The Immense Importance of an Easy Application Process

The Immense Importance of an Easy Application Process

Looking for new workers? Your application process can be an enabling factor or a stumbling block. You want to make it as easy as possible for candidates to apply to your company—clunky and overly long applications can lead to abandonment rates and the loss of potentially great new staff. Don’t lose talent before you even begin!

Three ways to improve your application process

Quick, convenient and easy is your motto when it comes to your application. The following three tips will help you enhance the way candidates apply, to get your hiring process off to a perfect start:

1. Keep it simple. Simple is always better! Your application should be available online through your website, first and foremost. This way, candidates can access it anytime, anywhere. You should stick to a clean user interface that’s intuitive and straight-forward—it shouldn’t take much work for an applicant to figure out how to answer questions and submit. Plan for an application that takes no longer than 15 minutes to complete, and keep questions basic. Remember, you can ask more intense questions during the job interview. To be sure you’re on the right track, test your online application before it goes live.
2. Go mobile. The majority of applicants will be accessing your application by phone or mobile device. It’s important to be sure the entire process is optimized for mobile viewing. Your pages should be easy to view and navigate, and automatically adapt to various screen sizes. A mobile-friendly website (and job application) benefits you in more ways than one—Google now ranks mobile-optimized sites higher in searches, so potential applicants will be more likely to find you online.
3. Stay in touch. It’s fair to assume many candidates have applied to multiple jobs, and this is good—it means they’re highly motivated to find work. Help them out by keeping them apprised of their status in the hiring process. You can do this with an auto-generated email that thanks them for applying, and then by reaching out to keep them in the loop on next steps. It’s not just considerate, it’s smart—even if you don’t hire a candidate for one position, you can always keep them on file if something else opens up for which they’re better-suited. But leaving applicants hanging can give them a negative impression of your company, ruining future chances they’d be interested in working for you.

Partner with a recruiter

If you currently work with a staffing agency, your recruiter is a valuable resource in helping you source the right talent for the job. Staffing agencies handle some or all stages of the hiring process, so you don’t have to—contact yours to find out more about available services.

Looking to staff up?

If you don’t currently work with a staffing partner, check out Inter-Connect. We specialize in the placement of light industrial and office/clerical employees, and we’ll work hard for you! To learn more, contact us today.