Dilbert creator Scott Adams recently posted a diatribe about how the world is becoming so complex, it’s becoming harder and harder to get simple things done. It’s a humorous look at the difficulties of navigating the labyrinthine world of large multi-national banks – worth a read. (http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/complexity/). In short, Adams asserts that “the world has become so complex that simple tasks are nearly impossible…Complexity transforms the simple into the impossible.”
A few weeks later, one of my favorite bloggers, Neven Mrgan, a designer for Mac indie software house Panic, posted his thoughts about Mr. Adams’ musings. (http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/420762400/complexity) As a designer, and someone who works with software and computers for a living (specifically Macs), Neven focused on complexity in computing and specifically how Apple is trying to address this issue for everyday users with its upcoming iPad. Neven argues that complexity will always exist in computing. However, “the iPad attempts to simplify computing not by some stroke of magic, but by doing less.” The iPad doesn’t eliminate complexity; it seeks to minimize complexity by focusing on the tasks that are important for a casual computing user.
With the employment market beginning to show some signs of life, I’ve been focused lately on how companies can begin to actively attract talent again. I believe we can stretch this analogy about over complication to the candidate experience at corporate career sites. Too often, companies create career websites that overcomplicate the candidate experience, making it difficult for candidates to complete one of the most critical activities on a company’s career website: applying for a job.
Most candidates visit a career site with one purpose – to find a great job with your organization. They have a couple of specific objectives. First, they want to be able to understand what job openings are currently available. Second, they want an easy and precise search mechanism to identify jobs that match their experience and qualifications. Third, they want honest and accurate information about both the job and the organization to determine if they are a fit not only for the job, but for the organization as well. Finally, they want to be able to indicate their interest in a job opening and tell you why they are a great fit, not only for that job, but for your organization. These aren’t complicated tasks – nonetheless, we seem to make it complicated for candidates to complete them.
To begin, many companies make it difficult to even find their career website. While most organizations are getting better at addressing this issue, it is still surprising the number of Fortune 500 websites that require a candidate to drill down three clicks to find the link to their career website (Our Company ->About Us->Careers). If that is the case with your site, you can be pretty sure you’re losing candidates somewhere along the way. If the acquisition of talent is as critical as most CEOs claim, the Careers link should be displayed on your corporate home page, not hidden under the “About Us” section.
Once a candidate reaches the career website, they are presented with a plethora of information about your company. However, the one thing they are looking for is “Job Search.” Once they click that link, more often than not, they are presented with a career website powered by a 3rd party Applicant Tracking System. They’ve just bypassed all of the great information you’ve assembled to support your Employment Brand, as well as your Employee Value Proposition. While you can wrap the career website in a frame to point to this content, you’ve now put the onus on the candidate to actively drill into the site to read this content. You’ve lost the ability to serve up the content to the candidate at relevant points in the application process.
Employment Brand is a valuable commodity for an organization. It takes significant resources to cultivate and develop your Employment Brand. You have a compelling story to share with candidates, but based on the current paradigm with ATS providers, you lose much of your ability to tell that story when, where, and how you want to tell the story.
To help address this issue, some ATS vendors have recently begun to implement APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), which enable interaction between the ATS software and other software – in this case your career website. There are several advantages to implementing APIs in your career website. To begin, they allow you to control the presentation of data to candidates in the format that you desire. While ATS career websites offer varying degrees of configurability, all of them have some limitations and constraints on how you display jobs to candidates. APIs allow you to control the presentation of data to candidates, while remaining true to your corporate brand.
In addition, current job search tools simply bring back job data – they miss out on a great opportunity to connect with a candidate. Consider this scenario – a candidate is completing their nursing degree and is looking for a CNA position to help earn money during school. In most career websites, they search for the CNA position and complete the online application. What if your company just implemented a new program designed to help CNAs looking to become an RN? What if you had a great profile of an employee who successfully completed this program? Wouldn’t it be great to tell that audience about this program without relying on the candidate to navigate through your career website? Leveraging APIs to let your career website know what type of job the candidate has just clicked into allows you to present content on the job details page about special programs – a great way to easily build excitement and strengthen your Employment Brand among that critical population of candidates. This is just one example of how you can embed Employment Brand and EVP information throughout your job listings, not just on static pages in the Career website.
Another common issue with corporate career websites is how quickly information can become old and dated. It is difficult to manage and update all of the information spread throughout your career site. Time passes, business moves on, but the content doesn’t – instead, it becomes old and stale, another complaint of job seekers. Either that, or content changes require coding by software engineers, which takes time and money.
To help address this issue, consider using a Content Management System to help you take control of the information on your career website. As your business priorities change, you can quickly reflect that shift in your career website. If you have a big win at your organization, you can easily promote that on the home page of your career website – yet again strengthening your Employment Brand. A CMS gives you the tools and flexibility to manage how and when content is updated.
Finally, one of the biggest frustrations for candidates is the lengthy and complicated online application process that most companies force upon job seekers. Some companies require a candidate to complete over ten pages of information in order to express their interest in a position. I’ve heard horror stories of the submission process taking a candidate over 30 minutes.
I understand the need to gather the correct information from the candidate in order to make a sound decision (and for compliance purposes as well). However, consider the frustration for candidates. At this point in the process, are they going to be willing to provide license numbers, address history, etc.? How many candidates are you losing at page 9 in the submission process? I would argue that if your submission process takes more than 3 pages, it’s too long.
The “secret sauce” is finding the balance between what information a recruiter needs from a candidate to determine whether or not they meet the basic qualifications for a position and the candidate’s experience submitting interest in a position. Consider allowing candidates to complete a quick form with enough relevant data when they are first expressing interest in a position – then, once you both have determined that they are the right fit for the job, invite them back to complete a detailed application. Chances are, by that point in the process, the candidate is more engaged and more likely to complete a detailed online application.
As the labor market begins to percolate, take a look at your corporate career website through your candidates’ eyes. Ask yourself, “How easy are we making it for a candidate to complete their primary objectives on our career website? Are we striking the right balance between ease of use for our candidates and your talent acquisition’s business needs?” As the competition for talent heats up, these questions will be critical. To paraphrase Neven, you want a process that is “simple enough to be comfortable, complex enough to be useful.” That’s where the magic happens. I make no claims that this is by any means easy – but striking that balance between complexity and simplicity, like Apple has done with its iPhone and is poised to do with its iPad, is what allows a company to shine.