Hospitality firms make headway in landing top talent
The Access Group’s Recruitment and Resourcing Index has revealed a significant gap between candidate experiences when applying for new jobs across the major sectors – which could be preventing them from completing the process.
The index was compiled using different metrics – including user-experience of careers pages, the number of questions on an application form, and whether candidates can apply via LinkedIn or need to send a covering letter.
The higher the score, the better the candidate experience.
Hospitality businesses were the ninth most likely industry to land top talent due to offering the best candidate experiences during the recruitment process.
Food and beverage firms ranked seventh.
The findings come as the British Chambers of Commerce latest Quarterly Recruitment Outlook (QRO) found that 80% of UK businesses have reported difficulties in recruiting – down just 2% from the ‘highest level of recruitment difficulties on record’ last year.
Candidate experiences
Topping the index as the industry more likely to land top talent are retail and ecommerce businesses, offering candidates the best user experience when going through recruitment processes.
The Access Group, a business management software specialist, analysed 20 industries including manufacturing, legal, healthcare and logistics to find out which ones offer the best candidate experiences, and where there is room for improvement. The lower the index score, the worse the experience.
Julia Harvie-Liddel, head of recruitment at The Access Group said: “In today’s competitive jobs market, organisations cannot afford to risk losing candidates at the final stage because of poor experiences with their website and arduous application forms.
“The good news is that with a few improvements, employers could see a vast improvement in the number of people who complete their application form. Make sure your careers pages or microsite is performing well from a technical perspective."
Optimising recruitment
She continued: “Like customers, candidates will be put off by sites that are slow to load or don’t display properly on a mobile, so ask your digital team to check its Core Web Vitals (CWV).
“Just as important is updating your website with the latest roles and engaging content – everything from rewards and benefits to company life.”
She added that in-house recruitment software can also play a valuable role in achieving this.
She said: “This technology enables firms to create a professional branded website that attracts candidates, engages them at every stage of the journey – keeping them updated on the status of their application and completing checks as efficiently as possible.”
