Converting Candidates into Hires: How to Increase Conversions by 40%

There is no denying that fundamental changes are occurring in the UK labour market. The pandemic has amplified pre-existing trends like automation and digitisation, hybrid and remote work, and the growing mismatch between employer needs and workforce skills. The most immediate impact is widespread talent shortages felt by organisations across the country.

A more proactive and nuanced talent strategy is required to improve retention and reap the benefits of an engaged, loyal, and skilled workforce. Hiring is an essential component of any business but can also be expensive. The costs of hiring new employees can mount quickly, especially if the process is not optimised. The candidate experience is an important factor that can affect hiring costs. A positive candidate journey can lead to higher conversion rates, whereas a negative candidate experience can lead to higher costs and lower-quality hires.

Win Hires and Influence Candidates

According to a recent McKinsey study, the current number of job openings outnumbers the number of new hires by nearly two to one. Change is needed to bridge this gap. Businesses can attract the talent they need using future-proof technology, such as targeted social media campaigns and conversion-optimised applications. Having candidates feel empowered and confident throughout the recruiting process is a significant competitive advantage. Creating a positive experience, even if the candidate is rejected, is a skill that can be mastered.

Certain factors, such as complicated job applications and counterintuitive career websites, deter candidates. Again, it's time to make the recruitment process as straightforward as possible. It could be as simple as tailoring questions to the candidate, saving time for both the organisation and the candidate. Furthermore, businesses should consider using a system that optimises conversions by reducing application clicks, developing interactive processes, and employing customisable chatbots to create frictionless applications.

Transforming Recruitment

Candidates have evolved. To reach the future workforce, wherever they are, a sophisticated job distribution engine with data-driven advertising tools and recruitment marketing campaigns is required. This enables organisations to gain access to new recruitment channels and diversify their talent pools. Channel diversification is required for brands to get their employment opportunities in front of multiple audiences. Companies must increase their candidate attraction efforts across all streams, including social media, job boards, and offline partners, in order to attract the best talent in a saturated market.

When it comes to finding a new job, social media has become an increasingly valuable tool for job seekers. And social media recruiting strategies have become an important way for businesses to find and connect with qualified candidates. Many people use social media daily and being present on these platforms gives businesses a better chance of reaching out to suitable applicants. Social media sites act as amplification for recruitment marketing strategies, increasing awareness of an employer's brand, company culture, and vacancies. Businesses can use social media to create more targeted recruitment campaigns based on where job seekers are looking for new opportunities.

Social media has a significant impact on the candidate experience in an increasingly digital world. By eliminating the middleman, there is no need for cumbersome job boards, allowing brands to control the user experience. Furthermore, it gives brands the ability to deliver media-rich, engaging content. Creating recruitment-specific pages on platforms like TikTok allows candidates to sit, scroll, and learn about an organisation at their leisure. Instead of requiring candidates to search for vacancies, providing relevant and appealing content engages the workforce and delivers available roles to them on their preferred social media platform.

A Positive Candidate Experience Does Not Happen by Accident. It Happens by Design.

Recruitment software is meant to help recruiters work more efficiently, attracting more applicants and hiring them faster while keeping costs down. And with 98% of Fortune 500 companies already making use of this technology, smaller organisations cannot afford to be left behind. This innovative technology can assist recruiters in reducing time to hire, time to fill, and cost per hire.

But how does a company know what tech is the right fit? Software must be intuitive and provide a positive experience to users in order to be effective. The same goes for talent attraction systems. The most important feature of any recruitment software solution is a great user experience (UX). Best-in-class UX leads to faster adoption of technology and provides greater value to recruiters.

At inploi, we integrate and improve existing systems to optimise conversions, provide positive candidate experiences, and save brands valuable time. This enables a customised candidate journey —using chatbot applications to create applicant-specific, dynamic paths based on job categories. As an overall candidate recruitment strategy, the hybrid recruitment model combines in-person hiring and virtual recruiting strategies. As a result, this approach enables employers to benefit from remote recruiting while still using in-person methods.

Solving the Candidate Conversion Problem

In November 2022, 13.3% of businesses reported a workforce shortage. Accommodation and food services had the highest percentage of businesses experiencing talent shortages, at 35.5%. Compass Group UK&I recognised the importance of their talent brand, with over 60,000 employees across the UK and Ireland and thousands of candidates passing through careers pages and HR infrastructure every day. But, with the labour crisis still ongoing, they sought professional assistance. After implementing a streamlined application process, they saw a 40% increase in visitor-to-applicant conversion across the board.

As a new front-end to their recruitment marketing, Compass deployed inploi's Convert solution, dramatically improving their candidate conversions. This was made possible by delivering updated careers and jobs pages utilising lightning-fast job search functionality, a map view of open roles, and a bespoke conversational chatbot User Interface (UI) for capturing initial candidate data. The page is always up to date with open requisitions and applicant data delivered directly into the backend, as it seamlessly integrates with their existing Tribepad ATS.

Utilising inploi Convert allowed Compass to dramatically improve its UX, removing significant friction and greatly increasing applicant conversion rates. Furthermore, this transformed the candidate experience, making it more personalised and interactive.

Improving Your Candidate Experience

Rethinking the candidate experience to make it fast, simple, and frictionless necessitates a new perspective. In today's competitive hiring environment, an employer's goal is to make its candidates feel empowered, understood, and valued. That necessitates completely upending the talent acquisition strategy status quo.

There are numerous methods for raising the calibre of candidates for any organisation. Businesses must; develop a strong employer brand, diversify their online candidate-sourcing channels, personalise the process for each candidate, understand their touchpoints, and follow up with candidates who do not respond while keeping costs in check. This can be greatly simplified with the right system and partners. The best way to reduce cost per hire is to use smarter recruitment technologies that deliver outstanding results at a lower cost.

Some of the world's largest corporations use inploi's technology to attract, engage, and convert the workforce of the future: increasing reach, improving conversions, and gaining comprehensive data insights without overhauling existing HR systems. Take the first step towards attracting top talent for your organisation. Enhance your employer brand, diversify your sourcing channels, personalise the candidate experience, and streamline your recruitment process.