Recruitment and Selection Challenges

Recruitment and Selection can specify as a process of seeking the best applicants and selecting the best individuals out of them, based on organizational needs. However, recruitment and Selection are so complex that they may face problems if recruiters do not pay enough attention to specific details (Ye, 2022).

Some of the most common recruitment challenges are listed below and suggestions to overcome them;

Attracting the right candidates:

Selecting the right candidate from a pool of unqualified talents is difficult. Even if one good person is selected out of that, he/she will not be the best fit for the job. So it is not about the number of applicants; it's more about hiring the right people from a smaller pipeline of more qualified talent. Asking direct questions eliminates unsuited candidates (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

Engaging qualified candidates:

Good candidates are hard to find. Additionally, they consider several job offers simultaneously and are contacted by recruiters, making it even harder for the organizations to compete (Rani and Venkatraman, 2020). Therefore, recruiters need extra effort to attract and convince rare talents to choose the organization over competitors. The best way to overcome this issue is to research what motivates qualified candidates and design advertisements, websites, social media sites or sourcing emails more attractively (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

Hiring fast:

Organizations want to fill vacant positions without delays; vacant positions cost money and delay operations. However, in some industries hiring process may take several months. In addition, sometimes due to lack of qualified candidates slow the hiring process. Excessive qualification requirements for a position of modest job role can also lead to delays. For example, a real estate company is looking for doorkeepers but searching for candidates with a high school diploma and some technological qualification, such as IT (Ye, 2022).

Building a strong employer brand:

An excellent organizational brand helps to attract skilled candidates to the organization. It is a complex process to promote organizational culture on social media. Sites like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Facebook can use to promote the company culture. It should include good candidate experience as well. It is a collective effort from the organization and employees to step out from daily work and promote the organization. Always reply to online reviews; employees should tell their stories about their work and what they like and maintain blogs and videos. Foremost if the employer is good, it will reflect naturally (Weerawardena and Weerasinghe, 2018).

Ensuring a good candidate experience:

Organizations should treat the candidate fairly and respectfully. How organizations treat candidates during recruitment will reflect how they treat them after hiring. If they had a bad experience, it is unlikely they will accept the offer, which may also affect the employer's brand. Inform candidates when they should expect to hear back, and do not leave them in the dark throughout the recruitment process. Provide constructive feedback. Communication is crucial (Rozario, Venkatraman and Abbas, 2019).

From the author's point of view, waiting in the lobby till the interview starts for a longer period creates a bad first impression about the employer. Sometimes potential candidates may give up if the punctuation is not there.

Recruiting fairly:

Diversity makes organizations perform better. However, many companies struggle to attract diverse candidates. The main reason is unconscious biases. Therefore, the main objective of recruitment and selection is to offer the job to the most skilled and suitable candidate without biases (Ye, 2022).

Creating an efficient recruiting process:

Administrative tasks like evaluating CVs and scheduling interviews take a considerable time for an organization's HR department. Time is critical for experienced, skilled workers. Hiring the best person for the organization may be jeopardized if the hiring team does not act fast. Hiring teams must evaluate candidates quickly, communicate fast and keep track of every step in the recruitment process to ensure good candidate experience and ultimately recruit the best possible person to the organization (Rani and Venkatraman, 2020).

Tips to overcome common challenges;

Build a talent pool:

Maintain a talent pool with candidates who previously advanced to the final stage. This will help the organization's hiring time and recruiting costs (Ye, 2022).

Train hiring teams:

Provide adequate training for recruiters to enhance their hiring skills. This will minimize Unconscious bias. How to prepare for an interview, How to reduce biases and mock interviews are some training ideas that can provide to recruiters. 

Based on a survey, the following Graph shows that most organizations do not provide enough professional interview trainings to their recruiters (Rozario, Venkatraman and Abbas, 2019).

Figure 1.0 : Interview training by Organization:

Source: (Rozario, Venkatraman and Abbas, 2019).

Diversify recruiting strategies:

Using social media to promote the organization, Showcasing the company culture, benefits and employee stories on a company website or blog and attending job fairs or college recruits are some of the methods that can use by organizations to diversify their recruitment strategies (Rathee and Bhuntel, 2017).

 

Invest in an ATS:

Invest into a system like ATS (Application Tracking System) to streamline the process and maintain candidate information (Rozario, Venkatraman and Abbas, 2019).

 

As per the survey by CIPD, 'Over four-fifths of those that had attempted to recruit in the previous 12 months experienced difficulties (Figure 25), nearly half (49%) experienced challenges in attracting suitable candidates, while three in ten had an excessive number of applicants to process. Over a quarter report logistical challenges in terms of facilitating socially distanced recruitment processes, and the pandemic is also likely to have contributed to the challenges of onboarding new hires (32%)' (RESOURCING AND TALENT PLANNING SURVERY| REPORTS | CIPD, 2021).

 

Figure 2.0: Recruitment challenges experienced in the year 2020 (% of those who attempted to recruit):

 

Source: (RESOURCING AND TALENT PLANNING SURVERY| REPORTS | CIPD, 2021).

REFERENCES:

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. 13th ed. www.koganpage.com.

CIPD. 2021. Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey | Reports | CIPD. [online] Available at: < https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/resourcing/surveys> [Accessed 15 August 2022].

Rani, B. and Venkatraman, P., 2020. A STUDY ON CHALLENGES OF RECRUITERS ON SOURCING THE RIGHT CANDIDATE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SKILLS HR. EPRA International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (IJMR) - Peer Reviewed Journal, 6(5), pp.422-433.

Rathee, R. and Bhuntel, R., 2017. BENEFITS, CHALLENGES AND IMPACT OF E-RECRUITMENT. VSRD International Journal of Business and Management Research, 7(7), pp.113-138.

Rozario, S., Venkatraman, S. and Abbas, A., 2019. Challenges in Recruitment and Selection Process: An Empirical Study. Challenges, 10(2), p.35.

Weerawardena, S. and Weerasinghe, T., 2018. EFFECT OF EMPLOYER BRANDING ON EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT: EVIDENCE FROM GENERATION Y UNDERGRADUATES. HRM Perspectives, pp.61-80.

Ye, G., 2022. Critically Discuss Challenges and Recommendations in Recruitment and Selection. Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, 648, pp.274-279.