A SMALL GUIDE FOR RECRUITERS: 10 COMMON PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS

Recruiters are like brave soldiers who are placed to win the “War of Talent”. The war that each organization wants to win by hiring top talent for their teams. Winning a war would always have challenges or problems but effective strategies coupled with the right solutions will help to give a competitive edge for sure. The whole recruitment process is a topsy- turvy ride for recruiters too which is full of challenges on day to day basis. A comprehensive approach of finding solutions to common problems identified is what will help recruiters in their hiring success. Not working on solutions will only push them back in the race of attracting, selecting, and hiring their purple squirrels. Some may or may not be in a recruiter’s hands but an effort should certainly be made to reduce the turnover cost of a bad hire.

Here are some of the most common problems faced by recruiters along with the probable solutions which may help them to overcome these issues.

Problem 1: No clear Job Description & Specification at times.

Many times it happens that recruiters don’t have a clear JD for the role or its just two lines or outdated JD or JDs don’t exist at all. This incomplete/wrong/no information results in a random to and fro motion of candidates between the recruiter and hiring manager which only delays the process. It badly hits time to hire and quality of hire metrics too. PWC UK mentioned in a tweet “A bad hire can cost a company almost a third of the employee’s first-year earnings. Can your business afford hiring mistakes?”

Solution: In the first attempt, the recruiter should ask for written JD through email. If the hiring manager is too busy to create one, request for at least a call or a discussion which will help to frame out KRAs and essential knowledge, skills & abilities required for the role to target the right candidates. In case, even this doesn’t work, pick a JD for a similar role in the market from Google search and tweak it a bit as per the inputs to create a dummy JD. Get it reviewed and take approval over email by the hiring manager.

Problem 2: How to reach out to passive candidates

The competition for talent is intense; candidates who are easily available on job boards are targeted by almost all the recruiters but finding a passive lot and grab their attention on social platforms which they actively use can be a challenge. But, the road less travelled may be the one where you can find a talent pool for your next hire.

Solution: You may have to go to the talent itself and initiate a candidate engagement environment to be in touch and keep them updated about the organization. It is an ongoing process. Employer Branding might come to the rescue to attract passive resources. Recruitment marketing with content in inform of videos/blogs/employee testimonials/success stories/career page etc. should be sprinkled all over social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc. to create an image about the organization and develop the interest of the candidates. A recruiter can be a brand ambassador too by constantly publishing content about the organization on LinkedIn or other platforms to generate the attention of candidates. A rewarding employee referral program may also help to nudge some of the passive resources known to employees.

Problem 3: Lack of technology in the hiring process

Some of the small organizations are reluctant to invest in automating the recruitment process and are still drowned in old age long excel sheets for tracking and reporting. This makes recruiters waste a lot of time on tedious administrative tasks related to paperwork, reporting, responses etc. It leaves them with hardly any time to focus on productive activities related to building relationships with candidates or hiring managers and sourcing top talent. At the time of COVID, organizations which did not have digitized recruitment process are the one which suffered the most. If this pandemic did not make them initiate automation nothing else will.

Solution: Recruiter can create a business case study to management on how adapting to technology and digitizing recruitment will help in saving cost and time. They can do research work with the Technology team on some of the ATS present in the market and propose 2 – 3 to select from based on employees' strength, the magnitude of the business, and budget. Even basic automation will serve as a helping hand to recruiters. It is also required to create a good candidate experience while applying for roles via career pages directed to ATS.

Problem 4: Last-minute surprises by candidates – Rejecting/Declining offer /No show

This is one of the biggest pain points of a recruiter’s journey. All recruiters have come across numerous instances when candidates stepped back on the day of joining or delayed joining date stating the random reason and eventually did not join. The painful part is time invested to come this far and end up going back to square one. Also, when candidates don’t turn up for scheduled interviews leaving recruiters in an awkward position in front of hiring managers who blocked the calendar for the same.

Solution: This is an unpredictable game and the best a recruiter can do is being a little proactive and prepare well for the least damage. Firstly, try to understand the reason for declining the offer and if something can be reworked in the form of counter offer if retained, salary negotiation if has alternative offer, extra benefits etc. Always try to have second & third in line potential candidate as a backup for the offer made as this will reduce your effort to again restart the process in case of any mishap. Communicate the same to hiring managers by giving alternative candidates as a replacement. Apologizing and giving a solution along might reduce the impact of reaction. This won’t help in the gap produced for them but at least make them hopeful that it will be filled asap. Regular communication with candidates every week is important to keep track of DOJ & predict risk if any. Ask for a copy of the accepted resignation letter within 1 week as proof.

Problem 5: Compensation challenges for niche skills/Unrealistic expectations

The niche talent available in the market is always rare. These candidates are high in demand and are pulled by many organizations at the same time. They may not fall in normal pay structures and require an exception if you want closure. At times, hiring managers also place unrealistic demands of fitting qualified candidates in the same compensation structure as a general one making it tough to get the right talent in a given tight budget.

