Insights from the 2015 Talent Board Candidate Experience Research Report

You can access the full report here.

• “Job descriptions are the most important job-related content that candidates look for when researching a job” ~ From my perspective, there has been an underlying push to move away from job descriptions. It’s not the job descriptions fault, it’s that many writers of job descriptions don’t know how properly highlight relevant content and knowing the best buzz words isn’t going to help either. Relevant content is king and don’t let market group think infiltrate what matters to your company. Make a job description focused on task specific to your organization and ensure the title describes the work.
• Most valuable sources for candidate decision making. ~ Social isn’t #1… shocker. Job seekers will find you, just make sure they can engage with you as easy as possible.

• “While both leverage career sites above all else, employers have a different set of priorities.” ~ For SMB and Med companies, focus on the biggest bang for your buck. Have a way to capture candidates easily on your career page and don’t waste precious time and money where you’re not seeing a return. Career site + craigslist = a ton of candidates.

• “Fifty to seventy-five percent of applicants aren’t qualified for the jobs they applied for across job classifications” ~This only happens due to title confusion and application process misunderstandings. Yes, there are a few people who really shouldn’t have applied, but all those “unqualified” candidates can help your organization elsewhere. From my interviews with jobseekers, they get very frustrated when rejections happen regardless of being qualified or not. The best way to deal with this is to take a more generalist approach to engage candidates and then identify them on your end before you’ve jeopardized your own brand.
• “Little Opportunity to Showcase Skills, Knowledge and Experience” ~ In my opinion, this is a direct result from an increased volume in applicants and practiced shorts cuts in the screening process. Most technology out there can’t understand how skills, knowledge and experience all relate to each other. Experienced recruiters are able to do this however, there are diminishing returns for them when the candidate field expands beyond a few individuals. Resumes still represent a complete document on all three important traits and we just need to take the time to understand how to read them.

The 2015 Talent Board Candidates Research Report does a great job highlighting areas for innovation moving forward. It all starts with employers actually listening to job seekers and getting on the same page.