The employee shortage has caused a lot of businesses to get creative with their recruiting efforts. While I’ve heard of some fairly innovative things being done, I was taken by something a colleague of mine learned at a recent industry event. Tony Lee, VP of content at The Society of Human Resource Management, gave a presentation, Upping Your Retention & Recruitment Game during Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week.
According to my colleague, the first item on Lee’s list of 13 practical things to help hire and retain employees was “focus on the fundamentals.” That’s not a bad idea. Before we go adding all kinds of bells and whistles to our recruiting efforts, perhaps we should first review what we are already doing.
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Lee suggested that a good way to start focusing on the fundamentals was to go to our own website and try applying for a job. See how hard it is to fill out your own application. How much time does it take? How easy is it to navigate the application process? Lee shared that studies show that 43% of job applicants say they do not complete the application because it takes too much time and/or is too difficult. Only 34% of applicants will spend 30 minutes completing an application.
His advice is to keep your application very simple. As the first step in the application process just get the basics including name, contact information and the job for which they are applying. That will give you a larger candidate pool at the top of the hiring funnel and you can contact applicants to get additional information you need. He joked—at least my colleague thought he was joking—that members of Gen Z, those 25 years old and younger, want to be able to fill out a job application while sitting at a red light. I think his point is that younger people want the application process to be quick and convenient. They want to apply for jobs on their mobile devices so make sure your application is mobile friendly.
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And while we are on the subject of Gen Z, Lee said we need to prepare for more members of Gen Z to be coming into the workforce. Lee noted that each generation has a defining event and that for Gen Z that was the Great Recession. As a result of watching what their parents went through during the recession, 35% of them say money is their main motivation for taking a job. And more than a quarter say a good working environment is the prime factor in job selection.
Here is something both my colleague and I found fascinating: According to Lee, 43% of the members of Gen Z prefer face-to-face communication while 24% prefer text.
I am going to take Lee’s advice and apply for a job via my company’s website. I sure hope it is quick and easy.
Jane Clark focuses on managing the member services operation at NationaLease as vice president of member services. She works to strengthen member relationships, reduce member costs, and improve collaboration within the NationaLease supporting groups.
