Why Is Recruitment Failing Massively?

Employers are facing challenges in recruitment due to a combination of structural and market-driven factors, as well as essential misconceptions about the nature of the recruitment process and how it can be optimised. By understanding the fundamental nature of recruitment and addressing misconceptions, employers can develop more effective recruitment strategies that align with their business goals and attract the right candidates.

What Is Recruitment?

Recruitment is defined as “the process of finding and hiring the best-qualified candidate for a job, in a timely and cost-effective manner.” Another definition goes further and says, “Recruitment covers the entire hiring process, from inception to the individual recruit’s integration into the company.” That is how recruitment should work in an ideal world.

How Does It Work in Real Life?

The recruitment process can be flawed. With employers turning to recruitment agencies for their expertise in finding top talent, but sometimes these agencies rely heavily on job postings and resume databases, resulting in a flood of duplicated job postings.

When an employer hires a recruitment agency, they agree on the job ad content, and the recruiter posts it on job boards. In an effort to achieve their targets faster, recruiters then scour databases to identify potential candidates. They screen CVs and contact candidates to check if they are actively looking for a job or wish to change their current job.

Other recruitment agencies often see an opportunity and approach the same employer to offer ‘contingency recruitment’. This is where the second wave of lowering standards begins. We have witnessed multiple recruiters, up to five, fighting for the same recruitment opportunity with the same client. The evidence from the labour market suggests, however, that these multiple recruiters often have the same group of candidates that are available within a specific market segment.

If recruiters cannot find candidates that match the requirements on their list ideally (100%), headhunting steps into the process.

Struggling with time and quality, many employers decide to advertise the vacancy themselves, which can sometimes clash with what they have agreed on with multiple recruiting agencies. This leads to different entities running the same ad for the same job, and some are rerunning their ads for months.

What Is on Offer

Recruitment services are offered under a variety of models, with contingency recruitment (fee based on the candidate’s salary upon hiring), retained/executive search (up-front fee paid), and on-demand recruitment (hourly rate) being the most common.

However, the model of ‘recruitment process outsourcing’, which involves outsourcing the entire recruitment function, is often overlooked and viewed as a low-cost but higher-risk option.

The roles of recruiting and sourcing have reversed. Sourcing has taken the lead in the hiring process.

What Do the Key Stakeholders in the Process Say?

Employers frequently express concern that recruitment agencies prioritise selling and managing databases and job boards rather than objectively assessing and selecting the most suitable candidates.

A lack of expertise and best practices in conducting professional assessments can result in failures when testing the technical knowledge of candidates and lead to a gap in the quality of talent selection. As a result, employers may be left with a talent pool that falls short of their expectations.

Conversely, recruiters voice their concerns that employers are often unwilling to consider the best candidates due to internal factors such as bias, stereotyping, and discrimination.

The selection process often relies on subjective bias and stereotypes rather than objective assessment of candidates.

The Most Common Factors That Contribute to Recruitment Failure

While we all recognise the importance of recruitment in any business, it often falls short of delivering the desired results, resulting in the organisation’s failure to attract and hire the appropriate talent capable of driving positive changes.

From high turnover rates to poor job fit, recruitment can lead to a range of problems that can impact a company’s bottom line. To address these issues, it is essential to identify the factors that cause recruitment to fail.

Poor Interviewing Practice

The quality of the recruitment process is significantly affected by interviewing and the questions that are generic, poorly constructed or based on subjective biases and stereotypes. Both sides experience anxiety, frustration and disappointment when hiring is based on inadequate interviewing. An example of this is when questions solely focus on a candidate’s background and their personal life challenges rather than their skills and qualifications, which results in the selection of a less talented candidate. To ensure fairness, equity, and effective selection of the most qualified candidates, an objective set of interview questions focused on a candidate’s skills, experience, and suitability for the role is essential.

Lack of Diversity

Diversity is essential for attracting and hiring high-performing employees, but many organisations struggle to attract a diverse pool of candidates. Biases and discrimination can lead to qualified candidates being overlooked due to factors such as age, gender, race, or ethnicity.?This can result in a preference for candidates with similar backgrounds, experiences, or education. Focusing only on these factors can exclude qualified candidates whose diverse perspectives and abilities could contribute to achieving higher levels of performance.

To address this issue, it is important to develop a recruitment process that is designed to eliminate discrimination and bias. This can be done by using standardised screening criteria, removing identifying information from resumes, and ensuring that diverse interview panels are used, as well as panel members who do not have conflicts of interest.

It is also important to provide training to recruiters and hiring managers on identifying and addressing discrimination and unconscious bias. Employers can also expand their recruitment efforts to reach a wider pool of candidates by partnering with diverse community organisations or attending job fairs in underrepresented communities.

Lack of Psychometric Assessment

Despite the proven effectiveness of psychometric assessments in identifying candidates with the necessary skills and personality traits for a job, the majority of recruiters still do not utilise them as part of the recruitment process. As a result, employers are left to make assumptions about candidates, and those involved in the selection process often take on the role of an amateur psychologist. This approach leads to a lack of objective information about candidates, which usually results in hiring decisions that are not aligned with the organisation’s needs or goals. Although psychometric testing is crucial in recruitment, many organisations face a challenge in utilising it effectively due to the lack of qualified staff trained in professional psychometric profiling.

Lack of Assessment for Knowledge and Skills

Recruiters and employers have almost completely abandoned the use of knowledge tests. Without these tests, there is no way to ensure that candidates have the necessary knowledge and skills to perform the job they are applying for. This can lead to poor hiring decisions and a high turnover rate, as employees who lack the necessary skills and knowledge may struggle to perform their job effectively. Employers may end up spending more money and time on training employees who are not qualified for the job, which can be a significant drain on resources.

No Methods in Place to Select Highly Engaged Talent

Finding and hiring highly engaged talent is not an easy task. These employees are critical to the success of any organisation, as they are more productive, efficient, and innovative. It requires a careful assessment of the candidate’s skills, experience, and personality to ensure that they have been recognised as outstanding during a comprehensive and fair recruitment and selection process.

Unfortunately, many recruiters and hiring managers fail to identify these qualities in candidates, and this need of employers is hardly ever met by a hastily performed and biased selection process. As a result, employers believe that recruiters fail to find candidates who have the talent and capacity to contribute more than the generic job spec suggests. The truth is, that to address this issue, employers need to focus on talent engagement as a key factor in their recruitment and hiring strategies. As it is, for now, employers are left with a talent pool that may not meet their expectations and contribute less to the organisation’s growth.

What We Can Do for You

Our team can serve as your external Talent Acquisition Unit, providing you with services offered under our Recruitment and Talent Acquisition Model that was designed to meet yours needs for finding and retaining the best talent. With 30 years of experience in recruitment, selection, and executive search, we have a proven track record of success in both executive and non-executive roles.

By partnering with us, you can access the benefits of a highly effective recruitment process while only paying a fraction of the costs associated with an in-house team or recruitment agent. We can help you integrate recruitment with a comprehensive talent management strategy and organisational culture that supports long-term growth and success. If you are interested in learning more about our services, please do not hesitate to call us at +44 (0) 7783 908571, submit an inquiry, or request a meeting. Let us help you build the team that will drive your business forward.

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This article was also published on People Director's blog.