By Laurent Bounin, Head of Partnerships, Wirkn
We tested these 5 questions with over 100 HR professionals; here is what our findings reveal and how they can help you improve your hourly candidate experience.
One of the reasons I like the webinar format is to interact with numerous HR experts from various industries: retail, restaurant, hospitality, food, logistics and government. It is an opportunity to validate some of the trends and challenges we see in hourly candidate recruitment in North America.
This February, during our most recent webinar “The Best Candidate Experience Always Wins,” we surveyed 107 hiring managers and recruiters about their recruitment practicers and then analyzed their responses. Here are our key takeaways.
Question 1: Do you think your recruitment processes are adapted to candidates’ expectations?
| 1 | Moderately adapted | 88.9% |
| 2 | Not at all adapted | 11.1% |
| 3 | Perfectly adapted | 0% |
What these numbers reveal:
- All of the experts surveyed agree that their recruitment process for this type of position is not or not very well adapted to the reality of the market. While many recruiters and hiring managers are aware their recruitment processes must improve, many feel they lack the resources, tools and support to drive significant change within their organizations in a quick and efficient manner.
Are your organization’s recruitment processes adapted to candidates’ expectations? What could help you bridge the gap?
Question 2: On a scale of 1 to 10 , how would you rate your hourly candidate recruitment transformation needs? (10 being a top company priority for 2022)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 0% | 0% | 10% | 11% | 11% | 12% | 0% | 22% | 22% | 12% |
What the round table revealed when we asked this question:
- Despite over 66% of the recruiters surveyed declaring that the transformation of their hourly candidate recruitment process is a priority for their organization in 2022, they identified several roadblocks that may keep them from doing so:
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- Little or no approach that is specific to high-volume or hourly employee recruitment (i.e. long cumbersome application processes)
- No data and measures to optimize high volume recruitment
- A lot of manual work to qualify candidates and carry out the necessary follow-ups
What challenges are currently keeping you from optimizing your approach to recruiting hourly employees?
Question 3: Which Channel Generates The Most Hourly Candidates?
| 1 | Job boards (Indeed, Monster, etc.) | 66.2% |
| 2 | Social networks | 36.9% |
| 3 | Referral program | 16.9% |
| 4 | Website career page | 13.8% |
| 5 | In-person unsolicited applications | 12.3% |
| 6 | Other (job fairs, sourcing, SEO) | 6.2% |
| 7 | I have no idea | 0% |
What the round table revealed:
- Job boards: They still generate the largest number of hourly candidates to date. However, it seems that the volume is not always in line with the quality of the applications.
- Social networks: Many HR teams do not have a well-defined digital recruitment strategy to optimize their campaigns. It’s essential, for example, to identify the candidate segments you want to attract to reach them on their preferred social networks and platforms.
- Referral programs: Recruiters indicated they generated the most qualified candidates compared to the alternatives.
- Career pages: The round table felt they seemed to be losing steam because of the overheated job market, impacting the number of candidates who send unsolicited applications on the company’s website.
- Unsolicited applications: These seem to happen mostly in physical stores instead of online. However, recruiters were seeing more and more candidates using QR codes to submit their applications.
What channels are providing your organization with the most ROI? And are leveraging data to optimize your recruitment process?
Question 4: How long does it take an hourly candidate to apply to one of your job postings?
| 1 | 3–10 min | 47.7% |
| 2 | Less than 3 min | 22.7% |
| 3 | 11–20 min | 13.6% |
| 4 | More than 20 min | 6.8% |
| 5 | I have no idea | 9.2% |
What our round table revealed:
- Here, we can see that for the vast majority of the organizations surveyed, the process is above 3 min.
- It is also interesting to note that some surveyees do not have the tools to measure this information.
- In addition to the importance of a simple, mobile-optimized experience, the factor having the most significant impact on application volume is the length of the process. The platform’s data shows that the most efficient processes are under 2 minutes. CNN published an article on the subject on February 24, 2022.
Have you measured how long it takes for an hourly candidate to apply for an open position in your organization? How does it stack up against results above?
Question 5: Are resumes essential to your hourly candidate recruitment?
| 1 | Essential | 60.9% |
| 2 | Not really | 26.1% |
| 3 | Not at all | 13% |
Our Findings:
- About 61% of surveyees consider the resume an essential element of hourly candidate recruitment. However, all agree that resumes add friction to the application process. For many, the resume is often a requirement for the manager, not the recruiter.
Our recommendation:
- To maximize your pool of candidates, we recommend leaving the door open to candidates without resumes. A resume is a document that consists of a variety of information that is not always relevant in qualifying a candidate for a given position. It is essential to focus on the information you need and find the simplest way to collect it, rather than asking for a resume that will add friction to your process.
Conclusion & key recommendations
Labour shortages have pushed recruitment up the list of priorities for organizations. However, it would appear that organizations are not equipped to meet the new expectations of a shrinking candidate pool, whether in terms of processes, resources or technology. As we’ve seen repeatedly throughout history, the companies that can adapt come out on top.
- Test out the candidate experience. Would you apply?
- Shorten time to apply (one-click is best!)
- Ditch the resume
- Consider automation tools (sourcing, filtering, automated communications)
Do you need to shorten and simplify your application process without overhauling your HR tech stack? Click here to learn more about Wirkn.