Recruiters have faced daunting challenges in the previous year and embraced a completely new approach to the recruitment experience. With the pandemic leaving all the economic and market conditions uncertain, the need for innovative strategies was at the frontlines of recruitment problems in the new normal. The influx of mass layoffs and budget cuts have produced challenges that demand creative and flexible approaches. HR leaders are forced to develop tech-savvy and outside-of-the-box solutions, as traditional methods like face-to-face interviews and conventional recruitment became a thing of the past in today’s workforce conditions.
One truth resonates clearly in these unprecedented times: HR leaders must view talent acquisition differently to build a resilient team of employees that can weather any economic storm. With this in mind, let’s take a deep dive into the five most common recruitment problems during the pandemic.
1. Transitioning to a digitized recruitment process
Nowadays, one of the biggest recruitment problems that hiring managers face is the difficulty in delivering a human experience from a completely digital standpoint. As with any sudden transition, the process of online hiring can be challenging. Businesses that continue to hire face various recruiter problems, such as social distancing rules for interviews, dispersed remote work setups that result in coordination issues among employees, and added difficulty of administrative tasks.
The pandemic has made one thing clear: technology is now a necessity, and virtual recruitment is here to stay. Smart HR leaders know that the best way to navigate this season is to take advantage of the technological trends. Virtual interviews are a win in this setup because they are faster, less costly, and more efficient. It also reflects a humanized employer brand as it demonstrates that you prioritize your employees’ and candidates’ safety in this ongoing health crisis.
Additionally, there’s no better time to invest in HR tech to automate administrative tasks so your recruiters can focus on more critical things like candidate experience. Modern recruitment tools like Great Recruiters provide the much-needed help you need to speed up your hiring process, increase candidate engagement, and improve your brand reputation.
2. Maintaining positive candidate experience
Building rapport and demonstrating a humanized employer brand makes a difference in creating a positive candidate experience. As the world copes with a global health crisis, recruiters have to be mindful of candidates’ feelings of stress and isolation because the last thing they want to go through is a complicated recruitment process.
To get rid of recruitment problems such as this, recruiters should value the quality of their interactions with candidates. Going the extra mile in regularly updating candidates on their application’s progress will make them feel valued. Emails or message notifications can be simple ways to keep talent engagement strong with minimal cost and effort. In contrast, keeping them in the loop of unexpected delays can remove the negative perceptions that come from feelings of detachment from employers.
As you regularly get in touch with them, you put the talents at ease and allow them time to prepare for each application phase. This overall feeling of a personal candidate experience contributes to a positive hiring experience and a stronger employer reputation. At the end of the day, businesses that demonstrate genuine support and care will not go unnoticed.
3. Implementing flexible recruitment options to bridge the talent gap
Even at the onset of high unemployment in the pandemic, American companies are having difficulty filling an estimated four million job vacancies. In fact, finding the right talent is proving to be more challenging during this time because of a surge in unemployment, budget cuts, and stricter recruitment criteria. For this reason, recruiters are turning to flexible recruitment strategies to secure the best applicants that will increase quality-of-hire and yield the most return on investment in these uncertain market conditions.
Luckily, the pandemic has shown that geography is no longer a problem when it comes to hiring the right candidate. Taking advantage of the globalized talent pools will increase your chances of finding a qualified candidate best suited for the position you’re looking for. As you prioritize skill over the location, you open your brand to better opportunities in talent acquisition.
Contract hiring is also another option that’s gaining more traction with recruiters. This is ideal for filling in talent gaps for short-term projects or finding specialists to get a specific job done without having to offer long-term commitment. The recruiting flexibility that contract hiring offers has grown to be more attractive during the pandemic as HR leaders can easily adjust workforce costs in times of recession without the pressure that comes with having to end a permanent contract.
4. Going beyond face-to-face impartations to communicate company culture
For many businesses, culture is imparted through face-to-face interactions. However, with the shift to remote work, HR leaders must find ways to communicate brand values digitally to new candidates. Aligning the workforce with the company’s culture is critical because the best brand ambassadors that your company will have are those who make up the organization.
The key is a clearly defined employer brand and well-told story. Effective employer brands are relevant not only to your business but also to your employees’ needs. It should clearly define your company culture, vision, brand identity, employee value proposition, and development programs. When you have a clearly articulated employer brand, attracting the right candidates who share the same values as you will be easier.
Storytelling can also work wonders in helping your potential candidates capture your vision better. With the latest HR tech trends, you have easy access to digital tools that can help you create assets to highlight your culture better. Whether it’s through onboarding videos, employee testimonials, virtual event features, and even virtual CEO speeches, imparting your culture is made easier with technology.
5. Hiring with inclusivity and diversity
Redefined inclusivity and diversity programs took priority as quality-of-hire became more emphasized. Studies show that companies that hire for diversity become more innovative and increase revenue. Considering this in the context of uncertainties, an innovative team with different perspectives can give differing views of the market and identify new growth opportunities for your business.
The best place to start is by adopting a new hiring approach. Recruiters should be intentional in ensuring job descriptions are relevant to candidates from different backgrounds and not exclude anyone. On top of this, you should venture beyond the usual recruitment platforms and tap into a more diverse set of talent pools outside of the company’s usual base market. By looking beyond traditional recruitment methods, you reach a bigger audience and improve the odds of finding the right candidate for the job.
Eliminate recruitment problems with a better hiring strategy.
Take advantage of recruitment best practices and strategies to make your hiring more efficient. Technological improvements and feedback gathering can also help enhance your hiring process. If you are thinking about implementing a staffing and feedback gathering platform to help you keep track of your recruitment performance, check out Great Recruiters. This reputation management platform for recruiters will make it easier for you to gather insights and candidate feedback, so that you can better manage your processes and tackle common recruitment problems altogether in one system.
If you want to find out how you can better redefine your recruitment strategies through the Great Recruiters platform, contact us today to schedule a demo.
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