Did You Know That Each Vacancy Costs a Company Approximately $500 a Day on Average?
Failure to fill positions quickly can have both short-term and long-term consequences. Most of the time, it leads to a lack of productivity and higher operational expenses. This is where the Human Resources (HR) department, and HR recruiters come into play.
The ability of HR personnel to recruit the right talent and retain them for the long term can boost an organization’s reputation.
The objective of HR recruiters has always been to find the right talent that fits perfectly into the hiring company’s culture. Also, they ensure the acquisition of talents that are currently unavailable in their workforce.
6 Biggest Challenges HR Recruiters Face Today
Hiring is a complex and dynamic process that necessitates coherence, organisation, and ongoing improvement, with a number of obstacles to overcome at each stage. Overcoming these challenges will improve a company’s competitive excellence and yield a positive return on investment.
But first, you need to identify these challenges. In this article, we will talk about the 6 biggest challenges that HR recruiters face today, and how you can tackle them. Let’s go.
Challenge 1: Not Writing Clear Job Descriptions
Most recruiting drives have the same story.
Finding the appropriate applicant among a field of unqualified candidates is a common challenge that all HR recruiters face. You might find a candidate to be the right fit for a designation for the time being, but that might not be the best option in the long term.
If your goal is to hire the greatest possible candidate for an open position, you should get your messaging right.
Remember, it’s not the number of applicants who come to see you in the job interview. It’s about a few highly-focused applicants with the exact qualities that you seek in the first place.
For example, if you are looking for a prolific content writer, in most circumstances you should not advertise “Men needed who could write”. If you use such a job description, about 2000 people will line up in front of your office entrance door the very next morning.
But the problem is most of them cannot write the type of content you are seeking.
Solution
Considering the above-mentioned example, your content writer job description must be specific. Write the exact prerequisites and provide a brief overview of the position’s responsibilities.
Maybe use an application form with ‘knock-out’ questions. Make them answer in “Yes” or “No”. It’s a quick approach to eliminating candidates who aren’t a good fit for the job.
You can only find the right individuals from a smaller pool of highly competent prospects.
Challenge 2: Finest Candidates Always Have Multiple Job Offers
It’s a given that highly skilled professionals in their domain have a massive demand. This is especially true in this era when education has become more accessible as compared to the last century.
As discussed in our previous point, a lot of people have the skills that you are hiring for. But only a handful of them can actually execute your projects.
As the finest applicants have a lot of employment options to choose from, they get picky with time. They will only choose a company that fits his calibre. If an organisation’s recruitment process is sloppy, it won’t be a good first impression.
Solution
The key here is to treat applicants very well right from the beginning of their relationship with your organisation.
It will be easier for you to stand out if you are friendly and open from the beginning. You must also act quick enough at the very moment you find potential talent. Double down your efforts if you find out that they are being chased by other employers.
From the outside, hiring a new employee might appear to be a simple process. Nevertheless, in reality, a lot of things go into it to keep the engine running efficiently. It’s not as simple as searching for an ideal applicant, locating one, making an offer, and waiting for them to sign their joining letters. It’s about having a solid grasp of human psychology and interpersonal relationships.
Challenge 3: Unable to Hire Quickly
Unfilled positions can delay your operations, costing you more money. In reality, however, recruitment drives can often take multiple months, depending on the position you’re hiring for.
Evidently, a shortage of qualified candidates would result in a lengthy hiring process. The more time you waste, the higher the chances of your finest prospects seeking employment elsewhere.
Solution
When you’re hiring for difficult-to-fill positions, it’s normal to take a long time to hire the right person.
Examine your hiring process and ask yourself if all of the stages of your current recruitment process are truly necessary. Here are the questions you should answer:
- Are you searching for candidates in appropriate places?
- Are you communicating with applicants quickly?
Explain this to your hiring teams and establish precise expectations from the start. Let them know what a reasonable deadline is.
Emphasise the necessity of hiring carefully, especially if a poor hire in the position could result in a large financial loss (departments like tax, accounts, warehouse maintenance, etc.).
Challenge 4: Determining the Accuracy of Your Hiring Tests
Okay, so you overcame the above-mentioned challenges.
Now you have the right type of communication ready, you have the right profiles of candidates available, and you are ready to start evaluating your prospects.
And here comes the next challenge.
Oftentimes, it gets difficult to assess the accuracy of your candidate testing procedures. You might say that interviewing is a difficult task. It’s too easy to be misled by your prejudices or premeditated thoughts.
All too often, HR recruiters get caught up in charming stories about candidates that have nothing to do with the position being hired for.
You may end up hiring the best interviewee because they were charming. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have hired an appropriate candidate.
Solution
Make use of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) metrics. Focus on creating a structured interview procedure that allows you to evaluate your prospects with accuracy.
Try framing structured interviews. Have a list of questions to ask your candidates and evaluate them based on specific criteria. Employing this process will boost your chances of acquiring high-quality personnel.
Challenge 5: Assessing the Abilities of Candidates
Let us tell you a story of a jungle school where a tiger, a peacock, a monkey, and a turtle. One day, a brown bear, the teacher, challenged its students to climb a tree. He announced that whoever wins the competition will be bestowed the responsibility of guarding a holy treasure at night.
Guess who won? The monkey, right? Yes. The monkey won but was he the right candidate to guard the holy treasure? We bet not.
Maybe the elephant or the tiger could be an ideal candidate. Did you find the flaw here?
That’s right! Unable to assess a candidate’s ability in the right manner. This is a common challenge for many HR recruitment departments.
The biggest issue of all time is figuring out how to know if someone can actually execute the job they are being hired for. Setting the right objective is what matters. It’s crucial that you put concentrated efforts into planning human resource objectives and actions.
Solution
Deploy an online skill evaluation tool to assess your candidate’s technical talents and soft skills.
Aim to evaluate their workplace behaviour, mindset, and fit. These tests can make it simple for recruiters to compare candidates objectively, reducing the possibility of prejudice in the hiring process.
It would allow you to make a rapid and confident decision about whether to advance to the next interview stage.
Challenge 6: Address Technical Queries From Candidates
We all face this challenge at some point in our lives. Not everyone is knowledgeable about everything in this universe and beyond. Naturally, an HR recruiter might not know the nuts and bolts of the operations of their company’s content marketing team.
At the same time, although there’s nothing to blame when you are unable to answer your interviewee’s technical questions about their responsibilities, it shows a credibility gap.
If they don’t get appropriate answers to their queries, candidates are bound to become confused and unsure about their job duties and expectations.
Solution
The solution to this challenge is simple. Bring in a professional during the recruitment round. They can immediately address all candidate queries, making the process smooth. Also, from a candidate’s perspective, the interview would be an insightful experience.
Following some of the fundamental interview tips will help make your recruitment process more effective.
Final Word
Here we addressed the six most common hiring challenges that HR professionals have to deal with.
In the process, we also offered key solutions to these problems so that you can design a superior and effective hiring strategy.
You need to gradually improve your interview process to ensure an accurate evaluation of prospects.
At the end of the day, as an HR recruiter, your aim should be to find A-players. Be competitive and make sure your prospects know what’s expected from them.
