How long candidates will wait to reject an offer

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Hongkongers are more patient than Singaporeans and Malaysians when it comes to the recruitment process, according to a survey by staffing firm Randstad, conducted with 2,000 candidates across the three countries.

Nine in ten candidates (89%) across Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia stated they will reject a job offer if the recruitment process took longer than four weeks. It also showed that almost half of the survey respondents (44%) would reject a job offer if the process took between four and eight weeks and a further 45% would reject if the process stretched more than eight weeks.

Of the three countries, job-seekers in Singapore were the least willing to wait out the recruitment process, with 91% stating they would reject a job offer if it took longer than four weeks. Malaysian job-seekers veered towards a shorter time frame, with 82% looking for the recruitment process to take between two and four weeks. Whereas, job-seekers in Hong Kong were slightly more relaxed with the duration of the recruitment process, with only 67% looking at a two too four-week time frame.

We now have computers, automation and robots that should help take the tedium out of sifting through CVs and make for a quick, smooth recruitment process yet the average hiring time has more than doubled - from 30 to 68 days - in the past few years and job-seekers are unhappy with the lengthy process.

From a job seeker's perspective, the ideal recruitment process duration should be less than six weeks, with 94% of candidates expecting the process to be within six weeks for optimised efficiency. The majority of the survey respondents (73%) expected the process to take between two and four weeks.

“Automation helps improve efficiency in many ways along the recruitment process for a value-added experience. However, we need to be both flexible and balanced in the way we engage with the candidates to meet their expectations for a more personal experience. When it comes to human resources, personalisation is the key to success,” according to Managing Director for Randstad Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, Michael Smith in a press release.

"It’s a clear message to hiring managers that more engagement efforts are required in the recruitment process. Automation processes should go hand in hand with the human touch to personalise and improve the efficiency of the hiring process as it is an important decision for job-seekers.”

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