By Mark A. Leon

That is a bold statement to make coming from a former recruitment professional turned employment branding and marketing strategist. So how can job boards, who are bending over backwards to make the application step easier and easier actually destroying the candidate experience?

Simple, they are making it harder for recruitment professionals to find the “right fit” by burdening them with more administrative duty and reducing the available time to engage, network and build relationships with quality talent.

Many job boards, led by the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook and Indeed have implemented easy or one click application options. How incredible is that. I can click ten blue buttons on LinkedIn or Facebook in 60 seconds and become a formal applicant for 10 different jobs. That provides more time for Words with Friends and Netflix. That seems like a victory for the candidate.

Now I just have to wait for the offers to role in.

Wait, I have an email asking me to complete and application? But I already did by clicking that one button.

Why do I need to spend 30 minutes on an ATS application page when I already took 5 seconds to apply yesterday?

Look what has just happened!  Candidates are now being told, by dumbing down the process, they still have to apply and recruiters have to sift through more resumes than ever increasing the unproductive time and reducing the time spent engaging and building relationships with the strong candidates.

Case Study:

I posted a role for a client last week on Facebook Jobs. This role had 101 Facebook Job submits.  I reached out to each one personally, asking them to complete a formal application and provided the direct link. A total of 12 followed up and took that next step. I had to send 101 emails to get 12 leads, because Facebook allows a single click to express interest, leading many to believe that is enough to formally apply.

What have the job boards done?

• Enhanced the generational perception that each newer generation is lazier than the last
• Created a blind sense of ease in the job seeking process
• Boggled down recruitment professions with endless administrative tasks
• Confused candidates who now have additional steps to take to get through a job seeking process
• Given a platform for candidates to post and pray, eliminating the need for targeted research and career thought and planning

All for what?

• Data
• Volume
• Justification of ad revenue
• A false sense of community partnership to help people find jobs

Quite simply, job boards, by simplifying the candidate experience on the front end are destroying the recruitment process and causing more confusion and distrust between candidate and recruiter.