The Job Application Abandonment problem:

Traditional hiring processes are notoriously slow and long-winded, that’s a fact, according to LinkedIn, it takes companies 41 days to hire, on average. With fewer skilled candidates and greater competition than ever before, organizations are feeling the full weight of open job vacancies and understaffed teams.
The harsh reality? While you may have little influence over market factors that slow down your ability to hire at speed, there are plenty of factors you can alter to hire more efficiently without jeopardizing quality. According to Builtin.com, optimizing your job recruitment process can shorten your hiring cycle by 60% while improving quality. According to Glassdoor, job postings will receive, on average, 250 resumes — of which 4-6 candidates will go forward to the interview phase. According to SHRM, only 8.6% of candidates who browse career sites apply for open roles.

How big a problem is Application Abandonment?

Really big. The problem of job candidates abandoning online applications continues to plague the recruiting industry. According to CareerBuilder, 60% of job seekers quit in the middle of filling out online job applications because of their length or complexity. A study by Appcast shows that about 95% of candidates who click on a job ad don’t follow through to complete the application. To add injury to insult, if the employer is using a programmatic tool to manage their ad spend, each of those clicks costs money. At 71 cents per click, the cost of a single click is negligible — but if 95% of clicks go nowhere, then the costs add up.
The reasons for application abandonment is very obvious. When applicants click on an ad on a job board, instead of seamlessly being shifted into an application process, they are often ported over to a completely different system, often an ATS where people are expected to create an account and re-enter information they have previously entered at the jobs site, unfortunately, if they want to include the necessary pre-screening questions and leverage automation, then they need to do so in addition, the hard truth is: a typical ATS doesn't usually serve either the candidate or the company very well. The average ATS has an application abandonment rate of 90%.
According to a study from recruitment company Appcast, recruiters can boost conversion rates (candidates viewing a job ad who go on to complete an application) by up to 365% by reducing the length of the application process to five minutes or less.
Asking candidates to re-enter work histories into fields in an applicant tracking system (ATS) is another cause of abandonment. Even when an ATS scrapes information from a resume and automatically fills it into form fields, the amount of reformatting and editing candidates often have do is time-consuming, According to an informal Twitter survey conducted by CareerBuilder, more than 75% of respondents preferred a one-click application over a lengthy one.
The application abandonment problem is caused by a lack of integration between two technologies: the job board and the ATS. However, that’s just the tip of the integration iceberg. As thought leader Gerry Crispin says, “The large companies I work with have an average of 28 talent acquisition technologies. It isn’t any wonder that integration and overlap, efficiency, and productivity tend to be the major concerns rather than results.” Talent acquisition departments need tech-savvy personnel to be familiar with what integration tools can do.

Disadvantages of Job Application Abandonment and slow hiring:

1. You’re potentially throwing money down the drain.
The average cost per hire alone has risen to $4,000 per employee. Yet, this price doesn’t factor in the cost of leaving positions unfilled for a significant amount of time. And often, that price can be hard to quantify. For cost-per-click pricing models, recruiters pay per click, regardless of what the candidate does next. So when completion rates are low because of cumbersome application forms, sourcing costs are commensurately high, the study found. The Appcast study found that recruiters who use special platforms for recruiting cut their cost-per-applicant by up to 250% by reducing the time it takes to complete an application form from 15 minutes to 5.

2. You’ll let great candidates slip away.
In 2015, a staggering 47% of declined job offers were the result of candidates accepting other jobs, according to MRINetwork. The reality is: you’re likely not the only role your candidates are applying for. If you expect your candidates to go through long-winded recruitment processes e.g.: Application forms, you’re more likely to lose them to competitors that offer a more streamlined experience. Unless you’re a well-known brand like Google or Apple, you can’t afford a clunky or time-consuming hiring process. In fact, according to an SHRM study, 60% of applicants quit halfway through an online job application process if it’s too long or complex.

3. It can impact your employer brand.
A bad candidate experience caused by a slow hiring process can negatively affect your brand reputation. Unfortunately, in the age of social media and transparent platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed, a negative candidate experience can reach a broad audience.
More often than not, your hiring process accurately reflects how your company functions and operates. As such, candidates are likely to think twice about recommending your company, reapplying for future roles, or continuing with an existing application if the recruitment process is slow and progress updates are lacking. According to FinancesOnline, the candidate experience plays a significant role in an applicant deciding if the company is the right fit for them. The issue with a poor candidate experience? Applicants are more likely to broadcast it. According to a CareerArc survey, almost 60% of candidates surveyed said they had a poor candidate experience, with 72% sharing their experience on an online platform or to a direct contact.

4. Your existing team will likely feel the full weight.
When a role remains unfilled, the workload doesn’t just magically disappear. Instead, it’s shared amongst the existing team until the position is filled. Or in cases where the workload cannot be shared, unfilled positions will stall projects, impacting team productivity and job satisfaction.
The unfortunate reality? The impact of leaving a position unfilled for an extended period can result in various internal problems, including:Staff turnover.

How Ipplication is designed to plug the gaps and shorten your recruitment process?

1. Mobile Apply and Job Descriptions.
According to the strategic consultancy Kelton, 86% of active candidates use their smartphones to begin a job search. With an increasing number of job seekers applying via mobile devices, recruiters also need to ensure that platforms are mobile-friendly. Application length is exaggerated on phones or tablets, especially if responsive design isn't used to make forms render effectively on small screens. Some mobile devices also can't store resumes. Ipplication has a very convenient and responsive mobile application form where candidates can save and update their central application on the go.

2. We keep it Simple.
In the US, applications often ask for information that candidates don’t want to give you right away. In light of recent data breaches, it’s understandable that candidates are reluctant to disclose their social security number, date of birth, and other personal, confidential information. This is a leading cause of application abandonment in addition most online recruiting platforms require you to make your private information available in the public domain e.g.: profit margins and growth rates etc., this might make candidates upload limited information to their profiles which limits their chances of securing a job. With Ipplication we store your resume in our secure cloud and it is only accessible or visible to you thus giving you the leverage to add all important information online and sending it to relevant recruiters at your discretion.

3. Streamlining Applications.
What can recruiters do to increase the odds of applications being completed via mobile devices or on desktops? Experts say the first steps are to remove "nice to have" questions that aren't required upon first contact with candidates and to limit the number of screens people have to navigate. The idea is to balance what's convenient for recruiters with what's user-friendly for applicants.
You can take plenty of small steps to help shorten your recruitment process (including those above). Still, we believe there’s only one all-in-one solution that’ll help streamline the entire process without compromising quality — irrespective of your team size, how large your candidate pool is, or how many people you’re hoping to recruit.
Ipplication is designed to streamline this process and ask only pertinent questions in view to capture relevant information from the candidate and ensure the process is not frustrating or time consuming.
Implementing a job simulation platform like TrackPlug - Ipplication is an effective way to hire great-quality candidates with efficiency and accuracy. Not only does it predict candidate suitability easily, but it will also give candidates a realistic job preview — giving parties added confidence in the hiring process.

So how does Ipplication work in a nutshell?

Simply, the recruiter maps our application object by creating or adding to their application forms on their website. The Job seeker fills our central job application on the Trackimize website, this generates an Ipplication Form ID which when added to any online application (with our application object integrated) fills that online application within seconds thus cutting down the application process time, reducing application abandonment and increasing the number of applications a job seeker can submit per time.