7 of the biggest recruiting problems & how to overcome them

When it comes to recruiting problems, there seems to be too many to count.  Although the CEOs are the head of a company, the recruiters are the backbone. Everyone plays a significant role. Recruiters often have many roles and responsibilities that are not just limited to hiring people. Recruiters and hiring managers are responsible for steering and maintaining company culture, offering short- and long-term solutions through talent, abiding by laws, regulations, and company policies, ensuring the safety of the company and its employees, and so much more.

 However, the multitude of responsibilities for recruiters is not just overwhelming but poses inevitable challenges, regardless of how seasoned one may be in the field. So, what are the biggest problems recruiters face and how do they overcome them? Here are the top 7 challenges and solutions.

Top recruiting problems

Inefficient technology and workflows 

For most people, not having enough time in the day is a common thing. Perhaps you did not get to finish everything on your to-do list for the day, but you can finish it tomorrow morning without major consequences. For recruiters, however, this is a challenge that cannot only be costly but change the trajectory of their week or even month.

Sourcing quality candidates is time-sensitive and recruiters and hiring managers are consistently fighting the clock. A missed phone call, a late reply to a potential candidate’s email, or even scheduling an interview a day later than expected can cost recruiters time, money, and often, a viable candidate. The challenge recruiters face is having a streamlined workflow. Hiring managers need a recruiting platform and a candidate engagement tool that allows them to send emails, make phone calls, and schedule interviews in a timely manner. 

Economic and societal disruption 

The global pandemic has affected everyone’s lives. Whether you are a boss, employee, freelancer, or retiree, the covid-19 epidemic created a huge economic disruption and changed the way we think about work. For many, the workplace had become a barren, ghost-town until the virus settled and we found a way to adapt to the “new normal”. However, as things have slowly begun to stabilize, people’s perceptions are forever changed.

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Many no longer accept that people need to be in the office to be more productive, or that it’s okay to be overworked and underpaid, or that one must risk catching the virus to return to work. These shifts in attitude have led to what’s called “the great resignation,” leading to a myriad of companies struggling to hire new employees. As a result, recruiters have been burdened with the task of finding talent that is willing to work, while accommodating a new requirement for many candidates: the opportunity to work remotely. 

Fierce competition for top talent

Sometimes, the challenge for many recruiters is not always in finding top talent, it is in attracting them. Hiring managers not only have to worry about beating the clock, and battling economic and societal disruption, but also going up against competitors for the same talent.

How can one manage to do all of this? Short answer, you can’t. It’s not humanly possible to successfully do all three, especially if you lack the necessary resources. But with the help of the right tools and software, you may be able to manage these recruiting problems a little better.  

Shortage of specially skilled talent

The pandemic has thrown a monkey wrench into most things that there seems to be a shortage of talent for certain positions overall. Some positions that need to be filled, can’t be filled for various reasons. However, recruiters have a tough time filling specific positions with specialized skills due to archaic sourcing methods: the Boolean keyword search. 

If you are a recruiter and trying to find talent by putting certain keywords in a search engine, job board, or on LinkedIn, you’re probably missing a lot of candidates. This can appear as if there is a shortage of talent, but often, it’s the method you are using, too. 

Smart recruiting software can look beyond just matching keywords and look at a candidate’s entire career journey, discovering more candidates who will be successful in a job. No matter how seasoned hiring managers are, the workforce is always evolving, and recruiters and the sourcing tools they use need to evolve with it.  

Slow hiring process

When it comes to recruiting, there are days where everything seems to be going right. Until it’s time to actually hire them. The hiring process can be so slow, that many candidates become anxious and take another offer elsewhere. Sometimes, candidates may even forget about a position in a sea of applications they’ve submitted months ago and are no longer interested in working with the company altogether. Whatever the reasons are, there goes all of your hard work down the drain because well, you took too long. 

Maybe it’s not entirely your fault. Maybe the hiring manager moves too slowly. Or maybe your current resources are putting a snag in your hiring flow and causing it to be longer than it needs to be. If your recruiting problems consistently include hiring the right people in a reasonable time, it may be time to diagnose the source of your recruiting woes and pivot. One small tweak in your process can make a world of a difference. 

Implicit Biases & lack of diversity

It’s not always pride, but prejudice that comes before the fall. Preconceived notions are a common human trait that we must learn to identify. We’ve all developed unconscious biases from life experiences that may keep us from seeing qualified candidates. You may have implicit biases about someone’s age, educational level, or ethnic background that could be preventing you from sourcing great, diverse talent. Not only does the lack of diversity in the workplace reduce morale, but it inhibits opportunities for company growth.

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Maybe expanding your search when it comes to age, geography or ethnicity is the change you need in filling that position. With the right tools, diversifying your talent search can become less of a recruiting problem, and more of a rewarding process.
 

Lack of resources

Recruiting can be a demanding, yet rewarding career. But many hiring managers lack the resources for it to seem all that rewarding. This leads to recruiter burnout and is a common challenge in the HR world. With the right resources and enough assistance, this can be avoided. The energy that it takes to source candidates, screen them, beat competitors, and do it all in less time can be daunting. That’s why recruiting tools like Arya are necessary.

Arya is an AI-enabled software specifically developed to help recruiters source better candidates, faster. Have a low budget? No problem. Arya has multiple plans to fit your recruiting needs without breaking the bank. With the right resources, you no longer have to lose sleep or candidates. Get back to reaping the benefits of recruiting with the help of AI. 

Resources

• https://linkedin.com/business/talent