Dive Brief:
- Speed is king for candidates in the current job market, according to a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. job seekers published Tuesday by talent engagement platform Sense.
- The company found that 80% of respondents said they wanted faster response times from recruiters. Conversely, nearly one-third said they had quit applying for jobs because of slow response times from recruiters. Only 19% of those surveyed said they were hearing back from recruiters within 24 hours.
- Candidates are also seeking a higher-quality job search experience overall, and more than one-third said they wanted better job matching based on their skills and available positions.
Dive Insight:
Sixty days. That’s the standard average time-to-hire for nonmanagerial positions, sources previously told HR Dive, and many organizations have put resources behind beating that metric in a competitive market.
The pandemic appeared to offer hope for organizations in their quest to shorten hiring timelines. In late 2020, a Robert Half survey of senior managers found that 60% said their companies had shortened their hiring practices in tandem with an increase in virtual interviews and onboarding sessions. Walmart notably made headlines for suggesting that its pandemic-adjusted hiring process allowed it to hire new store associates in as little as 24 hours.
Employers continue to implement such changes two years later. Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California revamped their processes by allowing candidates to pre-record answers to interview questions and simplifying applications, Healthcare Dive reported.
Increasingly, recruiters have turned to online platforms to engage with candidates. A July survey of recruiters by Clinch and Talent Board found that LinkedIn messages were the most commonly cited sourcing strategy, followed by external databases.
There can be multiple points of friction that cause candidates to lose interest in an opportunity, however. Earlier this year, Greenhouse published survey data showing that more than 70% of job seekers would not respond to a job application that took longer than 15 minutes to complete. Sense’s findings are also noteworthy given job seekers’ concerns about being ghosted by employers. Last year, an Indeed report found that only 27% of employers said they had not ghosted a job seeker.
