Eliminate Unhelpful Obstacles in Your Hiring Process

Recently we saw an article about a company that hires everyone who applies through the practice of open hiring. Basically, companies using this model accept anyone willing to work and expect that employees will self-select out of jobs if they aren’t a fit.

Most folks are a long way off from handing out a job offer to every single person who walks through the door, but there are a lot of ways that employers can reduce unhelpful friction in their hiring processes for hourly employees.

Here are a few unhelpful obstacles that employers often put in front of great hourly candidates, and what to do about them.

Long Job Applications

Most job applications are just too long. That’s a huge turnoff for job applicants, especially if they’re applying online. It’s bad enough going through dozens of questions on your desktop or laptop, but most hourly applicants prefer to apply on their mobile phones. No thanks!

When it comes to job applications, less is more. But some companies don’t know where to start and just put down every question they can think of. Actually it’s better to miss a helpful question than to ask an unnecessary one.

• Solution: If you find yourself asking for more than 10 pieces of information (besides name and contact info), review your questions. Do you need to know this information now? Or can you ask it later, like in the interview? Is it even necessary for this job?

Expecting Recent Work History on the Application

There’s a couple of reasons that requiring candidates to list specific work history can be an obstacle in the hiring process. First, it’s very difficult for applicants to enter company name, dates, roles, descriptions, etc. on their mobile phones. Second, many of your best potential applicants are currently employed at another company in your industry. By providing information about their current employer, they open themselves up to the potential loss of their current job from a back-channel reference call.

• Solution: What are you really trying to learn by asking this question before an interview? Most likely you want to know 1) if an applicant has experience in the job they are applying for and 2) how long their tenure was at different jobs. Why not just ask that instead?

Limited Interview Availability

If you are continuously recruiting to fill openings at your company, then you need to be continuously interviewing too. When candidates apply to your jobs, they’re rarely applying with the hopes of starting many weeks out. The company that gets back to them the fastest and demonstrates the highest likelihood of paying them the soonest wins.

Frankly, it’s also good for employers to move quickly. Most likely, that unfilled position is costing you money, even if it’s not obvious. If you restrict candidates to just a few days of the month, you’re hurting yourself in the long run by narrowing the pool of candidates who will be available to hire and creating unnecessary cost for your business.

• Solution: Set aside a couple different days and times each week to be available for interviews and structure your calendar around those interview windows.

Requiring a Resume

Active job-seekers tend to apply armed with a current resume, but that’s not true of passive job seekers. Passive job seekers are a critical audience to consider for your job opportunities. If you expect candidates to provide a resume, know that it will probably narrow your candidates to only the folks who are actively looking for a job.

• Solution: Figure out what information you actually need from a resume and ask for that information directly instead.

If you think you might be hurting your hiring process by putting unhelpful obstacles between your opening and great candidates, try Team Engine risk-free. We are no strangers to these obstacles, and build technology to eliminate barriers between great jobs and qualified candidates.