Why Are Recruiters Burned Out?

Today’s record setting low unemployment rate can be both a blessing and a curse - depending on which lens you’re looking through. One thing though is for sure - recruiters are busier than ever. They’re constantly in search of new and creative ways to find, engage, and hire candidates. Not only that, but they need to do it all faster, in a more personalized way, in order to stay one step ahead of competing offers. In the midst of such a hot labor market, recruiters are undoubtedly feeling the burn.  

There are many reasons that recruiters face burn out. But understanding the reasons, and proactively addressing them, can make or break the effectiveness of your recruiting team.  After all, losing members of your recruiting team in such a hot economy, will only set you back. 

Across our customer network of 11,000+ ZapInfo users, we hear common reasons why recruiters tend to burn out. Here are just a few of them, along with ways you can steer clear of recruiter burnout.

1.Recruiters have too many tools that are confusing or difficult to use. 

All too often, we tend to throw more technology at a problem, versus taking a step back and examining the root cause of the problem. In recruiting, this approach leads to recruiter overload, not to mention a messy technology stack. Recruiters are left with dozens of stand alone tools and apps that don’t speak to each other, and are difficult to use. The end result is poor adoption, wasted money, and giant frustration on the part of your recruiters.  

Our community of recruiters tell us that ZapInfo allows them to extract more value from their existing tools. ZapInfo sits as a layer on top of any and all recruiting apps, helping recruiters to more easily search, extract, enrich, engage and export top talent into their existing talent or CRM apps. Rather than moving in and out of dozens of frustrating point solutions, ZapInfo removes a lot of the busy, admin work of recruiting, and let’s them focus on relationships and results. So much so, our users tell us they’ve accelerated recruiting up to 50% faster with ZapInfo!  

2. They spend a week or more chasing the wrong requirements. 

A good hiring manager / recruiter relationship is critical to success. However, all too often, there can be a lack of communication, unclear expectations, and a misunderstanding of the job requirements. Sometimes recruiters will spend a week or more chasing what they felt were qualified candidates, only to find out that they were chasing the wrong skills or specifications after a tough round of hiring manager feedback. Enter recruiter burnout.  

There are many ways talent leaders can improve the hiring manager / recruiter relationship.  Creating alignment and having regular check ins are just two of the ways. New technology can help foster and accelerate hiring manager / recruiter alignment and ensure they’ve defined the right skills and specifications, and ensure each and every candidate introduced is qualified. This saves not only days or even weeks of recruiting time, but also boosts the respect from candidates by not wasting their time, as well as hiring managers.  

3. They’re constantly trying to personalize outreach and keep up with people across their recruiting orbit.  

Any good recruiter knows that personalized outreach means better response and conversion rates. But sending tailored messages and updates to dozens of people each via email, social sites, and more, becomes one of the most time consuming parts of recruiting.  

ZapInfo removes this headache and bottleneck for recruiters by making personalization 1-click easy for recruiters. We’ll personalize LInkedIn connect requests, Facebook messages, Twitter, Instagram, emails and SMS messages in a matter of seconds..  Not only will we customize the message, but we’ll easily let recruiters pick which social site or marketing channel they’d like to send the message through, as one size never fits all. Our recruiters tell us that this automated messaging cuts their social marketing time by 50% or more.!

4.  They feel under-appreciated. 

Everyone loves a little nod or recognition of their hard work every once in a while, and recruiters are no different. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes of recruiting, that many have no idea. We always encourage recruiting and talent leaders to take time to recognize recruiters by highlighting their successes throughout the month. Some may have filled a particularly difficult role,  while others may have found creative ways to use a new tool or app that was recently implemented that might boost adoption. Regardless of how big or small, it’s important to highlight their achievements. Sometimes all recruiters need is a little recognition and confirmation that they’re doing a great job. 

Are you a recruiter facing burnout? Are you a team leader looking for ways to battle burnout? Drop us a comment below or shoot us an email [email protected] and tell us more.