. But don't worry, even if your company is not yet ready for this, you can still make it as easy as possible for interested parties - the motto is: less is more.

Continue reading: Recruiting in the Flow of Work