Mitigating candidate drop-off

Overview

In today’s candidate market, hiring teams are struggling with the disinterest candidates have in taking an assessment during the recruitment and hiring process. There are various reasons for this disinterest, including those driven by candidates, customers, or HackerRank, and we’ve tried to address most of them in this document.

Here are some best practices to mitigate the candidate drop-off at various stages of the hiring funnel.

Best practices to mitigate test invite drop-off
(Entry and Junior levels)

• Ensure recruiters build out a detailed and exciting candidate invite email template talking about company culture, team, interview process, and next steps.
• Ensure recruiters set clear test instructions about the role and skills going to be assessed, along with the next steps in the interview process.
• Ensure candidates take the sample test to familiarize themselves with the HackerRank platform and build confidence to take the assessment. 
• Share the Community Interview Prep Kit page (for additional warm-up challenges) in the email invite/test instructions.
• Set up automated Reminder emails through the platform. Another recommendation is to manually send out a re-invite through the platform for the ones who are yet to take the test even after the first reminder. This re-invite will trigger the second reminder email if the reminder setting is still on.
• Recommendation is to send one reminder in 2 to 3 days depending on the expiry dates of the invites.
• Avoid over-building assessments. 
• Showcase the culture in the organization at every communication stage.
  • Branding, logos, etc. 
  • Include videos in emails 
  • Test instructions 
  • Provide links to the Candidate Support Page to enable candidates to prepare for, take part in, or follow up on an assessment or interview, along with answers to FAQs.
  • what it's like to work at the company or testimony from an employee talking about the culture and why it’s a great place to work, etc. 
  • Information around onboarding and employee development opportunities is a nice touch.
• Include a FAQ with answers and guidelines to questions that the candidate could have before, during, or after the test (who to reach out to about accommodation, when the candidate will hear back with a response, etc.)

Best practices to mitigate test invite and interview drop-off
(Mid and Senior Levels)

• Recommendation is for a recruiter to call and talk to the candidate (active or passive candidate) first and sell the company and opportunity to them.
• Outline the interview process along with familiarizing the candidate with the tools they will utilize during the interview process. Provide timelines for closing the open position and bringing them onboard.
• Consider conducting paired programming Interviews as the first round of evaluation for niche roles where dropout is high and hiring numbers are low. This motivates candidates as they get the opportunity to connect early with a Hiring Manager.
• Position the test as a Project Round/Project assignment and let the candidate know that it will be assessed and further discussed in the technical interview round.
• You can also position the test as projects similar to what they’ll be working on at your company, so it’s a good opportunity for them to determine if this role will be a mutual fit. 
• If your organization isn't disqualifying candidates based on their scores (which is sometimes the case for senior candidates), have the recruiter highlight this in their messaging/positioning. For example, the messaging could include: "Please note that your performance on this assessment isn't dictated by your percentage score, but rather by your overall thought process (how you approach the question, ability to problem solve, etc.)"
• Allow the candidates time during the weekend so they get some time to work on the take-home test.
• During the recruiter call, the candidate should be informed of the format of the test (e.g. Project question, Coding) so they are aware of what to expect.
• Advisable to use framework-specific project questions and code review questions that will have better engagement from the candidate side.
• Keep to the timeline and have lines of communication open.
• Include a FAQ with answers and guidelines to questions that the candidate could have before, during, or after the test.
• If drop-off continues to be an issue, consider disabling any photo/webcam proctoring, if in use.

Best practices to follow to mitigate test drop-off and abandonment of tests?

Before the test goes live: 

• Provide links to the Candidate Support Page to enable candidates to prepare for, take part in, or follow up on an assessment or interview, along with answers to FAQs.
• Ensure test benchmarking is done internally to finalize an appropriate test to test the right skills with hiring managers/tech council.

After the test goes live: 

• Set up recurring test optimization checks with recruiter and hiring manager - check on test relevance, test difficulty levels, candidate feedback after test, performance funnel, and update test accordingly.
• Consider global abandonment rates - 6 to 9% for different roles
  Test abandonment rate - If a candidate submits a test within 10% of the supposed test duration time, then we consider those attempts as abandoned. For eg: if the test is for 90 minutes and the candidate submits the test under 9 minutes then his attempt would be counted as an abandoned test. Test abandonment rate is included in the test attempt rate.

Steps to ensure a great post-test experience for a candidates

• Customize Confirmation email (post-test email going out to the candidate).
• Include as much information on the next steps as possible, positive or negative. Set the candidate's expectations on timelines. 
• Track candidate feedback on a weekly/biweekly basis and reach out to candidates to understand their concerns.
• Share any media on what it is like to work at your company from Youtube, careers page, etc. in the confirmation email
• Offer resources (like a link to your tech blog). This can encourage candidates to stay engaged with your organization and re-apply once their skills have been refined. 
• For mid-to-senior (low volume roles), personal phone calls to thank them for their time.

Best practices for improving the interview turn-out?

• If the candidate is going straight to an interview, e.g. niche role - the recruiter should call the candidate and book the interview on the phone versus using an automated tool.