Abandonment rate
What is abandonment rate?
The percentage of candidates who start working on an application or interview but then quit without fully completing it. This could happen in different stages, such as during the submission of the application or even during the interview. A high abandonment rate denotes issues with the recruitment process, including its length and complexity, and alerts the employer to fix the process in a timely manner for improved retention.
Abandonment rate = Number of abandoned applications / Total number of applications started
Why is measuring the abandonment rate important?
In recruitment, abandonment is a crucial metric that provides actionable insights into the application process and candidate experience. A higher abandonment rate could mean your application process is excessively complex, outdated, or repetitive. It suggests that your application process is not consistent with the expectations of your candidates and needs to be simplified and made more intuitive. Additionally, a high abandonment rate could highlight the need to improve your career site in a way that aligns with your organization's mission and culture more effectively. It could also mean that there's a misalignment between the skills required for your job role and the skills of candidates whom you attract.
How do we calculate the abandonment rate?
The abandonment rate is usually calculated by dividing the number of job applicants who did not complete the application process by the total number of applicants who started the application. This result is then multiplied by 100 to arrive at the abandonment rate percentage. For instance, if 30 out of 100 candidates fail to complete your job application, then the abandonment rate would be 30%.
Here's the calculation:
Abandonment rate = (Number of abandoned applications/Total number of applications started)x100
Here:
Total number of candidates who started the application = 100
Total number of candidates who abandoned the application = 30
Abandonment Rate = (30/100)×100 = 30%
What are the factors that contribute to the abandonment rate?
Here are some of the common factors contributing to abandonment rates.
Lengthy application process:
Long application forms could easily overwhelm or frustrate applicants, pushing them to drop out.
Lack of clarity in job description:
Unclear expectations and role overviews can make it difficult for candidates to understand if they are a good fit for the role.
Repetitive questions:
Asking candidates to fill in the same information that they've already provided in their resumes can negatively hinder their experience.
Poor user experience:
Difficult navigation, lack of mobile optimization, slow loading time, broken links, too much text, and similar issues could hinder their experience while applying.
How does the abandonment rate impact an organization?
Many applicants get turned off by a tedious application process, which leads to a higher abandonment rate and fewer qualified candidates. This makes it more challenging for HR teams to hire the right people for key roles. Additionally, a lengthy hiring process can delay filling important positions and harm your employer branding efforts, negatively impacting your organization’s reputation in the job market.
How can we reduce the abandonment rate?
Here are some practical tips that can help your organization reduce its abandonment rate and access skilled candidates.
Keep the application process simple
As much as you may be tempted to know everything about your candidates to screen them better, limit the number of fields in the application to what is necessary. You can collect the rest of the required information at a later point in the interview process. Have the fields in a logical order and be sure to break them into different sections to make it easy for your candidates. Avoid collecting information that may already be available in their resume.
Offer clear instructions
For each field, offer clear descriptions of the information you're looking for. In case the applicant is filling out the wrong information, be sure to display clear error messages that explain what went wrong and offer examples to explain what exactly you're looking to collect from them.
Provide a fantastic user experience
Design your career website in a way that offers a top-notch user experience to the applicants. Keep the form layout neat, clean, and easily accessible from all devices, including laptops, mobile, tablets, and the like. If possible, allow applicants to save the information that they've filled out and come back later to complete the form.
Draft clear job descriptions
Have a clear discussion with the hiring manager to understand the roles and responsibilities associated with the job opening. In your job description, explain every activity involved as part of their role and the skills required to complete them. This way, you'll attract qualified candidates.
Keep improving
Keep testing your application process from time to time to identify any bugs or issues early and rectify them. Receive feedback from your candidates to understand what can be improved and simplified for them. You can also use tech tools to identify where candidates drop out during the application process and fix it.