While the war for talent rages on, we see that Belgian candidates have an increasingly hard time applying for a job. Over the past four years, job site StepStone has asked more than 53,000 Belgian applicants about their job seeking experiences.
Among the chief results, we see that more than 76% did not receive a timely answer. On the other hand, those who got into the recruitment process, needed on average 16 applications to get one single interview. That’s why StepStone is now offering recruiters & HR-professionals an easy way to contact and update the applicant.
A hardly changing, difficult journey for the Belgian jobseeker
One of the main conclusions of the study is that only a painstakingly low number of applicants hear back from their potential employer. In the first 45 days after applying, only 24,1% got an answer.
This means that an astonishing 75,9% did not get a response on their application during the first crucial weeks.
Additional results showed that in 2018-2019 6,4% got an invite for a job interview, while for 2%, the application resulted in an offer & 1,4% accepted said offer.
Throughout the last four years (2016-2019), these results remained mostly very stable. There was however a slightly upward trends for the received interviews and job offers.
Less & less applications needed to get a job interview
Another noticeable trend is the slightly shorter journey for the candidate. While in 2016, an applicant needed 20 mails for 1 interview; today (and since 2018) we see that on average “only” 16 are required.
However, here as well, the number of interviews needed to get a job offer remained stable throughout 2016-2019.
How to encourage companies to give feedback
“At StepStone, we understand and support the importance of the candidate experience and facilitating the full application process. That’s why we encourage companies to give consistent & transparent feedback throughout the entire journey.”, says Marketing Manager Virginie Nazon.
“While our Company Hub already informed the candidate before he or she even starts applying, our new Application Managers ensures a hassle-free communication between recruiters and candidates. With this implementation, StepStone hopes to ensure that a recruiting company pays extra attention to the candidate’s experience and that recruiters put themselves in a candidate’s shoes.”
Methodology
StepStone conducted this survey from January 2015 until April 2019. Our analysists have screened the data to ensure both the representation and the validity of respondents’ answers are accurate.
In total, there were 53,770 filled in surveys submitted in Dutch, French and English.