How to Engage a Job Applicant in 15 Minutes or Less

Hiring managers feel the pressure more than ever to amplify organization recruiting efforts and capture a job seeker’s attention quickly. In a recent study done by Greenhouse, 70% of job seekers said they would disregard a job application that takes more than 15 minutes to complete. In the midst of the “Great Resignation,” how can your organization adjust your recruitment efforts to compete in a fast-paced hiring culture? We have a few tips below. 

Refresher: What Is the Great Resignation?

The “Great Resignation” is a term coined by Professor Anthony Klotz, an organizational psychologist at Texas A&M University, to describe the ongoing labor trend of record-breaking monthly resignation rates in the US economy. 

Beginning in early 2021, the BLS has reported an all-time high “quit rate” for five different months of the year—March, April, August, September, and November—with near-records for the months in between. To look at it another way, there have been over 4 million resignations every month since July.

Since May, the “Great Resignation” has been making headlines, with reports mostly crediting COVID and compensation for the volatile labor market. According to the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), the compensation narrative is a compelling one for employers, many of whom are responding by raising base pay and improving benefits in 2022. 

With increased turnover comes increased recruitment efforts. Companies feel the pressure to fill empty spots on teams and retain employees once they have them.

How to Make Job Application Quick, Yet Efficient 

Knowing a bad hire can be costly to an organization’s culture, hiring managers should be strategic when creating job applications for open positions on their team. Here are a few tips on how to speed up your application process without sacrificing organization standards. 

• If you are streamlining the application process for job seekers, it’s crucial that you don’t include any unnecessary steps. BerniePortal’s Applicant Tracking Feature is intentionally designed so applicants don’t need to create a login to view their application status. We have found eliminating this extra step encourages more job seekers to fill out the application. 
• Your job application must include questions for screening candidates upfront. However, holding off on long answer questions until the job seeker makes it farther down your hiring pipeline is key to keeping applications under 15 minutes. When putting together a new application, decide which questions are necessary to know from the beginning of the hiring process and which can wait for a phone or in-person interview. 
• The most important part of an application is the job description, but it’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to be long to be effective. When writing the job description, try to focus on highlighting non-negotiables. Do you require the applicant to have certifications or a certain amount of experience? Do they have to live in a specific location? What are non-negotiable skills to be successful? Be sure to include those. An excellent way to simplify job descriptions is by using bullet points to highlight the most critical issues. This allows the job seeker to read through the job description quickly while still effectively portraying expectations.

Think Mobile

As the world embraces becoming more digital, it’s wise for your organization to think “mobile” when ramping up recruitment efforts. With mobile devices rarely leaving our hands, it’s no surprise that submitting job applications on the go has increased. What are some ways your organization can alter your recruiting efforts to think “mobile”?

• One way to encourage mobile applications is to ensure that your job postings are optimized for mobile. If you expect your job seekers will be staring at a mobile screen that is typically smaller in size, make sure your job applications are short and to the point. Job seekers get turned off from applying to jobs if they feel like it takes too long to scroll through and if the mobile experience is poor.
• It’s fair to assume most organizations do not have their own mobile app, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have options. Job boards like Indeed.com have mobile apps that allow job seekers to apply for open positions on the go. Indeed integrates with BerniePortal’s Applicant Tracking Feature, allowing hiring managers to post open positions directly to their job boards. With this integration, your organization will widen its applicant pool and appeal to tech-savvy job seekers.