How do I collect candidate drop-offs well?
The Importance of Capturing Rejections vs Drop-offs
Capturing the distinction between candidate rejections and candidate drop-offs may allow you to identify issues in your recruiting processes that could otherwise go unnoticed.
If your company is at an early stage of recruiting data maturity, making the distinction between rejections and drop-offs may not seem like a priority at the moment.
However, while your main focus may be on how many candidates are moving through the pipeline, the reason behind those that are not moving through the pipeline can offer your company valuable information. It isn’t accurate to assume that all candidates who didn’t move forward were unqualified. If a majority of those candidates were actually removing themselves from the process, that is a big issue that could go unnoticed if specific candidate attrition reasons are not being captured.
High rejection rates may suggest that you’re attracting unqualified candidates.
High drop-off rates may suggest bigger issues in your recruiting process:
- Your company is taking to long to move candidates to the next stage
- Your compensation is below market (offer declines are a form of Drop-off)
- You’re offering a poor candidate experience during interviews
The Difficulty of Capturing Rejections vs Drop-offs
The distinction between candidate rejections and drop-offs may not be captured in a recruiting process for many reasons.
Lack of Data Maturity.
This level of detail may not be a priority for companies that are just starting to collect recruiting data, so the infrastructure is not in place. Data collection may only focus on Hired vs Not Hired outcomes without capturing the various types of “Not Hired.”
WHAT TO DO: It’s better to build out your data infrastructure with these details in mind so when you get to a point where you want to measure these things, you already have historical data. It’s never too late to add them when you are ready to start collecting that data, as well.
Lack of Clear Data Collection Process.
Even if your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is set up to capture different candidate outcomes, some don't make it easy. You may not even know it's available! Searching ATS documentation or reaching out to a customer service rep can help you identify how your ATS can help you capture candidate attrition data. If your ATS allows for customization this may help your team capture candidate rejections and drop-offs in a way that works best for your goals. If you need suggestions, see The Best Way to Capture Rejections vs Drop-offs below!
WHAT TO DO: Set up your ATS to make it easy and straightforward for users to capture and differentiate between rejections and drop-offs in a way that is consistent (no open text fields!). If your ATS makes it inherently unclear, provide clear training on what is expected in order to capture this data.
Lack of Motivation.
Often recruiting and hiring success is tied to recruiters' performance. Having multiple candidates dropout of the recruiting process or decline offers can be a cause for alarm. Recruiters may want to avoid being chastised, or worse having their job or pay at risk, for these outcomes, so they can be tempted to tag them as Rejections, instead.
WHAT TO DO: Ensure that candidate drop-offs are not tied to recruiters' performance outcomes. Perhaps even offer an incentive for capturing the data correctly.
If you aren’t currently capturing this distinction yet, you are not alone. But it is never too late to start!
The Best Way to Capture Rejections vs Drop-offs
It's best to capture candidate attrition reasons on the candidate-requisition relationship since the outcome is unique to the candidate's application to the requisition.
Ideally candidate attrition reasons would be captured in their own field on the application level (ie. the requisition-candidate relationship), because the attrition reason is unique to the candidate’s application to this specific requisition. If the candidate applies to another requisition in the future to a different outcome, you want to avoid having to overwrite (and therefore losing) previous data.
Not all ATSs allow you to capture this information on the req-candidate level, so capturing it on the candidate level (on the candidate's profile) is better than nothing.
Another great option is to have specific recruiting stages that capture the end of the process.
Hired / Rejected / Candidate Withdrew
vs.
Hired / Not Hired
The more accurate and robust your candidate attrition data is, the better we can help you understand your recruiting outcomes with insights like the Dropoff Report and the Hiring Report!