What to do when 79% of job-seekers are turned-off by long recruitment process

While the Australasian banking and financial services job market has seen mixed levels of demand so far in 2011, as the year progresses we’re expecting to see continued demand in key areas and skills shortages to appear, putting pressure on employers to examine the way they recruit.

Indeed, already we’ve seen that quality candidates have had multiple employment options to choose from, and the organisations that have been slow to make decisions or failed to properly sell the role/employment promise found it impacted their ability to attract the best talent available.

A recent survey we conducted as part of our new whitepaper, entitled ‘Managing your employer brand throughout the recruitment process’, found that 79% of job-seekers are turned-off a job/employer by a long recruitment process and 47% have withdrawn from a recruitment process because it was taking too long.

In addition, 77% of job-seekers said the person/s conducting the job interview/s had a strong or very strong influence on their opinion of a potential employer, and 45% have withdrawn from a recruitment process because they didn’t like the person/s conducting the job interview/s.

These findings indicate just how important it is for employers to sell the role they are recruiting; they can’t just expect to advertise a position, be inundated with suitable applicants and then have their preferred candidate accept an offer without any attempt to sell the opportunity and organisation.

This is particularly important for organisations in the banking and financial services sector, whose reputations as attractive employers suffered during the global financial crisis and, according to a number of commentators, haven’t recovered. In fact, a number of experts persist in suggesting that the industry will continue to suffer a ‘brain-drain’ and fail to appeal to the ‘best of the best’.

So if you’re a line manager hiring a new position, what should you be focusing on in your recruitment process?

In the banking and financial services sector, top-quality candidates are looking to join organisations that will look good on their resumes and where they can grow their careers, so you need to be prepared to sell the organisation’s culture, and answer questions about business performance. You also need to be able to talk about the opportunities for career progression that exist.

Some of the other benefits offered by banking and financial services organisations that you should highlight during your recruitment process include:

• Opportunities for international experience — overseas postings are still attractive to candidates and not as readily available in commercial companies, so if you can offer these, make sure you communicate this
• Access to innovation and technology — many banks are leading the way when it comes to investing in technology and encouraging innovation, and offer access to cutting-edge programs and tools as well as the chance to work on more interesting and challenging projects, which is always appealing to job-seekers
• Opportunities for training and development — almost all banks are investing in training and development programs which helps to increase their chances of attracting and retaining high-calibre professionals