At CareerPlug, we’re always trying to help our clients get more applicants and make the best possible hiring decisions. Based on some new data on hiring trends, we have some recommendations on how to best optimize applicant experience to get the highest volume and quality of candidates.
Four hiring trends to watch out for
1. Mobile applications
Even more jobseekers are applying for positions on mobile devices: Mobile apply rates are up 18.1% from 2016. It’s important to ensure that your job postings are mobile optimized. Job postings need to look as good on mobile devices as they do on desktop computers. This ensures that applicants avoid hangups when applying via a mobile device.
When you use CareerPlug, you can rest assured that your Careers Pages and job apply pages are always mobile-friendly.
2. Streamlined applications
An increasing number of applicants prefer a streamlined and short application process. When applicants are confronted with a long, formal application, they abandon those forms in favor of applications that take less time to complete. We recommend you have a streamlined application process for the best candidate experience. We did a study on time to apply in the restaurant industry and showed that CareerPlug clients’ applications took a dramatically shorter time complete compared with our competitors. The average time to apply across all applications we studied was more than 14 minutes; the average CareerPlug time to apply is 2 minutes and 25 seconds.
3. Optimized job titles and descriptions
Data illustrates the following hiring trends:
- Shorter job titles secure higher apply rates
- Job descriptions with 300-800 words performed best in terms of apply rates
- Mentioning benefits in job ads radically motivated candidates to apply
With CareerPlug’s job template feature, you can optimize the title and description of a job posting and then create a template from it. When you do this, you don’t have to worry about creating new, optimized job postings in the future. All the users on your account can use any template created on your account, so you can ensure that all hiring managers use the same version of a job posting. In addition, CareerPlug’s built-in Careers Pages have a callout where you can describe the benefits of working at your company in order to attract more applicants.
4. Employee feedback
Another 2018 hiring trend is utilizing employee feedback. Data shows that companies with higher Glassdoor profile ratings see higher apply rates. To increase your Glassdoor ratings, we recommend encouraging your employees to leave reviews, perhaps in a weekly email.
To learn more about how CareerPlug can help your business grow take a tour of the software with a CareerPlug hiring expert.
Source: Appcast 2018 Recruitment Media Benchmark Report
