Dive Brief:

• Most talent leaders (77%) in a Randstad Sourceright study said their candidate experience is either excellent or very good, but many job seekers disagreed. In fact, 84% said they had a negative experience while job hunting, and 52% said they had more than one negative encounter. The company polled more than 1,700 professionals and more than 800 talent leaders from 17 countries.
• Among other things, the study found that most talent leaders believe a company's career portal is the most important source of information for job seekers, but less than half of job seekers agreed. And although talent leaders said they go to Facebook before LinkedIn to connect with job seekers, the social media platform is the fifth stop for working professionals, who prefer the company's career site, followed by LinkedIn, job boards and a company's current employees to find jobs openings. 
• The study offered six steps employers can take in the competition for talent: create a brand while keeping in mind what motivates talent; avoid the pitfalls of a poor candidate experience; balance the human touch with technology to engage candidates; skill train employees to prepare for the future; capture diverse perspectives for an inclusive workplace; and manage the risks of automation and artificial intelligence to create opportunities for workers.

Dive Insight:

The study illustrates just how complex hiring can be. With positions to fill in a market short on talent, employers struggle to find the skilled workers they need while trying to stay competitive. For example, 80% of respondents in a recent Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. study said they had trouble finding talent, with 70% citing a skills shortage as the cause. Respondents said they had a sufficient number of applicants, but few with the desired skills. In the Challenger study, employers reported skills shortages across industries and occupations.

HR also must work to keep candidates engaged once they've been added to the pipeline. Organizations must avoid creating negative candidate experiences, which a 2018 Phenom People study can happen during the attraction, engagement and conversion stages. Of the companies in that study, 84% failed to personalize the candidate experience during the entire recruiting process; 59% didn't explain their employee value proposition and an overwhelming 98% neglected to advise candidates of their application​ status. 

According to Phenom People, employers create a positive employee experience by using tailored content in job descriptions; offering dynamic and personalized career site content; providing an easy and user-friendly application process; and maintaining a centralized hub in which applications can be submitted.