What are the Biggest Recruitment Challenges in 2022, and How to Overcome Them?
Scouting talented professionals to meet the requirements of employers has always been a difficult task for recruiters. In this new age where most job seekers are Millennials (born between 1981 – 1996) and Gen Z (born between 1997 – 2012), there is an increasing generational gap between potential employees and recruiters. This adds to the challenges that firms face in amalgamating various sensibilities and restructuring rigid archaic hiring practices.
Additionally, the world is still recovering from a global pandemic that almost lasted two years and disrupted businesses and careers worldwide.
Keeping the transient nature of the job market in mind, here are some of the biggest obstacles recruiters have faced in 2022 and the efforts undertaken to overcome these challenges.
How Did the COVID Pandemic Affect Jobs?
Covid 19 played a significant role in transforming industries globally, and it has also directly affected the working regime of individuals. During the pandemic, most of the world came to a halt, followed by a tremendous amount of layoffs, terminations, and retirements. Going forward, market requirements, as well as employee preferences, are expected to shift dramatically to keep up with the changing times.
• Pre-covid
Job structures before Covid-19 were consistent. While the market had its ups and downs, job opportunities, business growth, and other influential factors were constantly rising.
• During Covid
During the pandemic, most businesses were entirely shut down due to their nature of operations. Large-scale termination and lay-offs became a frequent occurrence in every industry, and very few opportunities were available. The scale of demand and supply was completely disrupted; therefore, the recruiters were forced to go digital and adopt new recruitment models and practices.
• Post-covid
Even after the effects of the pandemic subsided, certain restrictions prevailed and the world seemed to accept a permanent paradigm shift in the job market. As employers’ demands changed, even job seekers had a different perspective on employment.
Where Do We Stand in the Employment Sector Now?
• Talent Shortage
In 2022, as the world regains its original glory, one of the major issues recruiters face is the shortage of perfect talent to fit the designated role. A lack of an available talent pool has forced recruiters to become more flexible in the job roles for vacancies to encourage more people to apply.
However, what this means is that recruiters are now faced with the task of sorting through piles of unmatched skill sets, in order to find the one that might meet their requirements.
• Passive Candidates
Many individuals look for job opportunities while still being employed, and these individuals look for a job change for career growth, better prospects, or interest. Recruiters have to identify potential applicants without approaching a large number of employed candidates, as such changes are needed to back up lucrative offers.
• Cost of Recruitment
The recruiter has to find the best candidate for the role, but recruiters often get tangled in countless interviews, shortlisting processes, and resume searches during hiring. This can make the recruitment process expensive and time-consuming. If recruiters are fixated on profiles with numerous candidates, it will delay all other recruitment. Finding an alternative AI-powered recruitment process can help ease the financial burden of the recruitment department.
• Brand Value
At times, hiring becomes problematic due to the brand value of the employer. If the brand value is respectable and desirable, recruiters are faced with too many perfectly fit candidates matching the exact criteria of the business, and pinpointing one candidate is a hard task. On the other hand, if the organization is emerging and hasn’t yet established a strong brand value, recruiters face the problem of disinterest in the candidate, where job seekers are not much inclined toward such an organization.
• Time-Bound Hiring
Recruiters are hired to find a candidate from the talent pool who might best meet the demands of the employer. Too often emerging businesses make the mistake of waiting to hire till they are in dire need, rather than having a set of helping hands ready from the get-go. This forces recruiters to hire new candidates under limited time conditions, which might not always result in the best recruitment.
• Organisational Environment
Every organization has its own culture and environment, and recruiters must ensure that the potential candidates fit well into this culture. Unrealistic time conditions under which recruiters are required to hire candidates may sometimes force them to say yes to an individual who might not necessarily meet the organizational requirements. This can have a negative impact on time and resource allocation in hiring, training, and paying for the misfit employee.
• Remote Working Culture
Since covid, virtual or remote working models have become popular. . Virtual working means working from home without visiting the office. With offices going back to the offline working model, recruiters must onboard candidates without any induction or familiarising with the work culture. This also leads to other challenges such as a lack of proper training and understanding of the candidate.
How to Overcome Hiring Challenges?
• Develop a Solid Recruitment Plan
To speed up the hiring process without compromising on the quality of the candidates hired, it is crucial to have a well-defined recruitment plan. Before you send out job opening announcements, determine the exact set of skills and experience you are seeking from your candidates, the budget and resources you can allocate to the search, and the time required for the recruitment process from sorting out applications, and interviewing, to onboarding. Ensure that each member of your team is aware of the plan so that there is no confusion.
• Maintain High Retention Rates
This not only saves you the trouble of constantly searching for a new set of hands but also leaves a positive impact on the minds of potential candidates. Knowing that a company can retain its employees for a long time is a good indicator of healthy work culture. This will encourage suitable candidates to apply to your openings and meet your demands timely.
• Target Passive Job Seekers
Research shows that nearly 70% of LinkedIn users are passive job seekers, which means that while they are interested in hearing about new job opportunities, they are not desperate for them. They form a good talent pool to target as you can sift through their profiles and determine for yourself whether they would be a right fit for your company rather than them approaching you with a job. Being on the lookout for passive job seekers should be a regular practice.
Recruiters are tasked with the crucial responsibility of consistently meeting organizational demands by hiring the right workforce. Having a reliable recruiting partner like Wise Skulls gives liberty to the organization the to focus on what it does best. Being an emerging IT services company, it offers comprehensive solutions, especially staff augmentation, and aims to fill the void between the requirements of larger tech companies and experienced IT professionals on a contractual basis.
