Dive Brief:

• A new Randstad Staffing benchmark report is out and it shows that 82% of job seekers are increasingly frustrated with overly automated job search processes, including complex job applications that put technology ahead of the human experience. 
• Of employees who participated in the study, 95% said that technology's role is to support the recruitment process, but not to replace it. 
• The top aspects of a positive experience for candidates included the amount of human personal interaction and the personality of the recruiting person that candidates encountered. 

Dive Insight:

The Randstad report sheds light on how candidates perceive the job application process at a time when technology seems to be taking over every aspect of it. Few innovations can replace the personal attention of a great recruiter, not even AI that is creeping into many applicant tracking systems.

Good recruitment tech makes the job application process more accessible for all candidates. Recruiting via text message as well as website accommodations for workers with disabilities are all important innovations.

But job applications need to stay simple and easy for candidates to use, and recruiters need to be mindful of every personal interaction they have with candidates. That critical first impression matters, as do the attitudes that recruiters display, which can, in the worst case, influence a candidate to move on to another, more positive experience.