What Is Native Apply?
In tech slang, the word “native” describes an application or program that's written in a language specific to the platform on which it runs.
For instance, some apps are written specifically for Android phones, some are written to run on iOS, Windows, Linux ... you get the idea.
The big benefit of native apps is that they can directly use all the features of the device they are designed for like Pokemon Go tapping into a phone's GPS or a banking app using its built-in biometric authentication. This helps the app perform fast and reliably, and more importantly, it performs as the user expects it to, which translates to a positive user experience.
Social media also talks about things happening “natively” on the platform. So, if you post an article on Facebook, for example, you're not requiring the reader to leave Facebook in order to read and comment on the article. Since it’s easier for them to read it, they’re much more likely to read it, which translates to a positive user experience.
Then there's e-commerce. Here, “native” means you have the entire shopping experience from product discovery to purchase to checkout to shipping to post-purchase reviews happening natively on the same platform. The trailblazer in this space is Amazon, a platform that doesn't ask a shopper to jump off-site to complete a purchase, no matter who or where the vendor is. This creates an easy, seamless customer journey. Which—you guessed it—translates to a positive user experience.
What does this have to do with job applications?
Quite a lot as it turns out.
What's native about a job application?
In our last post, we talked about the context that recruiters are operating in and, specifically, the job application spectrum. To quickly recap, there's a broad spectrum of job application processes that range from Easy Applies (one-click applies directly from the job board) at one end to Full Applies (comprehensive applies from the ATS) at the other. Long story short:
Easy Apply generates lots of easy volume for recruiters but no data, so recruiters can't determine who meets the job requirements and who to call.
Full Apply generates all the qualifying information that recruiters need, but not enough actual applicants. Conversion rates are as low as 1% on an ATS, meaning 99 out of 100 job seekers do not submit a completed application (but you’re paying for those visits).
As you can see, neither approach is likely to bring success against your core recruiting metrics. But as we teased in our last article, there is a better way. It's called a Native Apply.
Like native apps, social, and shopping, Native Apply is the act of:
Letting candidates start and complete the entire application on the job board or job site without clicking off AND
Leveraging the power of tech to do the heavy lifting for you and deliver a full application straight into your ATS.
A marriage of candidate experience and recruiter experience
With Native Apply, all your custom screening questions, EEO questions, data privacy policies, etc, are integrated into the Easy Apply functionality that exists within a job board or job site like Indeed or a platform where job ads appear, like LinkedIn or Facebook.
Candidates love it because they can apply directly from the job board, job site, or platform they're on. They don't have to jump through hurdles like bouncing from site to site, creating new accounts, filling out a massive collection form, and other tasks that make up the hellscape of ATS-hosted job applications.
Custom screening questions are embedded in the native application, so it isn’t one-click. But it has the feel and simplicity—the positive user experience—of an Easy Apply. This slashes the staggering candidate dropoff rate you tend to get when you bring a candidate off the job board or job site to complete an application, increasing application completion rates by upwards of 2-5X. Plus, you’re meeting candidates exactly where they’re at, grabbing the eyeballs of both active job seekers and passive candidates who were simply drinking their morning coffee and browsing Facebook when your job caught their attention. So, your volume stays high.
The second part is the tech aspect. In the same way that vendors leverage the power of Amazon’s tech to get their products in front of customers and manage all the back-end data gathering they need to ship their products, Native Apply uses the job board or job site to gather all the information recruiters need then pushes it straight to where they need—into their ATS.
Recruiters don't have to wade through hundreds of emailed applications and manually shift the data. They don't have to waste time looking at applications that aren't a good match. Instead, every application drops a fully vetted candidate right in front of them, in their ATS.
You get all the wheat and none of the chaff, with no manual effort needed to locate or research these people.
That’s days and days of saved time. All recruiters have to do is set their custom questions and go.
Watch the metrics soar
Based on our experience, companies that leverage Native Apply with job boards or job sites like Indeed get 2-5X more quality applicants. Applicants - not leads, not interest, applicants. And they get them faster because the manual effort of capturing those applications drops to zero.
As an added bonus, Indeed and ZipRecruiter reward companies that use Native Apply functionality by bumping their quality score. They do this because they want applications to stay on their sites where they can control the job-seeker experience. Higher quality scores mean higher placement in organic job search results, so you basically get a free benefit from using these tools.
More candidates and better candidates are delivered faster through a great candidate apply experience that you simply set and forget–that’s what Native Apply is all about. Isn’t it time you gave it a try?
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