Aside from the shortage of available talent, what are the biggest challenges recruiters, hiring managers, and HR face when trying to identify the best candidate to fill an open position? We looked to recruiting and HR experts for their insight about challenges in hiring employees facing today’s employers.
Here are five challenges we found:
1) The importance of talent is misunderstood.
“The importance of talent to an organization remains misunderstood…I understand that growth companies are intensely focused on finding and keeping customers, but if you behave as if employees are interchangeable widgets, you’ve lost the game before you even take the field.” – Jeff Hyman, Recruiting Rockstars
Solution: Educate stakeholders on the importance of recruiting and retaining top talent. Develop strategic hiring plans together. Get everyone together to discuss the talent needed to achieve company goals and make people aware of any gaps that need to be filled. Track retention numbers and implement measures to reduce turnover. Lever has a great article on how to prepare for your next headcount meeting.
2) Recruiters face competing priorities.
“[Recruiting] is also a bit daunting because you’re in the middle of making sure that the hiring managers get their positions filled on a timely basis and that the candidates have a good experience as they’re being considered.” Steve Browne, HR on Purpose.
Solution: Rely on technology to improve the candidate experience and make the recruiting process more efficient. While an ATS is still at the heart of a recruiter’s workflow, there are also tools to help streamline sourcing, employee referrals, candidate communication, interview scheduling, and recruitment marketing. Invest time in building an effective recruiting tech stack.
Download our ‘Top Talent Acquisition Challenges’ Report
We surveyed HR and TA leaders with the goal of understanding their roadblocks as they strive to improve quality of hire, and how HR technology and solutions are helping to overcome those challenges.
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3) Hiring managers don’t fully understand the process.
“Instead of simply providing small snippets of information about how to hire or glossing over the big picture, we have an opportunity to educate hiring managers on the value of the process.” – Sharlyn Lauby, The Recruiter’s Handbook.
Solution: Make recruiting part of the culture, not an afterthought or something temporary. Collaborate with hiring managers at each step of the process.
4) Skill level is mistaken for performance.
“One of the most common misconceptions in hiring is that skill level equates to job performance level—the better the skills, the better the job performance. Skill simply means the person can do the job, not that they will actually do it.” Carol Quinn, Motivation-based Interviewing.
Solution: Don’t underestimate the importance of talking to references. No one can speak to a person’s work ethic and track record better than those who have a history with the candidate. Use the interview time to get to know the candidate and illuminate their motivators and work style. Prepare questions ahead of time that require the candidate to speak from experience. Berke interview guides suggest questions tailored to each candidate based on their assessment results.
5) Talent selection tools are underutilized.
“Not utilizing all available appropriate tools including assessments for talent selection and retention and then analyzing the data is a mistake no company can afford to make.” Ira Wolfe, Recruiting in the Age of Googlization.
Solution: Berke Assessment helps employers remove barriers that prevent them from effectively and efficiently identifying the best candidates before their gone. Data-driven insights are a key to predicting hiring success.
