Recruiting has always been a job that requires that you stay nimble and be open to learning new skills. Now that remote work has become so common, there are new challenges that all staffing and recruiter service providers are facing when trying to get connected with the right people to fill their open job postings. The distance involved in hiring for remote work, combined with the challenges of getting connected with skilled hires has added strains to the recruiting picture that did not exist in past years.
If you are a recruiter who has been dealing with extra challenges over the past couple of years, you are not alone! Recruiting has faced many challenges over the past couple of years that have completely changed the face of hiring and doing outreach to new hires to get them interested in your job postings. Read on to learn some more about the challenges that are being faced by recruiters in this new hiring reality and how you can work to resolve these issues.
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Common Recruitment Challenges Faced By Recruiters
Recruiting is challenging. You need to find the right people to hire and you need to connect with them in the right ways to get them to want to take your job and not pick one of the other jobs that they may have been offered at a competitor. The job market has never been so short of skilled workers and the people who do have the skills you need can pick and choose from so many jobs that it can be hard to get people to pick yours!
There are benefits to being able to reach out to people at any time of day and across long distances through the use of technology, but there are also issues that have arisen recently in the recruiting world that have a lot to do with the lack of face-to-face contact between people communicating about jobs.
1. Remote Work
This has been a game-changer for many businesses and the reality of remote work is changing at a rapid pace. Many companies are still struggling with the adoption of this new kind of work and the struggles of figuring out how to onboard people long-distance have been felt by almost every recruiter in the business.
If you are hiring for a remote work job, you know how difficult it can be to negotiate the right arrangements and then get people onboarded efficiently. People want to negotiate for specific benefits and work hours in many cases and you might have to offer added value items to them like flexible work/sick time and other benefits.
Solution: The solution to this problem is actually an easy one in many cases. The use of video calling can help with many parts of the hiring process, most especially interviewing and negotiating for the details of a contract. Video calls work so seamlessly these days that you will feel like you are all in the same room together during the call!
The nicest part about this kind of contact with potential new hires is that you can actually discuss issues of pay, job duties, and other sensitive and important subjects face to face. There is something about being able to actually see one another that makes remote hiring so much easier and less fraught with misunderstandings.
Video calling is a big part of the remote work reality these days, and you need to embrace it to be able to connect with and interview people properly when recruiting for this kind of job.
2. Rebranding or Making Branding Clear
People are less and less willing to work for companies that they do not feel certain about. If you have not started to brand your company through social media and online outreach, you are probably missing out on some great hires that are choosing to work for companies with a clear ethos and a descriptive online presence.
People want to work with companies who care about the same things that they do, and they will be less inclined to accept an interview or a job from a company that they cannot learn about through some online research. The days of trusting a company to tell you all about themselves in an interview are over and you are missing the boat if your branding message is not clear to your potential new hires.
Solution: You can solve this issue with branding or rebranding, by making sure that you share your company’s social media information and website with each possible new hire. Make sure that these resources demonstrate who you are and what you stand for clearly.
People will always connect more readily with companies who can offer them this evidence of their mission and their values and they will feel much more willing to give you a chance to recruit them if they come into talks with a sense of what they will be doing when they work for your company. The specific details about the job are not nearly as important to people as the overall mission of your company and the connection that new hires feel with its ethics and offerings to customers.
3. Seeking Skilled Workers
In some hiring realities and industries, skilled workers are thin on the ground right now. It can be hard to find people with the depth of experience that you are looking to hire for certain job types. This is always an issue, but with the difficulties of the past year, many people who would have been looking for new jobs have grown risk-averse and are sticking with their current job.
This means that you might have to choose from a pool of people who are missing essential parts of the required credentials to actually get the jobs that you need to fill. This can be very frustrating because you might like things about these hires but not be able to actually get them into the jobs that they have expressed interest in.
Solution: HR and company managers might need to become more flexible in the requirements for hire for certain jobs. Equivalent experience or related education might need to be offered as a basis for hiring for certain skilled jobs with the understanding that new hires go through additional training once they have been hired.
