Survey: 40% of US candidates want more automation during recruitment

Are you struggling to attract and hire talent? Do you keep losing candidates throughout the recruitment process? If this sounds familiar, Cronofy’s latest study may be of huge help to you and your HR colleagues fill positions.

Cronofy polled 6500 candidates across the US, UK, Germany, and France and found that 60-70% of senior candidates left the process due to delays.

In fact, 54% of senior candidates in the UK said they were frustrated by scheduling delays. The figure decreased to 34% across all senior candidates.

The data also showed that the quality of the recruitment process directly affected perception and future engagement or recommendations of employers.

Some 77% of senior candidates said it affected perception — with 84% of senior candidates saying the same in the UK.

According to the findings, 64% of senior candidates said they would be less likely to engage with or recommend an employer in the future.

Recruitment Frustrations per country

40% of senior candidates in the US said they wanted to see more automation in scheduling.

Some 62% of those surveyed said they had left a recruitment process because of scheduling delays — and 64% admitted they would be less likely to engage in the future.

Germany’s data showed that candidates were more patient than the UK or US, but had similar high expectations about timings and delays.

Maddy Cross, a partner at Erevena, an executive, board and strategic search firm for investor-backed companies, emphasized the need for change, particularly in the hybrid working world.

“We see this even more in the current global situation. Previously, when people had to factor their physical location into scheduling, candidates might have been more forgiving of lack of clarity around interview timings. With things being entirely remote for the majority of companies now, any breakdown in the flow of the interview process can be less forgivable.”

Candidates in France turned to be the most patient, but also rated human touch more highly.

David Smith, the former director of HR at ASDA, and a people engagement and business performance expert, touched on how technology could complement the human touch.

“The human touch is what happens when the appointment has been booked,” he said, adding “I don’t think people expect you to have a phone call with them to book an appointment. That’s a waste of time. I think streamlining a process and then being really human and friendly at the end when they get to the real interaction is what it should look like.”

Gender considerations

Overall, the data showed that women were more patient but expected better communication and responsiveness.

On the other hand, men put speed first (27% vs 10%) and cited scheduling delays as the greatest frustration (31% vs 12%).

Hung Lee, curator of Recruiting Brainfood, an HR, talent, and recruitment community, commented on the findings.

“Particularly interesting was the high rate of women that drop out because of scheduling issues. As a group, they probably feel this mostly because of the additional domestic responsibilities that they may still take on. But even if women will feel it most, it affects everyone. The movement to remote working has revealed a lot of iniquities that people have always had to deal with,” Lee said.