Dive Brief:

• SmartRecruiters, a recruitment marketing and collaborative hiring firm, released data showing that 63% of successful hires talked mostly about the hiring company, its culture and the job opening’s functions with interviewers compared to 47% of the unsuccessful candidates. SmartRecruiters collected the data from 180 successful hires and 1,800 candidates who were ultimately rejected.
• The data also shows that similar numbers of candidates hired (45%) and rejected (42%) tailored their resumes to each job opening.
• Almost half of the rejected candidates (49%) said they didn’t understand very well at all why they were passed over, 38% received the final decision by email and 46% said they received no notification about the outcome.

 Dive Insight:

Candidates that are more willing to talk about the company and the position allow recruiters the chance to better discern their fit for the position, rather than rely totally on their perception of the applicant as a person. Interviewing is no simple task; anything an employer can do to take bias out of the process (such as focusing on the demands of the job instead of other topics) can improve hiring clarity.

The data shows that to retain the best talent, employers also need to notify those they reject following interviews. Employers that leave candidates with a positive view of their organization have a better chance of competing for future talent while enhancing their brand. 

It seems employers can do a better job of communication overall. Keeping contact with candidates at all steps of the process — including informing them personally when they are rejected — allows a potential future relationship to remain possible.

The data shows the top reasons candidates turn down job offers are: the salary offered was too low; benefits weren’t competitive; they received a better job offer; the company’s culture was a poor fit or the job was different than first described. Crafting job descriptions that are accurate rather than fluffy can ensure the right people apply in the first place. Avoiding biased language in such descriptions is key, too.