When was the last time you calculated a candidate’s potential commute? Or asked what their ideal time would be? For the majority of recruiters, time is ignored in favour of distance. But what does a mile mean anyway? It could be one hour in gridlock traffic or 5 minutes on a motorway.  It’s dependent on the congestion of the area, mode of transport, time of travel, geographic landscape and infrastructure networks.

Time’s a much more relevant measure when they’re travelling to and from the job. Ignoring time is pleading ignorant to what the workers are really thinking about. Here’s some of the scariest bits: 

• 1 in 5 employees consider leaving their job because their commute’s too long
• A short commute leads employees to stay in their jobs 20% longer
• Commute times in the UK have increased by 50% in almost 5 years
• Research suggests that longer commutes mean lower productivity and effort as well as increases in leaving early 
• The risk of burnout and cynicism increases after commuting 20 minutes

What does this mean for recruiters?

With the odds stacked against roles with long commutes, it’s no wonder that research suggests that companies with a culture of commute unhappiness receive fewer applicants. It’s also a big reason why many job offers are rejected. 

How can you overcome this? Simple- making note of when candidates need to travel, their mode of transport and maximum commute time could improve applications and job offer acceptances.

If you don’t have time to do it manually or would like to speed up the process iGeolise’s software can help. It plugs into consumer-facing sites and backend business applications so that recruiters can search for potential candidates by minutes rather than miles.

www.igeolise.com