Common recruitment challenges and how to solve them

Learn how to solve five common recruiting challenges:

1. Attracting the right candidates

To attract quality candidates, it’s important that your organization stands out among competitors. Consider refining each job description. Start by removing long paragraphs to make your job descriptions easier to read and increase the likelihood that job seekers will read the entire description.

Be specific about the scope, duties and training requirements for each role. You might attract quality applicants by writing custom content for each description rather than using the same text for multiple jobs.

Consider making your job descriptions clearer by following these tips:

• Use simple words.
• Keep sentences short.
• Spell out acronyms for the first mention.
• Focus on task outcomes.
• Describe the working conditions.
• List hard and soft skills you’d like candidates to have for the role, rather than focusing on educational requirements.
• Explain how you expect employees to perform specific duties.

After reading one of your refined job descriptions, applicants should understand the duties of the open position and whether they have the needed qualifications, such as knowledge, skills and abilities, for the role.

Next, focus on updating your candidate sourcing strategy. As an active rather than passive recruitment method, sourcing involves your HR team seeking prospective employees rather than waiting for them to apply. For sourcing to be effective, it generally needs to be targeted, allowing you to attract applicants with specific knowledge, skills or experiences who can help your organization succeed.

You can use these tips to make sure targeting is part of your sourcing strategy:

• Form strategic partnerships: If you want applicants with specific skills, forming strategic partnerships may be helpful. For example, a local university with a strong accounting program may be an excellent source of applicants for bookkeeping, accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R) roles.
• Use a variety of sourcing methods: Build your sourcing strategy around a combination of online and in-person events. You may have more opportunities to connect with applicants by expanding your reach.
• Stand out from competitors: Before developing a sourcing strategy, learn what job seekers want from their jobs. Look for ways to fill gaps left by employers in your industry.
• Create applicant personas: A candidate persona represents your ideal candidate. It includes education, work experience and other criteria. When you have an ideal candidate in mind, you can target your sourcing efforts accordingly.

To further refine your sourcing strategy, monitor each channel to determine how effective it is. For example, if only 1% of successful applicants come from your participation in a local networking group, you may want to focus on other channels.

2. Engaging quality candidates

Attracting top talent generally requires effort to stand out from competitors. Competing businesses may offer sign-on bonuses, additional benefits or other incentives. This is a great time to distinguish your company from its competitors.

Start by personalizing your outreach efforts. If you email a candidate, use their name instead of “Dear Candidate” or another generic greeting. Mention personal details, such as one of their skills or professional certifications. Personalization typically helps candidates feel appreciated.

Strong branding also helps your communications stand out. Every email should contain your company logo and color scheme. If you ask candidates to download documents, make sure each document has your company’s branding elements. This creates a cohesive experience and makes your company more memorable.

Consider implementing these tips into your correspondences:

• Be transparent: Let candidates know what to expect at every stage of the hiring process. When a delay occurs, apologize for the inconvenience and provide an updated timeline.
• Respond quickly: Strive to respond to emails within 24-48 business hours. Consider using an HR chatbot to give applicants immediate answers to common questions.
• Use multiple forms of communication: Use email, social media, text messaging and other channels to make your company more accessible to applicants.

Offering meaningful benefits may also increase candidate engagement. What’s meaningful to one candidate isn’t necessarily meaningful to another, so try to offer a comprehensive benefits package. Here are several benefits you may offer potential hires:

• Free snacks and meals
• Tuition reimbursement
• Flexible work arrangements
• Shorter work hours on Fridays during the summer

3. Reducing time to hire

Time to hire refers to the number of days between the time you engage a candidate and when they accept the job offer. For example, if someone enters your talent pipeline on May 1 and accepts an offer on May 31, their time to hire is 30 days.

If your company has long hiring cycles, top candidates may accept offers elsewhere before you have a chance to make your offer. Long hiring cycles can also lead to increased recruitment costs. Reducing your time to hire is typically an effective way to overcome these challenges.

