Candidate dropout can derail even the most well-planned hiring strategies, leading to lost time, increased costs, and missed talent. That leaves your teams struggling to backfill responsibilities, hit their productivity goals and ultimately drive revenue.
Understanding why candidates disengage — whether it’s poor communication, lack of transparency, or delayed feedback — is essential for improving hiring outcomes. By identifying these pain points and implementing targeted fixes, employers can keep candidates engaged from application to offer.
In this post, we’ll explore practical strategies to prevent dropout and create a more candidate-friendly hiring experience.
1. Manage expectations internally
Most companies want to offer smooth, quick candidate experiences. But as more companies are realizing just how costly a bad hire can be, and as a result, hiring teams are getting bigger.
The more stakeholders involved in the process, the more likely it is you’ll have disagreements that ultimately, make you cancel interviews or change your process halfway through (for example: a director wants to hire a full-time employee, only to realize after two interviews that they only have budget for a contractor).
Avoid this by starting every new requisition with a standardized intake meeting. In this meeting, the recruiter, hiring manager, and any other stakeholders should get consensus on all the important aspects of the job — their role, seniority level, FTE or contractor status, qualifications, compensation, in-office and travel requirements, etc.
From there, plan out the structure and timeline of the hiring process, like how many interviews will take place before an offer is made, what kind of assessments will be involved, key decision criteria, and who’ll get final decision-making power.
2. Streamline the application process
If you’re struggling with candidate attrition, consider simplifying your hiring process with these best practices:
Make sure your applications aren’t too long. More than 70% of job seekers said they will not submit a job application if it takes longer than 15 minutes to complete.
But application questions do act as meaningful filters, particularly for mission-based companies or roles that require highly specific talent. In those cases, if you let applicants upload their resume without any additional questions, you’ll get so many applications that you can’t meaningfully evaluate them all – many of which could be bots.
Consider letting your numbers guide you here: Review the traffic on your job application pages and compare that to the number of applications submitted. If you see unexpected attrition, consider eliminating some questions.
Audit your hiring technology quarterly. Technical issues can also result in costly, preventable attrition. So also take this opportunity to make sure your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and all relevant integrations are working properly. Are applications being sent to the right systems and reviewers? Are your ATS filters working as intended? When someone schedules an interview via a calendar link, is it automatically added to both interviewee and interviewer’s schedule?
Consolidate interviews when possible. Companies are conducting more interviews for each position, likely because they’re more mindful of the cost of a bad hire and because more stakeholders are becoming involved in the process.
It’s an understandable impulse from employers. But conduct more than three interviews and you risk turning candidates away: Two-fifths of US candidates would prefer to complete 1-2 interview stages, while a further 40% say 2-4 interviews are the maximum they’re willing to complete.
Besides irritating candidates, drawn-out interview processes give your top candidates more time to consider and accept other offers. Survey your hiring managers to see if they’re consistently losing candidates midway through a hire — if so, look for opportunities to consolidate. You could consolidate two or three interviews into one panel, have a few stakeholders contribute questions to the same interviewer, or replace an interview with a more targeted project.
3. Minimize the risk of late attrition with a transparent, reliable and ethical background screening process
We tend to think of the candidate lifecycle from application to offer. But problems can also arise during the background screening process.
Delays happen, sometimes due to reasons outside either party’s control. False positives happen. And that can really spook candidates. Best practice is to keep interviewing with other companies until the new position’s start date, or until their background check with the new company clears. So, if the background check takes too long, your candidate may get impatient or worried and accept another offer instead.
Prevent unexpected attrition during the background check phase with these tips:
Keep your candidate in the loop by providing self-service options. Background check delays are easier for candidates to accept if they know what pieces are still outstanding — or when they can expect to receive a final decision. Use a background screening provider with an easy self-servicea portal so that allows candidates can to check their background check status at any time.
Also, if a past employer or educational institution isn’t responding to verification requests, let candidates verify through other methods — like providing a paystub, W2 or transcript proving their education/experience.
Choose a background screening provider with a track record of speed and accuracy. Errors in background checks can delay your hire, which can scare candidates off. This is where working with an expert can really pay off: Ask your background screening provider about their accuracy record, how they source their data, how they handle disputes, and what kind of support is available to you and your candidates.
The right background screening partner can help you reduce your turnaround times and onboard candidates more quickly — and they’ll have dedicated account managers to help you manage disputes, compliance issues, and other edge cases that might otherwise delay a hire.
Educate candidates about their rights and recourse. Your candidate may not be familiar with the background screening process, particularly if they’re new to the workforce. Here’s how to keep them reassured and engaged throughout the screening process.
Before conducting a background check, you’re required by law to give your candidates a disclosure and authorization form, as well as a copy of their rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). But it’s worth mentioning this, verbally or over email, to your candidates as well, because once they’re done completing their request form, chances are they’re not reading the fine print.
Collect the minimum amount of information necessary to make a final employment decision. Also tell candidates how you’ll keep their data safe throughout and after the background check.
Let them know what background screening provider you’ll be using, as well as a customer support contact or email address for them to submit questions. Make the process as smooth as possible for candidates by using background screening providers with a mobile-optimized interface, multi-lingual support as well as 24/7/363 customer service to assist them with issues.
4. Use performance metrics to find improvement opportunities
Embrace recruiting analytics to understand the nuances of your unique recruiting process (and how it varies across your company). Tracking metrics such as drop-off rate and offer acceptance rate across different departments, office locations, and recruiters can highlight specific pain points. With this data-driven approach, you can make informed, targeted changes quickly.
A candidate-centric background screening program gives your candidates a good first impression while keeping your company and team safe. Contact one of our experts today to learn more about your background screening options today.
