6 Talent Acquisition Mistakes You Might Be Making and How to Avoid Them

Sticking to your tried and true hiring methods could be doing you more harm than good. Especially for your talent acquisition process. Sometimes, even the most conscientious HR professionals lean on outdated processes or old school recruiting tactics because they’re used to them. It’s their comfort zone.

But in today’s digital age, strategies become obsolete quickly, and outdated processes lead to slip-ups in talent acquisition. Maybe you accidentally sent an offer to the wrong candidate, only to rescind it 5 minutes later. Perhaps you scheduled an important interview on a Saturday by mistake. Or maybe your talent acquisition challenges are far more serious.

Whatever the case, we’re here to help you prevent these mistakes from happening.

In this blog post, we go over some talent acquisition mistakes that recruiters might make –
and how to solve them!

Creating a complicated application process

Candidates really appreciate the concept of minimalism. Less is more. The same thing goes for the application process. If it’s going to take them half a day and two cups of coffee to fill out a form – then they’ll drop out without even thinking twice about it. And that’s exactly how you lose top talent.

In fact, research has shown that candidates don’t like to spend more than 5 minutes on an application. And if they do, then they aren’t likely to complete it. Just like candidates don’t want to waste time filling in their entire resume from scratch, you probably don’t want to spend too much time on the receiving end either. It’s a two-way street.

Instead, ask yourself if you really need all that information now. Or could you obtain it later on in the hiring process?
First things first, reduce sign-in forms and make your application process mobile-friendly. You want to make it super easy and user-friendly. Then, make it easy to access. It shouldn’t take candidates more than a couple of clicks to get the application process started. Finally, make it quick. 83% of candidates prefer to have less than 15 questions to answer. In fact, you can make it even easier for them with multiple choice or drop down questions.

Not taking full advantage of a career page

A well-created career page can quickly become your company’s flagship in the talent acquisition process. It’s technically where candidates like to read more about the advertised vacancy and your company. To simply put it, without a career page candidates might bombard your inbox – or interview – with endless questions about your company. Do you have a flexible work environment? Do you encourage remote work? Do you offer medical insurance?
With a career page, you can cut to the chase and answer all the candidates’ questions without even interacting with them.

Also, it’s the best way to attract and convert top candidates. Your career page acts as a content hub for candidates. And with a hiring platform, you can create a branded career page that articulately showcases your brand identity and company culture in one page. Not only will you get crazy traffic to your site, but you’ll also convert top talent once they get a great idea about your company at the first glance.

This way, you have the chance to inspire your candidates with your perks and benefits, team testimonials, pictures and videos, and your unique selling propositions. We suggest you use a hiring platform like EVA-REC to build modern and branded career pages that boost your employer brand and convert top talent faster than you can imagine. Where you can peak their interest with a user-friendly design (that is mobile friendly) and totally fits your corporate identity.

Failing to engage enough with candidates

Have you ever wondered why candidates suddenly change their minds about a position, drop out – or even worse – ghost you?

The truth is, a long application process isn’t the only thing that disengages candidates. It could be that you’re missing a candidate support mindset. Meaning, candidates who don’t hear back from you in a timely manner tend to lose interest fast. Especially when you leave them hanging for a month or two waiting for a response or update.
Our pro tip? Treat candidates the same way you would customers, and be more responsive. Simply establish a team-wide protocol to respond to candidates within 24 hours.

Or leverage a hiring platform to help you automate and personalize communication with candidates in real-time. Where you can proactively reach out to candidates in the talent acquisition process and update them on their application status fast. Not only will you mitigate drop-outs and boost their experience – you’ll also drastically improve their engagement.

Using the same old job boards

Job board frustration is real. A few years ago, your job postings probably used to get a whole lot of traction from job boards. But today, you’re posting jobs to the same job boards and traffic is almost nil.

Why?

A common talent acquisition mistake is posting job openings on the same old job sites. The problem with that, is that the talent market is changing and HR professionals have got to evolve with it.
Keep in mind, that the same old job boards typically attract the same type of candidates. Also, not all job promotion outlets are relevant for all job openings.

Luckily, with a hiring platform like EVA-REC you can post your jobs to over 2,000 job boards. Where you don’t have to ever worry about posting jobs to individual job boards manually again. We take the pain away from that. With EVA-REC, you can advertise your jobs on niche websites, DE&I channels and social media to expand your reach. Plus, our hiring platform can also help talent acquisition teams get channel recommendations based on the jobs and data they have. Where they can also add the location and get the most popular job boards in that country. This way, you’ll be able to seamlessly attract the right talent from the right places, and boost your talent acquisition outcomes.

Avoiding feedback from candidates

Think of talent acquisition like a revolving door. Once you step forward and keep moving – it keeps going around and around. Once you fill a vacancy there will always be another, and the whole cycle of talent acquisition starts over again. The world outside the glass slowly fades into a blur. And you might forget about getting feedback from others, because you’re so engrossed in filling job vacancies.

But when you don’t solicit feedback from candidates – hired or rejected – you won’t be improving the recruitment process. Simply because the candidates might have a few useful suggestions to share.

In fact, keeping track of your online reputation is crucial, especially for sustaining your employer brand. So it might be helpful to find out how it’s perceived by prospect candidates. You can always opt for a data-driven approach and send out a survey. In this survey, you can ask them about the clarity of the job descriptions, the candidate-recruiter communication, and the likelihood of a referral. And be sure to make the surveys engaging by including pictures or videos.

This way, you’ll be able to quickly spot bottlenecks in the talent acquisition process and take the right steps in addressing them.

Resisting to adopt the right technology

We live in an age, where HR professionals should embrace hiring technology, and not shy away from it. Instead of fearing advanced AI and technological innovation – they should use it as their fuel for improving talent acquisition. By resisting to adopt the right technology, recruiters are placing themselves at a critical spot. Because they’re no longer at a competitive edge and no longer up to date with the latest HR trends. Setting them twenty steps back, instead of forward.

A hiring platform can inevitably reconceive the relationship between AI and recruiters. Simply because it takes over the heavy workload and helps recruiters deliver a fast, efficient, and outstanding talent acquisition process. Where candidate sourcing and screening become more streamlined and hiring bias ceases to exist. This way, recruiters can exceptionally reduce mistakes that spurt out of gut-feelings, misjudgments, and intuition.

Final words

Talent acquisition mistakes are costly. And hiring the wrong candidates can cost you even more. But by creating an easy application process, designing a modern career page, engaging candidates, using new job boards, soliciting feedback from candidates, and leveraging the right technology – you’ll get to craft a world-class talent acquisition process that leaves no room for mistakes.

Tired of making the same mistakes over and over again? Our award-winning hiring platform can help you find, attract, and hire the right people, every time. With innovative AI features and technology that are fully customizable – you can create a rich and immersive hiring experience for your team and candidates alike. EVA-REC opens doors to a more diverse talent pool and makes it far easier for you to hire the talent you’re looking for. Start your 14-day free trial today, and see it for yourself!

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