Another two weeks? Another new epsiode of The Tea on Recruiting – our bi-weekly video series for recruiters, is on air. This week we’d love to explain the four horsemen of Candidate Experience, and take a look into how Amazon automates their hiring process. Let us know what you think!
Hello there. This is your host speaking. The year is 2021 and recruiters have been entirely replaced by automated systems. Psyched! Later we’ll talk about why the human side of your role is more important than ever.
Welcome to the Tea on Recruiting, where we share insightful and thought-provoking content that can help you shape your recruiting career. Cannot wait to share this new content with you, it’s so hot – or maybe that’s my cup of tea. I hope you’re wearing your seatbelt, ladies and gents, because you know it!, there’ll be some tea-spilling by the end of the episode.
Let’s check out our first piece of content of the day…
You start your days with breakfast, and we start our episodes with CandE. We’ve read Cornerstone on Demands’ “4 Reasons why your Candidate Experience is FCDD-UP and how to fix it.” No bad words. See?
Candidate Experience can be apocalyptic. Its four horsemen? Frustration, Confusion, Disappointment and Distraction.
The FCDD-up things you do crush the engagement of up to 90% of the candidates who quit before applying. Now, there’s a whole variety of touchpoints, like your career site’s mobile-friendliness, page speed, responsiveness, the colors you use… Hear this: you can turn your vulnerabilities into strengths.
Let’s take a closer look at those scary, grim horsemen.
Frustration is what your candidates feel when your application process takes way too long. You’re wondering why you don’t get the right type of talent for your vacancies? Well, if it takes longer than 15’, your application rates drop by 365%. More than 20 questions, and you can say buh-bye to 40% of your candidates. You’re annoying them with more than 45 questions? POOF. 88.7% of your candidates are gone. If you must ask more than a handful of questions, at least give your candidates a break in between. Keep this in mind. Keep it nimble, and don’t make your job applicants add the same info twice.
Here’s to another happy emotion: Confusion – smirk. And I quote, “Finding a career shouldn’t be a game of Where’s Waldo.” Poor UX and technological issues are frequent occurrences and can cause some real damage.
Disappointment! For one, this feeling is evoked in your candidates when you give them the silent treatment. 63% of job seekers say they are dissatisfied with the communication from most potential employers. And when your candidates are disappointed, many won’t apply to your business anymore and perhaps even tell their network about their terrible experience with you. There are so many options now, like chatbots, text messaging, and auto-responders. You have no excuses anymore. Don’t ghost your job applicants.
And now, the fourth horseman: Distraction. Simplify your career page. If it looks like a jungle of banners, widgets, newsletters and whatnot, your candidates will lose focus. Engage candidates, but don’t over-entertain them. Make their journeys simple and seamless.
And now, onto the second article we’ll share with you today:
I’ve read “I Got a Job at an Amazon Warehouse Without Talking to a Single Human”. Ryan Fan tells us the story about how he had to watch a video and take a quiz, and about 20 minutes later, Amazon emailed him that he had gotten the job at the shift he desired. He was then given some instruction on how to get his work papers and ID made. In just 2 weeks, Ryan was working at Amazon. The process was streamlined and incredibly easy, and yet Ryan had mixed feelings. Did Amazon not care about his human side?
Well, but AI can get rid of bias, right?
Yeaaaaaah, MAYBE.
For instance, Amazon’s hiring tools ended up favoring men, some hiring platforms discriminated against older applicants, and in 2016 a class-action lawsuit pressured Facebook to curb its paid at platform as the lookalike audiences feature allowed employers to pick only those Facebook users who looked like its current employees. Got only white male employees? Only white males would see your ad.
“I can only assume that I look pretty good to an automated A.I. hiring platform. I’m a young, 23-year-old man with a bachelor’s degree, no criminal record, and no disabilities. An automated hiring process favored me getting a job at Amazon in less than 20 minutes. I had a great and fast hiring experience and was able to work on the warehouse floor very soon after filling out my application. But how can we ensure that everyone else has an equal opportunity?”
Seriously. Think about it.
Ontooo theeeee
You know it: the more barbaric your treatment of candidates, the more demonic their Glassdoor reviews of your company.
Here’s a nasty review we’ve decided to share.
Shoutout to a company we won’t name – you messed up BIG TIME, huh? First of all, let’s touch upon the insanity: your process for a cashier vacancy took longer than four months!? Then you judged the candidate for being slightly… Early? The rest of the review is too hilarious not to be read out loud in its entirety:
So they just asked me “Do you know what job you applied for?” Wow, how insulting! Do people just apply for whatever and they got tired of it? Don’t take it out on me. I proudly said “Cashier.” They corrected me “No you applied for _____dept.” I even forgot what they said. I KNOW FOR A FACT I did not apply for that. Either their system made a mistake or they did, or they were just harassing me, or mental problems…..not sure. I even double-checked my email I have ONLY EVER applied to work in GROCERIES OR AS A CASHIER!
So they asked me questions from a dept I DID NOT APPLY TO. So of course I had no idea how to answer them! I WOULD NEVER APPLY TO A JOB I WAS NOT QUALIFIED FOR DUH! […] I DON’T wanna work for you, and you know what I NEVER WANNA SHOP THERE AGAIN EITHER THANK YOU!!!!!
I’m lost for words.
