Employers may feel as though they are the driver in the recruitment process, but candidates who have bad job search experiences can adversely affect a company’s bottom line.
Despite the high unemployment rates in our current job market, how is it that 56 percent of employers who recruited new employees in the last year reported that a candidate declined the offer?
CareerBuilder conducted some serious research since 2011 and the findings should be quite sobering to employers as a job candidate’s negative interaction with a company can affect the bottom line more than they may imagine.
The Applicant Experience Study tracked the experiences and opinions of more than 800,000 workers across industries who applied to jobs in the past year. The common myths around recruitment are busted here:
Myth 1: The failure to acknowledge a job application won’t impact the company.
The truth is… 44 percent of workers who didn’t hear back from an employer after they applied for a job said they have a worse opinion of that particular employer.
Myth 2: What happens in the recruitment process stays in the recruitment process.
The truth is… With the power of social media, bad experiences can go viral in the matter of seconds. According to the study, 78 percent of job applicants said they would talk about a bad experience they had with an employer with their close circles of friends and family. Even scarier – 17 percent said they would post about their negative experience online and 6 percent said they would blog about it!
Myth 3: All job candidates need in this tight job market to sustain their interest is to at least hear from an employer.
The truth is… When candidates were asked to assess the recruiters who contacted them, 21 percent reported an unenthusiastic recruiter. Furthermore, 17 percent were not convinced that the recruiter was knowledgeable and 15 percent reported a lack in professionalism on the recruiter’s part.
The recruitment process is a facet of the employer’s overall brand and company culture. By keeping respectfully acknowledging job candidates and keeping them informed, a positive message will be spread for current and future employees.
Have you had a poor recruitment experience? As a result, did your opinion of the particular employer change? Share your stories below!
