Top Reasons Why Candidates Won't Apply For Particular Job Vacancies
CareerWallet has just published research which identifies what reasons most put off potential candidates from applying for particular job vacancies with potential employers
The main reason why potential candidates are deterred from applying for some job vacancies are poor reviews relating to the employer. This was cited by 46% of the respondents to the survey.
In terms of how employers should deal with bad reviews, the managing director of Mad-HR, Carole Burman, recommends the following: "Respond in a timely manner once you’ve had a chance to analyse and research the complaint. You should address the issue or concern in a direct manner, posting a public reply to the online review. No matter how upsetting it was to read the negative review, remain professional and don’t get defensive in your response."
Burman adds: "Resist the temptation to get into an online war with the person posting the negative review. Instead, try to stay impartial and make any corrections needed to avoid having similar things said about your company by current employees."
Others reasons cited by respondents to the CareerWallet survey as to why they would be deterred from applying for certain job vacancies, were poor holiday entitlement (44%), poor fringe benefits (42%), bad sector reputation (32%), lack of hybrid working opportunities (21%), a lack of a sustainability policy (19%), and the fact that the sector is in decline (18%)
Commenting upon the findings of the survey, the CEO of CareerWallet, Craig Bines, stated: "At CareerWallet we process millions of jobs a day and this allows us to quickly see how the job market is being impacted on a daily basis. Many businesses may need to consider changing outdated company policies around annual leave and hybrid working, making sure they remain competitive and can attract the very best talent."
Number of Job Vacancies Continuing To Decline
As we highlighted in a recent article, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) / KPMG found in their August 2023 UK Report on Jobs survey that the numbers being recruited into permanent and temporary roles was falling at the fastest rate in over 3 years.
Now the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found in its latest survey that the number of job vacancies in the UK economy fell by 64,000 to 989,000 between the March to May 2023 and June to August 2023 quarters. Moreover, the number of job vacancies is down 329,000 from their record peak of 1,318,000 during the December 2021 to February 2022 quarter.
As we highlighted in a article back in mid-2022 during a period of record job vacancies, in which their were severe labour shortages, there were more job vacancies than the number of people available to fill them (i.e. the unemployed). That, however, is no longer the case, with the number unemployed (1,464,000) exceeding the number of job vacancies by 475,000.
Commenting upon the findings, the ONS report states: "June to August 2023 continued the sequence of quarterly falls that began in May to July 2022...The industry sector showing the largest fall in vacancy numbers was professional, scientific and technical activities, down by 13,000. When comparing June to August 2023 with the same time last year, total vacancies fell by 268,000 (21.3%) with falls in 16 of the 18 industry sectors. The industry with the largest fall was accommodation and food service activities, where the number of vacancies fell by 48,000."
The co-founder at Adzuna, Andrew Hunter, added: "The UK jobs market..entered its summer slowdown period with vacancies down, advertised salaries down and the time to fill roles increasing. Whilst it's natural to see vacancies fall during the summer months, as companies traditionally slow hiring, the early figures for July's jobs data will demonstrate to UK policymakers that inflation truly should be on a downward trajectory."
