Modern Recruitment Challenges And How To Solve Them

There’s no denying that today’s business environments are particularly complex. Companies are always looking for top tier talent to fill their roles, and more often than not it feels in short supply. But for your company to stand out in a competitive market, you need to be able to attract and secure talented employees who can help grow your business.

The Challenges For Employers

There are many different challenges employers face when it comes to recruitment, and a lot of them have been around for as long as companies have been recruiting. However the landscape has changed significantly over the past few years, which means there has been an influx of new challenges to be overcome. These include:

Increased Competition: Over the last year 70% of companies have reported that competition for well-qualified talent has increased significantly, with recruiting for senior and skilled roles presenting the biggest challenges. This is not because the talent pool is shrinking, but because employers have recognised the issue of employee retention and taken steps to improve it. On top of that budgets for recruiting and managing talent have been tight, which makes it more difficult to compete for top talent.

New Working Patterns: Modern working patterns have undoubtedly had a significant impact on recruitment challenges faced by businesses.

Work life balance, is an important consideration for many candidates, so businesses that don’t offer or promote any form of flexible working will find the number of interested candidates significantly reduced. In fact, data from iCompario shows that 64% of candidates find flexible hours very important when considering a future employer.

Respond promptly to candidates: In the past candidates have been accepting of long response times in job applications. It’s always been a frustrating part of the process, but it was the industry norm and to be expected. But now, candidates are changing the way they approach the application process. They don’t want long application processes, with multiple steps, or an on line form that takes half an hour to fill in, and most importantly, they want to know they will receive a response to their application quickly.

The Generational Gap: Candidates are spread across multiple generations, from Baby Boomers to Gen Z. That’s a potential age difference of 51 years!

New research from Monster has shown that standards, expectations and demands of both recruitment and jobs for each generation have transformed over the past few years, and this means that recruitment approaches now need to be more diverse. For example, the Baby Boomer generation are twice as concerned with compensation and benefits as Gen Z, who are more motivated by company values, diversity and inclusion.

Set Yourself Apart

So the question becomes, how can companies set themselves apart from the competition during the recruitment process and ensure they’re able to attract top talent?

One of the first steps is to create a recruitment strategy that’s attractive across multiple generations – with the candidate experience being central to the process. By understanding what each generation are looking for, you can understand what will draw them to your job adverts and what will make them choose your company over the competition. This will likely look different for each company, but a few things you can do to bridge the generational gaps include:

• Market your job adverts in a variety of places
• Showcase your company values in job adverts
• Include insight into your company culture during interviews
• Include technology in your recruitment process – video application and online interviews are good options
• Improve the candidate experience at every stage of the recruitment process
• Invest in advanced applicant tracking to ensure all applicants are responded to

You should also ensure your recruitment process is robust and rigorously tested so that you’re able to respond quickly to enquiries and provide a short and effortless application process.

From Advert To Onboarding

It’s also worth noting that modern candidates aren’t as forgiving as those in the past. The expectations of candidates have changed dramatically even over the last few years, and this has left many companies struggling to keep up.

Particularly, candidates want job adverts to be transparent, they want to know up-front what to expect from the process, how quickly they will hear back, and that they will hear back from the employer even if they’re unsuccessful, and not be ‘ghosted’ by the company.

At the interview stage, we’re seeing candidates asking more questions about not just the role, but the work-life balance of current employees and what flexibility they can expect. This follows a trend of candidates being more interested in finding a company they connect with, which means the company culture, values and mission statement are all the more important.

You should also remember that recruitment is only one piece of the puzzle. Once you have recruited the right talent for your business, you then need to have a strategy in place to keep them, see our separate article on retention.

At Guildford HR we understand that talent acquisition can be challenging, especially with the world of work moving so quickly. If you want to ensure you’re compliant with the law, and get some ideas for improving your recruitment, why not take a look at our policies for your business, and get your own recruitment policy for just £90. Or if you would like more information, just get in touch with the team today.

Guildford HR are not a recruitment agency, but as our client’s HR manager we can complete all aspects of recruitment, so do contact us or give us a call on 01483 362732 to discover more about our services.