One way to shorten your hiring cycle is to automate as many recruitment tasks as possible. Technology can save time and require fewer resources, potentially increasing process efficiency. Automation also improves data accuracy, giving your team more time to focus on other aspects of the hiring process.

With an applicant tracking system (ATS), you can typically automate these tasks:

• Creating applicant profiles
• Screening applications to determine if they meet the minimum requirements for a job
• Posting job advertisements
• Calculating recruitment-related metrics
• Managing employee referrals
• Communicating with candidates

When you use an ATS, it may take less time to complete common recruiting activities, reducing time to fill important roles.

4. Improving the candidate experience

Candidate experience describes how job seekers feel as they go through your hiring process. When you treat people with respect and show you value their time, you can build a positive reputation while helping candidates feel comfortable with your team.

Clear communication is also an important aspect of a positive candidate experience . When you write job descriptions, include plenty of detail to help candidates determine whether their qualifications match your company’s needs. Use Indeed or ATS tools to send automatic replies every time someone applies for a job, schedules an interview or takes a related action.

Candidates also appreciate timely feedback. If you need more time to make a hiring decision, let top candidates know right away. Instead of sending rejection emails in bulk, send personalized messages or call each candidate personally. Consistent communication helps ensure candidates understand what to expect at every stage of the hiring process.

When you deliver a positive experience, quality candidates are more likely to accept your job offers. Even if a candidate turns down your offer, they may refer an individual in their network to your company.

5. Building a successful employer brand

Branding supports long-term success by helping you influence the way people feel about your company. A positive reputation generally makes it easier to attract quality candidates.

To build a stronger brand, consider using social media to connect with community members. Start by creating a profile on at least one social network. Fill in details, such as your physical address, website and hours of operation. When you’re ready to post, try these ideas:

• Highlight an employee’s recent achievements.
• Publish employee-generated content, such as photos from a recent retreat or outtakes from an ad campaign.

Share testimonials from employees who have been with your organization for many years. When possible, showcase your organizational culture to help job seekers envision working for your company and reaching their career goals. For example, if innovation is one of your core values, you might highlight what’s happening in your research and development (R&D) department.

Responding to online reviews can also help you strengthen your employer brand. This applies to negative reviews as well as positive ones. The key is to keep your response positive and factual. Thank reviewers for their feedback, and look for ways to highlight your employees’ good work.

Best practices for overcoming recruitment challenges

Maximizing efficiency helps reduce the time it takes to fill open positions, and these processes often use few resources, making them more affordable.

Once you automate common sourcing tasks with your ATS, consider adopting AI tools for productivity to streamline your recruitment processes. AI can help you process large volumes of data, making it easier to identify potential applicants.

It can also be helpful to use HR analytics to determine which sourcing methods are most effective. Analytics transforms raw data into meaningful information, enabling your team to make data-driven decisions. Making decisions based on data instead of assumptions helps organizations save time and money.

Technology can also help you streamline your communications with candidates. With a powerful ATS, it’s possible to send personalized messages at each stage of the hiring process. This lets you build personal connections without writing every message from scratch.

Finally, consider upgrading your recruitment technology. If you have a basic ATS, you may upgrade to a candidate relationship management (CRM) system or a human capital management (HCM) system. These systems have more features than a standalone ATS, giving you additional opportunities to streamline your HR processes.

Other ways to support successful recruiting practices:

• Pre-screening potential hires, including verifying references, conducting background checks or using skills assessments
• Asking candidates behavioral interview questions to confirm they can add to your company culture
• Requesting job portfolios or work samples during the hiring process to help ensure their skills meet your company’s needs

Turning recruitment challenges into opportunities

Recruitment challenges are common, but how you handle them makes a big impact on your ability to attract quality candidates and their long-term success with your company. When you view challenges as opportunities for growth, you have the power to increase efficiency, create a positive candidate experience and position your company as an employer of choice.

Consider implementing the recommended strategies to reduce your company’s time to fill and improve your employee retention rates.