As the world becomes more and more digital, data becomes more ingrained in everyday life including the job search. Nearly every company recruits with an online ATS and requires some form of an official job application.  Recruiters need to pay attention to job application abandonment rates, the rate at which an applicant leaves mid-entry in the application. There are a few reasons why your potential candidates may be dropping out before getting to the finish line:  your application isn’t mobile-friendly, your application is too long, or your application simply isn’t user friendly.

Mobile

One alarming stat for the recruiting world is about abandonment rates, studies show that as much as 40% of applicants are likely to abandon an application that is not mobile-friendly!  Ideally, you will want to develop a mobile application but at the very least make sure your career site is mobile optimized. Have you personally applied via your company’s application process; is it cumbersome or out of date? Applicants want to apply using their everyday technology and want it to be streamlined, quick and easy.

“Applicants dropping out results in actual loss of talent for a company. The average time job seekers expect when filling out an online application form is 40 minutes in 2014. One solution, that 36% of US companies are offering, is parsing information from LinkedIn a candidate-friendly alternative for filling out long forms.”  Offering an Apply via LinkedIn button is great, but it may not be enough, consider adding an “apply later” button or a non-resume based application for even more mobile ease.

Length

The length of your application is very important.  Whittle down the information collected to only the most critical or legally compliant and remove any questions that could be deemed invasive.  Try to keep your application to 30 questions or less so job applicants can get through it in a timely manner (don’t go over the expected 40 min. mark).

User Friendly  

Candidate experience is a buzz phrase in the world of recruiting and it all starts with your job application.  60% of candidates said they would abandon the application if they experienced tech hurdles, 55% would leave if they were unable to upload their resume via mobile, and you could lose up to 20% if your application isn’t mobile-friendly! If your application isn’t optimized, or it takes too many clicks or simply takes too long candidates, possibly great candidates, are going to abandon ship before you even have a chance to woo them.  Your application is like a first date, you only get one chance.  Go through your whole application process, time how long it takes you, take note if there are any glitches or unnecessary hurdles, and see how accessible it is from your phone.

It’s a candidate market if your job application isn’t easy to get through you could be losing quality talent before even meeting them.  Evaluate your own process and make sure it's mobile and user friendly.