Business scheduling platform Cronofy has published new data to clarifies why candidates leave the recruitment process. The data covers different regions, providing more detail about candidate priorities and expectations.
It demonstrates how alienating candidates who apply for jobs can affect their perception of you (77 per cent of senior candidates) and actually make them less likely to engage or recommend you in future (64 per cent senior candidates.) Such data can help leadership teams and recruiters stop more of the strongest talent leaving their process – but just as importantly, it offers insights into how they might increase the diversity of their pipeline.
Top findings
- Candidates are frustrated by scheduling delays, especially in senior roles
- Peaking at 54 per cent of senior UK candidates, but also 34 per cent of all senior candidates
- Employers are losing great candidates because of scheduling
- 62 per cent of senior candidates have left the process because of this – 73 per cent in the UK.
- The quality of your recruitment process directly affects perception + future engagement/ recommendation
- 77 per cent of senior say it affects perception
- 84 per cent of senior UK
- 65 per cent of all
- 64 per cent senior would be less likely to engage/ recommend in future
- 77 per cent of senior UK
- 48 per cent of all
- 77 per cent of senior say it affects perception
- US/ UK favour responsiveness, GER/ FRA want human touch
- 47 per cent of US and 43 per cent of UK vs 28 per cent/ 22 per cent for GER/ FRA
“It’s important for firms to remember that their brand values exist in their actions, not words,” said Cronofy co-founder and CEO Adam Bird. “This is why some are unconsciously stumbling into an experience for some of the most important people they come in contact with that ruins their reputation forever more.”
Hung Lee is Curator of Recruiting Brainfood, one of the more powerful HR, talent and recruiting communities in the world. He emphasises the impact on minorities: “Particularly interesting was the high rate of women that drop out because of scheduling issues. As a group, they probably feel this most because of the additional domestic responsibilities that they may still take on. But even if women will feel it most, it affects everyone. The movement to remote working has revealed a lot of iniquities that people have always had to deal with.”
Maddy Cross is a Partner at Erevena, an executive, board and strategic search firm for investor-backed companies. She thinks one of the lessons is simple: “This data shows how simple it can be to improve the recruiting process at all levels of seniority. Having great scheduling can drastically enhance the candidate experience and help companies land really exceptional candidates, even in a market that’s fiercely competitive for talent.
“We see this even more in the current global situation,” she adds. “Previously, when people had to factor their physical location into scheduling, candidates might have been more forgiving of lack of clarity around interview timings. With things being entirely remote for the majority of companies now, any breakdown in the flow of the interview process can be less forgivable.”
