What is recruitment getting wrong for candidates?

I recently read a superb article from Social Talent, written by Siofra Pratt (if you don’t get their updates you should. plenty of good reads and HR advice – take a look here). It basically compared how recruiters contact candidates – (Image 1) with how candidates want to be contacted (Image 2 from Laudale). See the full article here – www.socialtalent.co/blog/the-most-effective-way-of-contacting-passive-candidates

Anyway, it got me thinking. Where else do we do the complete opposite of what a candidate actually wants? What else are recruiters and the recruitment industry failing right now?

ATS platforms

These are the application tracking systems that candidates apply through. And, barring a few notable exceptions (like Firefish), I can’t believe how clunky many of the biggest, most popular ATS platforms are. The look and feel are terrible, the branding poor and the process is difficult to navigate. Compared to all sorts of digital systems we use every day, the technology is out-dated.

Job alerts

Are they ever relevant to the actual job the candidates’ are looking for? I signed up to 6 or 7 as an experiment. Niche boards seem to be better than generalist job boards or recruitment consultancies. I’m not a chef, a tour guide or a bar tender, but I’ve heard all about those opportunities! And, before anyone from a job board or rec-con gets in touch to argue the point, yes – my details are very clear and obvious.

Advert copy

I just picked out 10 postings at random on a leading job board. Of the ten, 7 were dull reprints of job specifications, 1 was repeat copy reproduced across every region in the country and 2 were ok (not great, just ok). Not one of these grabbed me. Not one compelled me to find out more, or apply, or even get to the end of the advert. Worst still, not one of them had anything visual attached to the job that made me want to share it. If you were the candidate, why would you bother?

Social media

So few employers really get it. Engage, interact and communicate with snapchat, instagram, twitter and the rest and it’s much easier to get closer to all those candidates under 35. It’s what people of a certain age want to see and interact with!