5 Reasons Why Your Recruiting Efforts Are Not Paying Off5 min read

You’ve done your homework, prepared the job posting, but the recruitment process is still going slowly or not budging at all. Recruiting new employees is never easy, but sometimes it feels like you’ve done everything you possibly could and it’s still not paying off. If you find yourself in that situation, you should re-evaluate your recruitment efforts and consider these next key aspects. They could be at the root of your problems.

1. Attracting the Wrong Kind of Candidates

One of the most common complaints recruiters have is that they simply cannot find the right candidate. This is often the case with retail jobs or employment in the food industry and other similar fields in which there are a lot of openings. Candidates expect the jobs to be easy, so they apply without considering if they are genuinely qualified.

In this situation, the first thing you’ll want to look at is your job posting. Are the requirements clearly spelled out? Ideally, you’ll want it all written down as a bulleted list. Avoid using vague terms and phrases or adding too many skills and requirements on the list.

2. Looking for a Unicorn

If the job posting is well-written and clear, you should look towards your own recruitment process. Specifically, the profile of your ideal candidate. It’s only natural you’ll want to hire the best of the best. You shouldn’t leave room for compromise unless you really have to.

However, you can go overboard. In HR terms this is known as looking for a unicorn. It’s a candidate with a perfect record, tons of experience, all the skills you could possibly want, young, and friendly. However, that’s a candidate so perfect that there’s little chance they actually exist.

Sometimes unicorns do show up, but the chance of that happening is incredibly small. Consider if the time and resource investment it takes to look for this unicorn is really worth it. You may have some very pleasant surprises with candidates that seem inexperienced but are willing to learn or candidates that appear to lack certain skills but make up for it in other departments. Giving up on your dream to find a unicorn is not a compromise. It’s a smart way to do business.

3. Leaving Good Candidates in the Dark

You’ve finally found a couple of candidates you like and seem to be a good match for your company. You’re getting ready to call them for the next phase of the recruitment process and suddenly discover that they’ve already picked up a job somewhere else or are no longer interested in your offer. Why is that?

People sometimes change their minds when it comes to job offers. It’s only natural, and there’s not much you can do about that. But in some cases, this could have been avoided. Part of the recruitment process should include a follow-up protocol.

They might not end up being the candidate you go for in the end. But keeping them in the dark about the state of their application is sure to drive them away. Nobody likes the feeling of uncertainty, especially when it comes to a job offer.

4. Not Paying Enough Attention to Company Culture

You may be tempted to think that you are completely in charge of the hiring process. But the truth is candidates also have access to information about your company and based on that they can decide if they want to join your team or not.

Company culture is more important than ever in today’s job market both for candidates and recruiters alike. Young people, in particular, pay much more attention to these aspects than previous generations. If you don’t pay enough attention to your company culture and the way in which you present it, it can send the wrong message to your candidates. They need to know you share the same concerns and principles.

Even if you’ve never really thought about your company culture before, you can be sure it’s there. The way in which you do business, how you relate to your employees and how your employees are encouraged to interact between each other, these things go into developing your company culture. All you need to do is package it right in a few, clear principles and stick to them.

5. A Weak Online Presence

You may be tempted to think that your online presence doesn’t matter all that much when it comes to recruiting. You’ve posted your offer on your website and a job application platform, and that’s that.

Many companies use social media to screen their potential employees. However, you should bear in mind that you are not the only one doing this. Candidates will also look for your company to get a better feel of what it would be like to work for you.

This is why it is very important to have a strong online presence. It’s no longer optional. Most companies have social media profiles, so it’s likely your competitors have one as well. A website with barely any content and no social media profile is going to be very off-putting. Candidates might prefer going to a company that is less of a gamble and provides more information about themselves.

All in all, talent can be hard to find, but you don’t have to invest tons of resources into the recruitment process in order to obtain it. Sometimes all you need is a shift in perspective and a little bit more trust on both sides.

Author: Maria