Solution: Prepare a case study for the hiring manager by doing market research on competitors. List out qualifications, average experience, and compensation of candidates with respective skills. Present this data to the management and justify any variations required in compensation for niche skills. Communicate clearly on chances of loosing the candidate or position not getting filled for not meeting up industry standards for the niche skills.

Problem 6: Lack of time to respond to everyone

Recruiters have endless responsibilities which at times causes burnout too. They receive hundreds of applications on a daily basis. It is practically not possible to reply to each one of them which often leaves candidates with a bad taste. It is not an intentional thing but the overload of work related to sourcing, screening, interviews, offers, events etc. leaves them with little time to respond to each mail. Most of the recruiters try to but are not 100 % successful in this attempt.

Solution: Try to create an automated reply template to answer these emails saving your time on typing a mail for each. Automated mails by ATS which can be customized to respond in one click. This will at least update candidates on their application status – rejected, shortlisted, interview, offer etc. Organize your email account and create relevant filters to prioritize your task.

Problem 7: Lack of communication with hiring managers & candidates.

At times, communication and collaboration aspect is missing with hiring managers which is imperative to build trust in this relationship. Sometimes recruiters don’t update hiring managers on the status and sometimes hiring managers don’t cooperate enough in finding the right talent or giving feedback. Due to insufficient information provided by the recruiter, candidates turn up for the interview without even having any details of the role or the company and thereby leading to rejections resulting in wasting the time of hiring manager.

Solution: A weekly insightful discussions on data related to the best channels to source , apt JD, companies to target, candidate pipeline, hiring ratios will boost this relationship. Weekly updates by recruiters on Open /Closed requisitions, Offers, Interviews, Candidates in the pipeline, Offer renege etc. will strengthen their belief that recruiters are making continuous efforts to support the business. A proper pre-screening by recruiter is the key to shortlist the best fit for the role in the organization. Share a detailed email about the Job description and company with the shortlisted candidate before scheduling an interview with the hiring manager. Take consensus of candidates on expectations from the role and if they meet the criteria. This will eliminate irrelevant candidates and save loads of your time wasted in scheduling interviews for the process.

Problem 8: Non-availability of interview schedules by hiring manager or candidate

Recruiters are mediators who juggle between finding an interview schedule that matches the convenience of both. This sometimes leads to delay in the interview process leaving recruiters frustrated.

Solution: Take an option of 2 – 3 slots for scheduling interviews through formal communication from the hiring manager and candidate. Schedule the interview in an overlapping slot accordingly. In case there is no reply on slots even after repetitive emails, request the manager if you can extend the date/timeline fixed by the hiring manager, or the role can be put on hold/cancelled if there is no urgent requirement. Similarly request candidates to accommodate or wait for the next schedule giving him a hint that the position might get closed if any other candidate is interviewed in between.

Problem 9: Lack of right assessment tools

Sometimes recruiters don’t have apt assessment tools and techniques in the initial stages to evaluate if a candidate is the right fit in terms of technical, functional, or behavioral competencies required for the role. They end up forwarding wrong profiles to hiring managers for interviews leading to maximum rejections.

Solution: A right set of online assessment tools can help to identify the best fit. For e.g for IT roles, there are companies like Devskiller which accelerate tech hiring by providing coding test similar to the real-time task. For the BPO industry, the candidates can be asked to undergo a psychographic test to check on dark traits of their personalities if it may cause any concern over client information from a breach perspective, also to understand the Emotional Quotient of candidates whether they can handle client’s calls and their pain points effectively.

Problem 10: Insufficient use of Recruitment Metrics & Analytics

Recruiters are still to fully embrace data as a strategic asset for talent acquisition and lack the capability to effectively crunch the collected data. They need to understand the need to use data to make better decisions and improve the recruitment process.

Solution: Recruiters can work with Data Analytics experts or HR solution vendors to understand multiple data points and how they can be harnessed to answer relevant questions related to metrics of hiring. Operational & Predictive analysis using employee life cycle data for talent decisions related to recruitment/talent acquisition function can prove to be an excellent return on investment (ROI) which can contribute to reduce the cost of the business and add to profits. Some of the key metrics around the quality of hire, time to hire, cost per hire, diversity ratio, offer vs joiners, best source, candidate engagement levels can be calculated to make informed decisions. The implementation certainly requires the support of Tech experts, Leadership, Data Analyst, and HR to chalk out a plan but until started , recruiters would never know that those insights can be a game-changer in improving the recruitment processes.

Above mentioned problems are definitely some of the pain points of recruiters but if dealt with the right solutions, it can turn into an opportunity to hire the best talent. The probable solutions shared above might solve the recruiter’s problem to an extent. Do read the experiences of other recruiters too and learn from them to have a smooth ride. A recruiter should update oneself on new technologies and trends to come up with innovative solutions of hiring required to conquer the territory of top talent. Each good candidate recruited can be a strong pillar and contribute to the overall growth of the organization.

Cheers!!

Nidhi