Putting a theory out in the universe

Last year, it became clear to be that friction is a lever we can and should be pulling in the candidate experience. I explored the concept with silver medalists and customers alike. I’ve become increasingly convinced that we have known this for some time, it’s just that we have put all of the friction in the wrong spots (applications, I am looking at you). So, I put out a hypothesis that we need to apply friction to different points of the candidate experience if we are to hire better people, faster. As I was developing this theory, I would share it with my customers who thought it held water, too. Then, we had the perfect opportunity to test this theory earlier this year.

Where did we begin?

This brave, bold customer hires A LOT OF PEOPLE. They also had a unique opportunity to build an experience from scratch with no baggage. New systems meant a fresh start for them. So, we started out with a blank slate. We had a goal of hiring better people, faster. So, we built against that goal. As with any tests, I am a big believer in clean tests, which means that we start simple, then apply one change at a time. Measure that outcome and adjust. When you’ve adjusted to the right level, you apply the next test. So, we started with a bare-bones candidate experience in terms of friction. You go to the career site, you search, you apply (or you don’t). The application is less than 3 minutes. It DOES require a log in, which is loaded with friction, but we had to do it because… ATS.

What did we learn?

In the first month, we transacted A LOT. When someone landed on the career site, they clicked Apply 94% of the time. NINETY FOUR PERCENT. That is a LOT of buying intent. Of the people who landed on a job description, 55% completed the application, that is not too shabby either. I believe I read that the industry average for this metric is about 40%, so we were 37% above industry average, which felt good. I feel that we are losing a good chunk of these people based on the log in requirement. But I have no proof at this point and we are looking at InFlight to test this out, but we aren’t there yet.

The stunning stat though was that of every single person who showed up at the new career site, FIFTY TWO PERCENT finished an application. In this metric, I believe I have seen industry average is around 8%. So we are clear, 52 is WAY more than 8. 😊 So, we removed as many roadblocks to transaction as we could, and we saw a big increase in conversions and a big pipeline of candidates to select.

All of this is great, but does it achieve the goal of hiring better people faster? Well, since we are just beginning, we need a baseline. The customer is currently filling roles in 28.92 days, our new benchmark. It is important to note that this is significantly lower than the industry average. But it is where we are starting. We are also beginning to explore how we measure quality, which is a bit more of a long tail. With this we will look at who stays, how long, and their productivity, data we just don’t have our hands on, just yet.

What’s next?

It’s time to add a little friction in the education phase. With limited employer branding applied – on purpose – it’s time to add messaging, context, and the ability to allow people to screen themselves in and out of the process before they get into the ATS. The goal of the hypothesis is fewer sad people. Today, we know how many people were rejected last quarter, we expect to see that number go down with the application of friction in the education phase. We also expect to see the number of applicants decrease as well because we are telling people what it takes to be successful at this company. We will start applying different friction points throughout the year to get to our goal of hiring better people faster.

It’s been fascinating to watch this all play out. We have a happy customer with strong data and a fast start at achieving their goals. We are all proud of this work. If you’re interested in talking about this, how we did it, what the numbers mean, and how could it apply to you, click on the contact us link in the corner, we would love to talk about this. We will also keep updating the blog with new results to help show how this all works so you, too can apply friction as a lever in your experiences.