Technology and the application process
With online recruitment going up, experts offer tips to make you stand out.
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One of the biggest complaints from HR professionals is advertising jobs online just to get lukewarm results and then hiring someone who is not the ideal choice – only to discover that there were other applicants.
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One of the biggest complaints candidates have? Their application could not stand out.
It is fair to say that technology has both a positive and a negative influence on the application process.
SEE: 20 resume errors to watch out for (free PDF)
Online recruitment will increase over the next five years, as employers are looking for new ways to communicate with candidates, according to Appcast, a programmatic job advertising company that helps optimize job vacancies.
Revenue for the online recruitment industry is expected to grow by 7.3% on an annual basis to $ 11 billion by 2023, says Appcast, citing IBISWorld research.
The availability of qualified talent is the greatest pressure on HR professionals, says Mary Hassan, HR leader at AG Mednet, an electronic data collection service focused on improving data quality in clinical trials.
With an unemployment rate in the US of 3.6% in general and 1.3% in technological positions, Hassan says, “HR professionals must use every available tool to hire competitively.”
The pros and cons of technology when looking for a job
Although technology has increased the speed, convenience and efficiency of applying for a job, it can lead to an abundance of candidates – but not necessarily to qualified candidates, she says. Recruiters then have to spend a lot of time searching and screening a large number of candidates.
Application tracking systems (ATSs), especially those that come up with AI embedded, are changing dramatically, Hassan says, because they have “eliminated significant amounts of administrative time and effort.”
The right technology increases the reach of vacancies by expanding the sourcing geographically at low costs, she says. “The use of web-based interview tools effectively enables remote (de) screening of candidates, without the costs and time associated with traveling for on-site interviews prior to a face-to-face screen.”
It also provides a better candidate experience because “these tools provide an easy response to every candidate at every stage, so communicate professionally and quickly with candidates.”
In 2018, 55% of applications were submitted via a mobile device, notes Leah Daniels, senior vice president of strategy at Appcast. This year the trend is over 60%, she says, “but mobile devices make the process very difficult and painful, and in this environment, with a low unemployment rate, candidates have a very low tolerance for a 15-page application.”
Mobile devices are often used to speed up the application process and also because some candidates do not have access to a desktop. This is less than ideal because the ability to access information and enter an application from a mobile device is sometimes impossible, says Daniels. “For example, it is a bit comical to ask candidates to write an application letter in Word and upload it (from a mobile phone).”
As a result, the percentage of people completing an application is much lower on a mobile device than on a desktop, she says. “As a candidate, applying for a desktop increases your chances of getting through the process and therefore viewed.”
Losing the human factor
In conversations with Hassan about candidates about the recruitment process, she has “understood that in some respects it is far less human than it should be,” as ATSs have been used on a larger scale.
The systems can ultimately focus more on ‘facts and hard skills’, and much less on ‘the cultural fit and soft skills that are becoming increasingly important in today’s labor force,’ she says.
Daniels believes that algorithms play a much less role in the process than candidates think. “Many recruiters don’t trust them or don’t like them,” she says. “It is better to spend less time grieving the right words in your cover letter. It is more important to get (your resume) at the top of the pile. It’s all about speed.”
Hassan says she has received positive feedback from applicants who say that the process at AG Mednet is “refreshing,” compared to other experiences they had that “felt like they were lost in the black hole of the candidate pool” , she says.
“As a smaller company in a very specific technological niche, we have been able to maintain a reasonably high level of personal contact in our recruitment process.”
Tips for applicants
If you want to beat the system, make sure you log in from a laptop or desktop, says Daniels. And time is essential. “A candidate who is hired will usually apply within the first three days of posting a vacancy,” she says.
You also cannot be hired for a job if you are candidate # 687, so look beyond the first page of vacancies advertised, she emphasizes.
“Advertisements sites display advertisements, so if you are looking for customer service in Topeka, Kansas and enter certain keywords, you will see a number of hits or vacancies,” Daniels explains. Many candidates will spend too much time and energy looking at each job opening on the first page and then go to Glassdoor to see how the company is ranked, then go back and apply, she says.
That is wasted effort because a recruiter with 30 vacancies on his board does not go through 600 applications for each assignment, says Daniels. “They just don’t have time.”
For example: “On average SAP gets 825 candidates for all the tasks they have,” she says. “The reality is that they don’t look at all 825 resumes.” The jobs that appear on the first page of results on a job site are “over-sampled,” she says. “So you must be the first – or you must run away.”
Regardless of the site, if the command doesn’t say it’s a brand new post, “skip it and go to pages four and five – that have no competition,” she says.
Although you may think psychologically that those on the first page fit better, “in reality it has to do with who pays the most money.” Location and keywords are also factors.
Being the first can help you improve your chances, but it also means Hassan takes the time to read and resume your cover letter. That may be old-fashioned advice, “but it is very, very relevant in the current environment where candidates can respond quickly to a vacancy.”
Far too often, she says, candidates forget to change the wording into a cover letter that they reuse from a different job response, or they use abbreviations or capital letters in emails and letters, as if they were texting a friend.
Also, “do the research to ensure that your resume search engine is optimized,” Hassan says. Resumes adapted to include specific skills or other key words in the vacancy are much more effective.
Last, but not least, do not compromise the power of networks. “Use social media sites to explore who you might know at a company you’re applying for, or other ways to network, such as finding a fellow graduate from your university, or a student club or brotherhood.”
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