Recruitment automation platform provider, LaunchPad Recruits, has announced the results of its candidate experience audit for the retail and hospitality sectors. Research carried out by ‘mystery candidates’, who applied to more than 100 major organisations, finds that companies are falling short in three major areas: time, technology and communication.

The audit of the online recruitment experience revealed that 30% of companies don’t respond to applicants at all. It took an average of 19 days for companies who did respond to reply to candidates about whether or not they had been successful, and 62% of companies have inconsistencies in their process, resulting in differing experiences for candidates.

LaunchPad Recruits CEO Will Hamilton said: “Candidate experience is incredibly influential. It can even determine whether a candidate will return to your business as a consumer. It also affects whether or not a candidate continues with their application or whether they’d consider reapplying in future. Hence, it’s vital to make the journey smooth, engaging and fast.”

“This is especially important in the retail and hospitality sectors where the impact of gaps in front line staff is felt immediately. In the long term, organisations may find they’re also losing customers who have had a poor experience as a candidate.”

LaunchPad’s research also found that the online assessment process takes an average of 13 minutes to complete and that 90% of organisations still ask for a CV in addition to making an online application.

“While there are some stars in our research that provide an outstanding experience, many fall short” says Hamilton. “The time it took for organisations to respond to candidates is a concern, as is the variation in candidate experience. It’s impossible for organisations to make fair decisions about candidates when there are so many inconsistencies in the process. This means organisations are potentially missing out on great employees.”

LaunchPad’s candidate experience audit was conducted to help organisations identify areas where they can improve their candidate experience and overall candidate journey. To find out more about the research, or benchmark your own organisation, click here.

Ends

For further information please contact:

Ania D’Agostino

Marketing Manager, LaunchPad Recruits

+44 (0)203 884 0213

ania@launchpadrecruits.com

Notes to editors

About the research

Mystery candidates applied to more than 100 major retail & hospitality organisations. They noted down their experience looking at what the process was, how long it took, and how they were communicated with by the company.

About LaunchPad

LaunchPad’s recruitment technology platform brings together the latest in video interviewing technology, best of breed assessments, automation, reviewer insights and predictive analytics to optimize your hiring process - allowing you to create a seamless candidate experience, improve the reliability of your hiring decisions and hire the best candidates, faster, all from one platform.

We’ve served 350+ clients and processed over 3 million interviews worldwide for some of the world’s leading brands. To find out more visit www.launchpadrecruits.com