4 Reasons Why Your Recruitment Strategy Isn’t Working

Sunday, October 11th, 2020

There’s more to recruiting topnotch candidates than just posting job openings online. It takes a comprehensive strategy, one that takes into account your company’s talent needs, as well as the ever-changing landscape of how you find that talent. On the surface, living in the Information Age makes it easier than ever to recruit talent—but it also levels the playing field. Here are four reasons why your recruiting strategy isn’t performing as well as you had hoped:

1. You haven’t set a proper budget

Believe it or not, this is an upfront step that many companies fail to take seriously. But without establishing a competitive salary offering based on market data, you’ve lost the recruiting battle before it started. You can use salary surveys on websites like Glassdoor or PayScale to determine the average wage for a position in your city and industry, but keep in mind that job titles can be vague and misleading, so it’s best to focus on a role’s core functions when researching market salaries. Also, ensuring you have enough budget to cover recruiting tools and fees is important to win the war for talent!

2. You’re not respecting the candidate journey

Every candidate who applies for a position with your company deserves a certain amount of respect. That means they shouldn’t have to fill out unnecessary forms, wait too long for a scheduled interview, or be left in the dark about their status. With organizations averaging a time to hire of 57.5 days, it’s challenging to keep candidates’ attention through the process. Find ways to reduce this average ratio by creating an efficient application process with up-to-date technology, streamlining or reducing the amount of required interviews, and/or retaining the services of an outside recruiter – Waypoint’s clients average a time to hire of 29.5 days, a 48.7% decrease as compared to the national average. If potential candidates are unhappy with their experiences or your hiring process, you’ll have very little chance swaying them to your company.

3. You aren’t leveraging social media effectively

Many companies haven’t gone “all in” on social media and have HR handling this on the side instead of employing a full-time person dedicated to the various platforms. Social media is a great place to target your ideal employee, but it’s a 24/7 endeavor these days. From marketing to responding to inquiries, you need to look at it as a vital recruiting tool—because your competitors definitely are.

4. You’re being a copycat

Much like many things in life, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Some things translate when mimicked, but in recruiting it’s hard to apply one company’s success directly to another. While you can certainly steal elements from other successful recruiting campaigns, your company and its talent needs are unique, so copying another company probably won’t translate over in the exact same way. Tailor your strategy to the resources you have—as well as your company’s definitive strengths.

With recruiting, there’s no magic bullet. There’s certainly going to be trial-and-error, and that should be budgeted for accordingly. The biggest mistake you can make is plowing ahead with the same strategy, especially if it’s not working. Even if you’re having some measure of success, a tweak here or there could have a major impact. With technology consistently updating the tools at our disposal, and the market for talent shifting every year, resting on your laurels simply isn’t an option.

Staying ahead of the recruiting game is crucial. Connecting with a reliable staffing agency, like Waypoint Search Advisors, can make an incredible difference. We have the technology, and the know-how. We believe in relationships, beginning with a hands-on approach. Whether you need full-time staff, project personnel, or managed services, we are committed to delivering the ideal candidate – the top-notch talent that fits your culture. We’re the right people to find your right people! Contact us today.