8 Common Recruiting Challenges and How to Handle Them

Monday, March 15th, 2021

Growing Companies face multiple challenges as they strive to grow. These challenges might vary depending on a firm’s size, but for most, recruiting challenges are similar. Below are 8 common recruiting challenges enterprises face, supported by relevant statistics and practical tips for solving them.

1. Lack of Qualified Candidates
2. Hiring Fast
3. Targeting Passive Candidates
4. Building a Strong Employer Brand
5. Providing a Memorable Candidate Experience
6. Talent Sourcing
7. Selecting the Right Candidate
8. Team Collaboration

Lack of qualified candidates
Talent shortage is real and continues to give recruiters sleepless nights. Various surveys and studies (including Gartner’s 2019 Emerging Risks Survey) confirm that the qualified candidate shortage is a serious concern.

Solution: Enter the war for talent and be ready to compete
Don’t be afraid to compete for the best candidates, however, you need to be smart to stand out. One way to do that is by ensuring you get the most out of employee referrals. Potential candidates trust their friends more and can make it easier to attract and retain the best talent. And if you have an excellent brand, it becomes even easier to snatch candidates who are qualified.

Alternatively, engage recruiting professionals with the right expertise in your industry.

Hiring fast
Vacant positions delay operations and cost money, and it’s for that reason hiring teams try to hire as fast as possible. However, due to the limited pool of qualified talents and the lengthy hiring process, hiring quickly can be challenging.

Solutions:

• Review the hiring steps and remove the unnecessary ones. You can leverage recruitment data and metrics to know what steps are delaying the entire process. That way, you will nurture a data-driven mindset in your hiring team that will help them track and measure key recruiting metrics.
• Set realistic timelines. This is very crucial, especially when hiring for hard-to-fill roles to avoid bad hires. Working with recruiters like Waypoint can help speed up the hiring process irrespective of the nature of the recruitment.

Targeting passive candidates
The number of candidates who aren’t actively searching for jobs continues to grow — and the stats are scary. According to LinkedIn research, a whopping 70% of the global workforce constitutes passive talents who aren’t searching for jobs.

Fortunately, 90% of these passive candidates are open to hearing about new openings. But how can you target them?

Solution: Go where they are
Since you won’t find these candidates checking out your job board or career website, the best approach is to engage a recruiter to actively pursue them. Another more passive approach is to go where they are: social media. Utilize the power of social media to attract them to your company — for example, share stories, post job openings, promote your company, etc.

Building a strong employer brand
75% of job applicants consider an employer’s brand before even applying for open positions. And if they don’t like what they see, they won’t apply. Another 75% would refuse job offers with companies that have a bad reputation. This means you must continuously work to show your company is a good place to work to attract top talent.

Solution: Implement an effective employer branding strategy
You can do this by showcasing your company culture, sharing employee testimonials, sharing photos and videos of your employees, and creating compelling stories that show your company is a good place to work. That way, you will get them excited to join your team.

Providing a memorable candidate experience
Poor candidate experience is another challenge hampering many company’s ability to find the right candidates. According to CareerArc’s candidate Experience Study, 60% of job seekers have had a poor candidate experience — and the results:

• 72% of them share with others about it, either in-person or online
• 64% of them stop buying goods and services from that employer (CareerArc)
• 63% of them reject a job offer (Software Advice)

If these stats are anything to go by, you need to focus on improving your candidate experience to attract the best and build your brand reputation. But how?

Solution: Audit your existing employee experience and take steps to improve it
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. So, start by auditing your current employee experience and then commit to improving the gaps that emerge. For example, if you find a gap in how you keep your candidates in the loop, then develop ways of communicating status updates to them.

Talent Sourcing
Though the talent pool is shrinking, good candidates are still out there. And how your recruiting team chooses to find them determines the kind of result they will get. If they aren’t going beyond the traditional sourcing methods, it won’t be possible for them to get the desired results.

Solutions: Use advanced talent sourcing solutions
Manual talent sourcing strategies aren’t as effective as they used to be. Advanced talent sourcing solutions such as those powered by machine learning and AI deliver more powerful results.

Selecting the right candidate
Hiring the wrong talent for a position is common today and is costing businesses a lot of money and time. According to CareerBuilder research, 74% of employers admit to bad hiring. And that’s not a surprise considering most resumes are always misleading.

Solution: Implement effective selection practices
These practices include using different scorecards, assessment tests, and interviews to pick the right candidate for open positions. Don’t tire of implementing selection practices that will help you narrow down to the right candidate. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, consult the services of a recruiting firm like Waypoint Search for professional support.

Team Collaboration
Traditional hiring models that mandated only HR processionals to hire are no longer effective. Modern models require multiple teams (IT experts, hiring managers, executives, etc.) within the organization to be involved to avoid costly mistakes. Counting only on your HR professionals in 2021 and beyond is not a good idea.

Solution: Implement an effective collaborative recruitment model
This approach allows collaboration between teams during hiring, helping avoid mistakes. Think of this like when you pass your assignment to coworkers after completion to review it. They’ll point out mistakes you missed, making the final copy better. Similarly, with collaboration during hiring, you boost your chances of good hires.


Ready to overcome your recruitment challenges?
Waypoint walks with you every step of the recruitment process to ensure you find the right candidate for every need. Need to Hire? Contact Us today!