A new survey from Glassdoor, one of the world's largest job and recruiting sites, reveals that a lack of information about a job's total compensation package, including pay and benefits, is among the biggest frustrations for U.S. workers and job seekers during the interview process. Half (50 percent) of U.S. workers/job seekers say that this would be among their biggest frustrations, with an equal proportion saying it is potential employers canceling or postponing interviews. Ranking third, 47 percent said that potential employers not responding in a timely manner are among their biggest grievances.

The online survey, conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Glassdoor in May 2018 among over 1,100 U.S. adults who are either currently employed or not employed but looking for work, also highlights specifically what would make people pull out of a recruitment process. Primarily, this would be caused by the employer announcing layoffs (44 percent), a poor first interaction with a recruiter or hiring manager (40 percent), reading negative reviews from employees (35 percent) and hearing about employee or leadership scandals (33 percent). Reading negative news coverage about the company would cause nearly two thirds (32 percent) of workers/job seekers to pull out of a recruitment process. 

"Recruiters have a challenging task of coordinating multiple interviews in addition to ensuring each candidate receives the necessary information to evaluate an opportunity. Job seekers clearly feel that understanding the total compensation package, including pay and benefits, is absolutely essential to fully evaluate a job opportunity," said Julie Coucoules, Glassdoor's Global Head of Talent Acquisition. "The good news is that this and the top frustrations that job seekers have with the recruitment process can all be improved by any employer of any size. Recruiters that want to create an informative and organized process can use this feedback to make their interview process more effective and positive."

What Job Candidates Want Most

When asked what would constitute a positive job application experience, nearly three in five (58 percent) U.S. workers and job seekers said that a company communicating with them clearly and regularly is what they want. More than half (53 percent) said they would want a company to set out clear expectations for them so that they could prepare well and 51 percent said getting feedback from the company, even if they were not successful, would be appreciated. A company explaining how many interviews candidates might need to go through and who those interviews might be with would make for a positive experience according to 45 percent of U.S. workers and job seekers, followed by 43 percent who would welcome a simple and efficient online job application process.

How Do Men and Women Differ?

Just as it's important for those in recruitment and HR to understand the frustrations of job seekers and what may cause them to pull out of the recruitment process, it is also essential to consider how different audiences are impacted by various factors. For instance, 57 percent of women indicate that not receiving enough information about the total compensation package is among their biggest frustrations during the job interview process, while only 44 percent of men report this as a frustration during their job search.

In addition, this survey data shows that among U.S. workers/job seekers, 43 percent of women would pull out of a recruitment process after reading a negative review from an employee, while only 28 percent of men say that this would cause them to remove themselves from the recruitment process.

How Long Should the Interview Process Take?

More than four in five (82 percent) U.S. workers and job seekers said that they would want the entire interview process to take less than a month and two in five (40 percent) said less than a week. In a 2017 study, Glassdoor's Chief Economist Andrew Chamberlain found that the average length of the interview process in the U.S. is 23.8 days. However, even the jobs with the fastest interview processes globally are a minimum of eight days or more.

"Time to hire is a key metric that many employers track and pay attention to, so recruiters and candidates really are on the same page when it comes to the outcome: they all want a quick and efficient match, resulting in informed, quality candidates on board as quickly as possible. Nobody likes to have their time wasted, which is why it is so important for employers to provide the necessary information up front to allow people to make good decisions about the jobs they are applying for," said Coucoules.