Are you losing top talent to your competitors?

Here are some of the things that may be affecting your chances of success (in my opinion of course):

1) Long, admin heavy application processes.

We are currently in a 'candidate is king/queen' market. When a candidate starts looking for a new role in conditions like this, it is usually speculatively, and will be about improving on their current position.

Expecting a candidate to complete an online application form as a first stage, before knowing whether this position is going to give them the progression or increase in earnings that they are looking for, may put you out of the running before the process can even get started.

2) Letting the system do the work with automated responses.

As a candidate searching for a new role, there is little more frustrating than going through the above stage, inputting all but your inside leg measurement, only to receive an automated response from the ATS system to say "Thank you for your application, we will be in touch if your application has been successful" (or something similar).

Then, on the closing date, when either the system, or finally an actual human has shortlisted all the applications, they hit the 'no' button and the system emails you saying "Sorry, but you have been unsuccessful on this occasion. We will keep your details and contact you should we have any suitable vacancies in the future" (again, other auto responses are available).

3) Lack of personal/human interaction.

This follows on nicely from point number 2, but goes a bit deeper! There is so much more to being the right fit for a position than a piece of paper detailing what jobs you have done in the past. The majority of my most successful placements are down to being the right fit as a person, having high levels of professionalism, attention to detail, going above and beyond in certain situations, being credible, so on and so forth!

All things that your system cannot determine.

4) No direct point of contact to ask questions before committing to the process.

Have you ever been searching for a new role, seen an advert that looks great, but it's missing some key information such as salary, or whether it can be remote for example?

You don't want to waste anyone's time by applying if it isn't going to be the right fit. If only you could reach out to somebody to confirm these bits before progressing any further!

Why people hide behind an advert I have no idea! Surely in the current market, you want to open up as many channels as possible to attract the right people? By doing so, you could now have a great candidate interested in your vacancy. But instead, they just kept on scrolling!

5) Too many interview stages.

When you start struggling to attract the right people, you start to panic recruit and become overly cautious.

When you eventually find someone that you like, you start to doubt your decision making and worry that you have not had enough comparison to be 100% sure that this is the right person for your business due to the lack of candidates on the market.

So what you end up doing is attempting to make the process more robust by adding stages, or including other people to share the responsibility (blame) in case it doesn't work out.

This is not the right way to make a process more robust! What you actually end up doing is repeating stages and destroying the candidates engagement and interest in the position and your business.

Or, your competitor moves quickly an puts a confident offer on the table to snap them up before you!

6) No feedback.

Feedback can sometimes be an awkward conversation to have, especially if the candidate has been unsuccessful.

The last thing you should do is bury your head in the sand and hope the situation will go away! This is one of the fastest ways to ruin your credibility as a potential employer in your sector.

You should also avoid using standard or stock reasons.

Just be honest, be constructive and do it as early as possible so that you do not hinder any other opportunities for the candidate.

7) Taking too long to make a decision.

So... After all the searching and interviewing, you have finally found somebody that you feel confident is the right fit for your business. They seem to be keen and interested in joining your team.

You've been through all the nitty gritty of salary expectations etc, and everything is in line with your original budget.

Only one thing left to do, slap an offer on the table and lets get this wrapped up!

You've even been bold enough to tell them that you want to make them an offer, you just need to go and get everything 'signed off'.

Unfortunately 'Signed off' also means, disappear for 2 weeks with no update! Making the entire process null and void as your candidate has either been offered by a competitor or would never accept the offer now, even if it was more money than discussed!

Although some of the above points seem like very obvious things that you would never dream of doing, you would be surprised how easy it can be to fall into these traps and really affect the impact of your recruitment process.

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