The Hiring Landscape Has Changed

Plenty of change is swirling around in the business world. We have been watching the traffic on your hiring portals and would like to share with you some trends that we have noticed.

Increased Candidate Traffic

HiringSmart online interview portals are attracting 58% more traffic than a year ago. The number of candidates currently employed but looking for work has increased. This is not a surprise. We have more people today looking to test the waters as they fear their futures with their existing companies. LinkedIn and other social networking sites are also posting huge growth numbers as executives and advanced skilled labour (Engineers, Accountants, Healthcare specialists etc) surf to networking sites in hopes they can reconnect with – and milk leads from- former colleagues and business contacts.

LinkedIn adds about one member per second making LinkedIn the third largest online job site. Monster.com (worldwide) traffic is up 76% year-over –year in January as the unemployed flocked to job boards. At the same time there are 30% less posting to select from. End result – more people applying for fewer jobs equals larger file of unqualified applicants to sort through to find the right ones.

Started vs Completed Interviews Has Increased

With the new levels of traffic being attracted to the hiring portals, more candidates are completing the interview - not just by volume but also as a percentage of candidates who start the interview. This is possibly from two reasons; a higher level of acceptance of online interview questions versus the standard online application form, and the candidate’s interest in investing more time in the hiring process than in the past. Dropping off resumes at every door down the street is not working like it used to.

Applying During The Day

A year ago the most popular time of day for candidates to apply was in the evening. The most popular time was between 7 and 9PM – most likely from their home computer. In a survey of all the traffic in the past 4 months we see that the most popular time of day to apply is now around lunch and the early afternoon. Does this mean that they are applying from work?

How do you need to respond to the changing landscape as a recruiter?

1. Review the admission tickets in your online interview. Do you find yourself asking the same question to each candidate that you call in the telephone screen stage? If so, add that question to the online interview to save yourself time and provide you the information you are missing before you invest the time to call.
2. Review your attraction strategies. Click on your referral report and see where your new hires came from. Are you attracting large numbers of candidates from one attraction source, but not hiring any of the candidates that come from there? Also, check to see if you are getting value for any money that you have invested in marketing on job boards or newspaper advertisements.
3. Review the data of those that were hired and were fired. There is gold in this data. Do people who were hired and did not stay (voluntarily or involuntarily) answer a specific question differently than those who have proven themselves to be top performers? This can be easily compiled using your candidate Export Data Report in your HiringSmart portal.

And finally, if you need any help with the above action steps, give us a call or e-mail us and we will assist you with how to access this information. For those who do not have a HiringSmart portal, but would like to know how to get this information we can help you too. Online hiring tools - portals that are attractive and accessible to the populations you want to reach - are your key to sustained competitive advantage.