Written by someone who has to pick the ball up from the back of the other team’s net91% of applicants want the online screening process to result in a job they want to stay in, according to a recent survey by talent assessment specialists Saville Assessment.
However, with just 72% of recruiters feeling that their organization’s assessment process is effective at identifying new employees who will stay for a long time, organizations may well need to give more of a focus to how candidates feel about their longer-term career, even at the earlier selection stages.
Results from the ‘Are you switching on or switching off your applicants?’ survey, which asked more 1,000 applicants about their recent experiences, found that being selected for a role to which they are well suited was important to the majority of applicants (81%).
“Despite there being a lot of recent talk about younger generations looking to job-hop every couple of years, the results of our survey suggest that applicants are still looking for a job that their skills are well suited for and they see a long-term future in,” says Gabby Parry, CEO of Saville Assessment.
84% of applicants also felt that it was important that the online screening process was quick to complete.
The data suggests that at 60 minutes in length recruiters can lose up to 50% of their applicants, and that having short online assessments that can be completed in less than 30 minutes can have a significant effect on encouraging an application.
The survey also highlighted the importance of providing candidates with plenty of time, opportunity and resources to prepare for the online screening process, with this having a 65% net effect increase on their likelihood to apply.
“Applicants want information that helps them prepare and ideally the opportunity to do practice tests. These materials should be sent out well ahead of time. This can help combat anxiety that applicants might be feeling about taking the tests,” explained Gabby.
The survey also looked at access to and the type of device applicants want to use to complete their online assessment. 96% of applicants stated that they can access the internet on a mobile phone, however just 1% said that this was the only available device they could use.
When candidates were asked to choose which type of device they would prefer to complete their online assessment on the data showed that 57% would choose to complete on a desktop/laptop, and 32% would choose to use a mobile phone.
“Organizations should ensure that they give their candidates choice as to how they can complete the assessment. There seems to be an overestimation by recruiters of how many applicants actually want to complete their assessment on a mobile phone – desktop or laptop is still the go-to choice for over half of applicants surveyed, however you cannot ignore the sizable minority who would prefer to complete on a mobile phone.”
To find how Saville Assessment can help you to align your screening process to what applicants want, visit www.savilleassessment.com/hire-talent/. To receive a full copy of the survey report email: info@savilleassessment.com
