Find out how to avoid losing out to other employers
Recruiting high-quality candidates in today’s competitive talent market can be challenging.
Employers in countries around the world have been facing the most severe talent shortage in over a decade, according to data released by ManpowerGroup last summer. Forty-five percent of the employers that participated in the research said they were struggling to fill positions — particularly skilled trade, sales representative and engineer roles.
With 40 out of 44 countries planning to increase their headcount this quarter, according to the most recent ManpowerGroup employment survey, competition for talent is likely to remain high. Employers will need to be at the top of their game to land the best candidates — which leaves little room for error in the recruitment process.
Unfortunately, though, if recruiters, hiring managers and other professionals aren’t paying close attention, recruiting efforts can easily get off track.
To yield the most effective results, employers may want to consider taking steps to prevent the following 4 all-too-common recruiting issues:
Failing to fully understand or explain what the role entails
Assuming a candidate who didn’t have the necessary skills would be able to learn them quickly is the most frequent reason organizations have brought a bad hire on board, according to hiring managers, HR and other professionals who participated in a CareerBuilder survey on the topic.
A number of employees, too, seem to have had an unrealistic view of what they’d be doing. Thirty-seven percent of workers who’ve accepted a job and later realized it was a bad fit said the position didn’t match what was described in the job listing and interviews. Thirty-three percent said there was a lack of clear expectations about the role.
To ensure candidates won’t end up in a position they aren’t prepared for or interested in, companies need to know that accurately depicts what a role involves and ask thorough interview questions. To gain a more universal view of the various attributes a candidate can offer if hired, some organizations are also utilizing pre-employment assessments. To learn more about what they entail, read our blog post on why some companies are aiming for deeper insight in the recruitment process.
Inaccurately depicting your work environment
Candidates want to find a company with a culture they feel suits them; the vast majority cite say it’s of at least relative importance when applying for a job, according to a Jobvite 2018 study. Forty-six percent of candidates feel company culture is a very important consideration — and 15 percent have turned a job down due to culture concerns.
Even if your organization offers a fantastic atmosphere, if candidates don’t know about it, you risk losing them to organizations that more prominently promote their culture-related advantages — which is why it’s crucial for companies to establish and maintain a strong employer brand. Sharing employee testimonials on social media and adding dynamic video footage that depicts your office experience to the company’s website can help candidates visualize what working for the organization would be like.
Taking too long to check in with top candidates
Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of jobseekers, according to Robert Half research, say they lose interest in working for an employer if they don’t hear back within a week of their initial interview. If two weeks passes without a status update, another 46 percent lose interest in the opportunity.
Burning bridges when rejecting a candidate
Notifying jobseekers you don’t plan to hire too slowly can also have a negative effect. Candidates who were interviewed and then given related feedback later that day were 52 percent more likely to apply again with an organization, if they weren’t hired, according to survey findings published in the Talent Board’s 2018 North American candidate report — and/or refer people to the organization or otherwise increase their relationship with the company. Candidates were more than twice as likely, however, to completely sever their relationship with the employer if they didn’t receive any feedback.
When rejecting a candidate, you may want to make personal contact. Calling to let them know they’re no longer being considered for a position, instead of emailing them, can mean they’ll be 28 percent more likely to rate your organization positively.
For more information on how to improve your recruiting process, you may find several of our blog posts on the topic — such as our posts on in-person recruiting events, talent rediscovery tools, utilizing passive recruiting — to be of interest.
In addition, our posts on recruiting executive hires, secrets to finding the perfect candidate culture match and how companies are using AI in the recruitment process offer further information about practices that can help organizations achieve successful recruiting outcomes.