An abandoned shopping cart is THE WORST for online retailers.  So close to making a sale, but the customer just didn’t bite.

Maybe the shopper couldn’t find the shipping costs, and decided to skip it. Maybe an item was out of stock when they went to checkout, so they left the site feeling disappointed. Perhaps they had a question, but it was too difficult to contact someone for an answer.

Getting candidates to apply to your jobs online is exactly the same. They’re shopping for an opportunity, and you want them to apply to yours. But what if the perfect candidate searched for jobs on your site, found an opening that piqued their interest, clicked to apply, and then….dropped off?

Turn strong candidates into applicants, and avoid application abandonment.

Save Every Shopping Cart. Give Candidates a Profile.
Make it easy for candidates to come back to your site and immediately know their place in the recruitment process. Do they have interviews coming up? Are there assessments they can complete online? Is it easy for them to update employment history or skills set? Who is their recruiter, and how do they contact them? Giving candidates an area to keep tabs on their job search keeps them coming back for more.

Display Product Availability. Keep Your Jobs Fresh.
How long has the job been open? In the new economy, the mindset among candidates is that there are a lot of qualified workers available, and jobs go fast. If a job has been open for three months, a candidate may assume that it has been filled by now, or in the later stages of the hiring process, and skip the time investment in filling out an application. So if a job has been hanging out there for a while, re-post it to attract new applicants.

Provide Shipping Costs Upfront. Give Salary Information.
A little transparency can go a long way. Most candidates are capable of self-screening based on salary. Providing the salary range upfront gives applicants a sense if a job is the right fit, and can motivate a passive candidate to take the time to applying, knowing the job fits their requirements.

Make it Easy / Eliminate Lengthy Applications.
It may be convenient to have every single stat on every candidate, but to a passive candidate who isn’t really looking in the first place, a lengthy application process can be an immediate turn-off. Get the basics, but avoid asking for the nitty-gritty, like the name, address, and phone number for their manager from three jobs ago. Save it for round two.

Eliminate Registration. Let Them Apply with LinkedIn.
While a LinkedIn profile may not be as fleshed out as a resume, it still captures basic information about a candidate, and gives you a starting point for building a relationship with them. Widen your applicant pool when you skip the username and password, and let them apply with just a click or two.

Build Trust.
You probably aren’t posting jobs on Craigslist to get top-tier candidates. So don’t operate like some shady Craigslist poster. Return inquiries. Avoid cryptic job descriptions. Make contacting a real person easy.

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this post originally appeared at www.sendouts.com

inspired by this post.

image from here.