Job application forms. Why so inflexible?

Come on people responsible for recruiting, wake up and smell the job application stink. It’s the twenty-first century and we’re still seeing job application forms that refuse to invite flexible working requests. Incredibly, many recruiters are still using job boards and rigid forms as their first port of call when screening for new job applicants.

It leaves the option to ask for flexibility so far down the list of criteria that anyone who needs flexibility either walks away at the first glimpse, or has to have that ‘awkward’ conversation far too far into the process of job search.

Why no flexible working requests allowed? 

We want to know why the job application form is so unkind to flexible workers when they have excellent advantages to offer businesses. Emma Cleary, Director at Ten2Two Sussex says, ‘I am tired of meeting Members who say they have filled in endless forms and get nothing back, to the point where they have given up because there is no option for flexibility on these forms. It’s demoralising, non-inclusive and frankly, discriminatory!”

Even if there was a line in all on line applications asking what flexibility is required, at least the issue would be out there. But Emma adds, “I suspect that candidates might still be afraid to describe their flexible requirements. It is such a worry that companies don’t even think about it!”

You wouldn’t think the law was moving towards supporting flexible working. Employees have a right to request it, but there’s still more to be done before employers will have to offer it at the outset. But the tide is changing and that time is coming.

Flexible working – an essential when recruiting professionals

As champions of flexible working we want all employers to embrace the benefits of flexible professionals as a matter of course. Once they do that, they can increase productivity, reduce absenteeism, increase loyalty and unlock key skills they might have thought they couldn’t otherwise afford. Sounds like a no brainer? You’d think so.

Yet one of the main barriers for flexible workers continues to be the refusal by the working world to view flexibility as a must-have essential part of the working world. It’s still viewed in some areas viewed as a company benefit and not a right. So far, so non-progressive.

Not here, of course. We’re a flexible and part-time recruitment company working with professionals who require flexibility in their lives. But if you’re responsible for staging the recruitment process, please bear this in mind when inviting applicants to apply to your business. If you shut flexible working down at the outset with a rigid job application form, you’re shutting down access to excellent professional expertise and talent.

Contact us today to see how we can help your flexible working job design. Show the world you’re a progressive employer and watch great talent come walking through your doors. We promise you won’t look back.