• Jan 19, 2023

5 Recruitment Challenges HR Leaders Are Facing Today and in the Near Future

What makes an organization successful? This question has countless answers, but one of the most definitive is – ‘its people’. Without skilled talent who fuel the operation of a business and help achieve its strategic objectives, an organization wouldn’t be able to thrive and grow.

This is precisely why recruiting the right people with the right skill sets is so essential. However, with the effects of The Great Resignation still at play, the talent crisis looming, and a global skills shortage on the rise, the current work environment isn’t making recruiting any easier.

There are many challenges HR teams are facing in their pursuit to find the best talent. Understanding these challenges and adjusting recruiting strategies to mitigate their negative impact will ensure your organization is set up for future success. Here are five recruitment challenges you need to be aware of and some recommended solutions for how to overcome them.

1. The War for Talent

We’re still in what is now called ‘the post-pandemic age’, where the war for talent is more prevalent than ever, and talent supply is far from meeting market demands. 71% of organizations say they have more open positions now than ever before, highlighting the fact that there are more job postings than there are skilled people to fill them.

Even with the recession approaching, 65% of HR executives believe talent recruitment challenges will still be an issue, with one stating " While it [the recession] may make it easier to retain staff, I don’t think that it will make it easy to recruit into new areas – e.g., new skill sets that are required. So recruiting to develop the team’s capabilities, especially in key areas of talent, will continue to be difficult."
In many industries, job seekers now have the upper hand, allowing them to be more selective about the roles they accept and the companies they become a part of. This shift in power dynamics has required organizations to respond with enhanced recruiting strategies, stronger employer brands, better salary packages, and increased employee benefits.

Here are some solutions to your recruitment challenges:

• Start reskilling your people. Many companies are tackling the talent shortage by reskilling their existing staff instead of seeking external hires. Provide your people with relevant training and development to build the skills your organization needs to help boost internal talent mobility and workforce agility.
• Adjust your hiring criteria. When it is required to hire externally, finding the ‘perfect’ candidate may prove difficult. It pays to broaden your perspective and look beyond traditional job requirements and instead focus on transferable and soft skills.
• Build a strong Employer Brand Proposition (EBP). Focus on enhancing your EBP and positioning your organization as an employer of choice.

2. The Skills Shortage

The skills shortage is still affecting many organizations today, with 87% of companies saying they currently have skills gaps or expect to within a few years. The shortage stems from rapid advances in technology over the last decade, along with candidates lacking the skills needed to work with these new innovations.

This has caused a widening skills gap that is impacting business performance and employee confidence. To combat these challenges, research shows that employers are investing more in employee training, hiring from diverse talent pools, and collaborating with educational institutions to help build talent pools with skills relevant to current business needs.

Some solutions to fill these skills gaps include:

• Prioritize upskilling and reskilling. Ensure your workforce has the skills needed to enable business growth by providing strategic upskilling and reskilling programs. 93% of organizations that introduce upskilling programs see increased productivity.
• Widen your talent pool: Consider untapped populations such as independent contractors, freelancers, people with disabilities, retired seniors, and college students.

3. Keeping up with changing needs

With technology continuing to evolve faster than ever, the skills organizations need are changing at a rapid rate. Recruiters now need to work harder to keep up with the needs of their organization to understand the skills and capabilities each department needs not only now, but also in the future.

Managing data and career frameworks to keep up with ongoing market changes can become extremely tedious and tiresome, leading to potential errors and outdated information. Here are solutions to help mitigate your recruitment challenges:

• Invest in a Talent Marketplace: A skills-powered talent marketplace makes sourcing the right skills and capabilities within your organization much more efficient.
• Adopt a data-driven approach: Power your decision-making with intelligent dynamic data and workforce insights.
• Use recruitment technology to find the best candidates: Using technology such as an ATS platform automates and simplifies your application process.

4. Reducing time-to-hire

A long and drawn-out recruitment process can be detrimental to filling open positions. Due to the talent shortage, open roles often remain unfilled for longer periods, causing existing staff to pick up the extra work.

To help reduce your time-to-hire:

• Build talent pipelines: Take a proactive approach and start building talent pipelines for key roles across your organization.
• Implement an ATS solution: Research indicates using an ATS has helped many professionals hire faster.

5. Biases in recruitment

Hiring biases are a major hindrance to workplace diversity and exacerbate recruitment challenges. Unconscious biases negatively impact recruitment practices and can stymie diversity and inclusion efforts.

Here are some solutions:

• Rewrite job listings: Your choice of words in job listings can influence the type of candidates you attract.
• Use blind recruitment methods: Blind recruiting removes identification details from resumes, helping to level the playing field.
• Use AI-driven technology: Automate more recruiting activities intelligently to reduce biases in hiring decisions.

While the world of recruitment today is rife with trials and tribulations, understanding what has caused these recruitment challenges goes a long way in overcoming them. It’s now up to HR and business leaders to either take a reactive or proactive approach.