You would be amazed at how easy it can be to transition someone with related work experience into a new role and if the requirements give you room to be creative in your credentials that are required for new hires, you will have access to a whole new pool of qualified people who will probably be a perfect fit for your open jobs!
4. Data
As the world of recruiting has changed, so has the need to collect more accurate data about the hiring process and retention of employees once they have been onboarded. All of the rules that used to apply to hiring have been altered slightly by the events of the past year and many of the data gathering models that were in use before do not account for the changing landscape of hiring that is in play in 2021.
You may have noticed that you need to look at different factors when seeking the right hires for your open positions these days. Without the need to hire locally, you may be able to hire from a more skilled pool of workers who do not need to be interviewed as rigorously, or you may have noticed that your retention of new hires has fallen off. The trouble might be that you can’t get the right data to help you to look for the right people to hire so that these issues are solved quickly and easily.
Solution: Start looking at the factors that have led to retained employees that you have hired over the past year or two. Using that information, rule out hires that will be likely to jump ship as soon as a better job shows up on the horizon. You can also start collecting data about the onboarding process from new hire surveys.
Taking in information about the hiring process and how it is affecting your company over the long haul will help you greatly when you are seeking new employees to fill your open job postings. No one wants to waste time talking to people who do not want to have the jobs that you have on offer and it is expensive to constantly onboard new people due to attrition.
5. Internal Promotions
One of the common issues with the recruiting job is that you are often discouraged from promoting from within when there are skilled hires that you have made contact with that want to come into the company. This might be a good idea when a particularly skilled applicant applies for a job, but you do have to consider that many people will not stay with a company that will not help them to grow and seek advancement.
If you have skilled workers inside of your organization that are not eligible to move up in the ranks, you will likely end up losing them to better offers from other companies. This can really add up over time, as the cost of onboarding is quite high these days and training new people takes time and impacts productivity.
Solution: Always make sure to consider internal applicants as well as external hires when recruiting for jobs. You will probably get more long-term benefits from hiring from within for management positions especially, as these people already know about your company and will need less training.
The added plus to promotions is that you foster employee loyalty and commitment. Part of recruiting is keeping people with your organization over the long haul, and you want to consider this important part of the recruiting process while also looking at new hires that you can bring into your company.
6. Diversity
This should not still be an issue in today’s workforce, but unfortunately, it still is in some cases. Hiring a diverse working population is important for a whole host of reasons and a diverse workforce is always a stronger and more productive workforce.
Diversity issues are sometimes about perception and are sometimes based on real issues that are encountered during the hiring and interviewing process. Being sensitive to these issues is necessary to have a vibrant and qualified workforce. It is simple to make it clear that you are seeking people from all walks of life and being transparent about this openness can remove any possible incorrect assumptions that have been made about your hiring processes along the way.
Solution: Make sure that diversity is part of your social media presence and that you are welcoming to everyone who wants to look for employment at your company. It is easy to make it clear that you are a company that values diversity and the reward for this effort is that you will be able to hire people from many different backgrounds who will bring their strengths to the table when they join your company for diversity and inclusion training.
Recruiting Challenges Can be Erased if You Are Willing to Try New Things
Recruiting is all about being creative and being welcoming to new hires. If you are missing the welcoming part of the equation, or you are unwilling to try new things, you will have a hard time recruiting people in today’s hiring reality. Recruiters today cannot afford to rest on their laurels and hope that good hires will just fall into their laps.
Applying these tips and tricks to your recruiting process will make it possible to get connected with the right people who have the skills that you are searching for. Outreach doesn’t have to be complicated, and using social media and video calling to help get your message to your new hires is a great way to bridge the gap of distance or lack of awareness.
Recruiting in today’s market is fast-paced but you don’t have to be left behind! Start changing your recruiting strategy today and you will be pleased with the results that you will enjoy for your efforts!