3 Trends that will Help You Filter the Noise & Lead You to Action
Today, employers face a rapidly shifting recruitment landscape. Changing demographics are transforming the workforce while technological innovation is creating new jobs or altering old ones forever — and challenging traditional expectations about how work can or should be done
Simultaneously, job seekers have access to tools that help them proactively search for jobs. Constantly connected to the Internet via their mobile devices, they can choose whether to take their time and carefully research potential employers online or to apply almost immediately when a role they’re interested in appears online.
All of these activities create information and data, which can be powerful resources for recruiters seeking to target the best candidates. However, the problem is: there is just so much of it and too much going on.
Here we identify three trends to help you filter out the noise and identify insights that lead to action:
The unstoppable rise of mobile
In today’s hyperconnected world, job search happens anywhere and everywhere and mobile devices now account for the majority of job searches conducted on Indeed. In some occupations, however, that majority is especially overwhelming. For instance, occupations in which job seekers are on their feet and active in their roles, such as Production, Transportation and Construction, have significantly higher mobile utilisation rates for job search, sometimes as high as 75 percent.Rates of mobile job search are lower for people in business, finance and legal jobs as their work keeps them in front of computers for much of the day. However, only in computer and mathematical occupations do we see the majority of job search happening on desktops.
This trend cuts across generations — every age group does the majority of its job seeking on mobile devices. Millennials are the most active on mobile at 78 percent but Generation X isn’t far behind at 73 percent. Although Boomers are the least likely to search for work on a smartphone or tablet, they are still performing the majority of their searches on mobile devices (57.2 percent) rather than desktops. All of these numbers are up from previous years.
So make sure your job listings are optimised for mobile so you can capitalize on the majority of job seeker traffic
Job search peaks on Monday mornings
The rise of mobile also means that job seekers can look for fresh opportunities at any time. And it turns out that for lots of people, “any time” means “at work” and often “just before going back to work on a Sunday”. But search data shows that the singular most popular time to search for a job is Monday morning, just before lunchtime. Turns out those Monday morning blues can be backed up be hard numbers
Job search during office hours is actually common. People look for work on mobile and desktop throughout the week, although search does drop off as Saturday and Sunday approach. Counterintuitive as it may sound, this can represent an opportunity for employers. Recruiters can use working hour searches to their advantage by posting new jobs on Monday morning — catching job seekers when they are at their most motivated.
Failure to reply damages your employer brand
Not surprisingly, candidates tell us that a slow response from recruiters is one of the most dehumanising aspects of the hiring process. When asked what undermines trust once they’ve applied for a role at a company, the number one response was “not hearing back from the company recruiter and/or others after the interview for a week or longer”.
The second most popular response was “the company takes awhile to get back to you after receiving your application” and the third was “the company recruiter and others you interact with don’t show much interest in you as a person”.
When employers fail to respond to candidates promptly they destroy their employer brand and shrink their future talent pool. 44 percent of job seekers who don’t receive a response from an employer after applying for a job adopt an unfavorable view of the company. And the problem isn’t just with job applications—many companies also struggle to communicate with candidates at the end of the interview process. 51 percent of successful candidates noted more than one week and sometimes more than four weeks elapsed between their final interview and receiving an offer.
To ensure they are connecting – and staying connected – with the best talent, great companies are clearly communicating what job seekers can expect during the recruiting process.
For example, AT&T provides an online application status for all applicants and a dedicated support line for job seekers: “You can chat with a live person about your status. Applying for a job shouldn’t be a waiting game. That’s why we do our best to keep you in the loop.”
Tech company Trello’s “Recruiting Robot” makes candidates feel great while setting clear expectations around the recruiting process.
“This is an automatic email, sent by a mindless robot, to let you know that we’re absolutely thrilled that you would be interested in working for Trello. We’re very honoured. It may take a week or ten days before a developer gets around to reviewing your application. But we will assure you that a real live human being, not an automated computer zapper program, will review your application carefully, and only after drinking plenty of coffee and getting lots of sleep and exercise . . . Next —yes, you will hear back from us. It is our policy to reply to all applications.”
And Nabisco, the maker of Oreo cookies, replies to every resume it receives, solicited and unsolicited. Why respond to every resume when it’s clearly not necessary? Because as Nabisco puts it: “everyone eats cookies”.
Image: Indeed
This article is sponsored by Indeed.
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About Chris McDonald
As Senior Director of Sales at Indeed, Chris McDonald is responsible for leading operations in Australia and New Zealand. He was the first Indeed employee in Australia and his role is to help grow the business. Everyday his team work with talent acquisition professionals to help them make the right hires. Prior to joining Indeed, Chris spent several years in the online search and media industries. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Kingston University.
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