5 Recruitment Challenges & Solutions for 2022

In HR, if you had to name one process as your biggest headache, what would that be? I assume that it may not be the “Rightsizing” of your organisation but most certainly, it could be “Talent Acquisition” that is generally considered as a major challenge in the world of HR. Many organisations are found questioning the reasons of the decline in recruitment quality during the past two years and linking the same with the pandemic or recession or what not. This could be due to a variety of reasons, including the capacity and quality of the talent teams that are hired to perform this very critical job. Besides, there are many other factors that are generally overlooked and the recruitment teams are targeted and held responsible for performing a below average task.

In this article, we will establish what challenges will HR professionals continue to face in 2022. To establish, we talked with our customers i.e. CEOs, Recruiters and relevant HR professionals, asked around the talent acquisition community and referred to the global talent acquisition studies and research. From which, we have identified some of the major challenges in the world of talent acquisition that HR professionals will have to tackle in the year 2022. However, we didn’t stop there! We also wanted to know how the most successful HR professionals plan to tackle these challenges. What are their best practices and expert advices? We listened and we learned and here are Top 5 recruitment challenges, followed by practical tips for solving them:

1. Employer Brand is the KEY

According to LinkedIn, an overwhelming majority (75%) of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job. And if they don’t like what they see, they won’t apply or accept your job offer. Corporate Responsibility Magazine has found that 75% of people would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation — even if they were unemployed!

In order to build your employer brand, you need to define and implement an effective employer branding strategy. You need to tell a compelling story about your company, showcase your company culture and get candidates excited to join your team. Create an attractive, responsive and branded career site and career blog, where you can present your employer brand and show candidates why your company is a great place to work. You’ll do that by presenting videos and pictures of your employees and your workplace, sharing employee testimonials and writing about the interesting projects and new technologies your teams are working with.

2. Right Fit is a MUST

The talent shortage is identified as the #1 hiring challenge today. A study by the National Federation of Independent Business has found that 87% of HR professionals reported “few or no qualified applicants” for the positions they were trying to fill. Unfortunately, this problem will only get worse. According to the McKinsey Global Institute study, companies in Europe and North America will need 16 to 18 million more educated employees that are going to be available. You will have no other choice than to enter the war for talent and compete with other companies to snatch those candidates that are qualified.

92% of the professionals would consider changing jobs if offered a role with a company with an excellent employer brand, according to CR Magazine. The problem is, all your competitors will be bombarding the same qualified candidates saying they are the best employers. How can you stand out? The answer is — through employee referrals! Qualified candidates trust their friends more than your own recruiters. Simple as that.

3. Target Passive Candidates

The way things are going, soon there will be no job seekers — only passive candidates. According to LinkedIn’s research, 70% of the global workforce is made up of passive talent who aren’t actively job searching and the remaining 30% are active job seekers. Scary statistics? The good news is that most (up to 90%) of these passive candidates are interested in hearing about new job opportunities, as reported by LinkedIn.

Since passive candidates aren’t actively looking for a job, you won’t find them checking out your career site or job portals. Instead, you have to go where they are — on social media. According to the LinkedIn survey, 49% of all professionals are following companies on social media with the intent to stay aware of their jobs. You need to utilize the power of social media and start promoting your employer brand on social media. This doesn’t mean just posting your job openings across different social media networks. You should also share stories, pictures and videos that promote your organisation as a great place to work. You should also organize different recruiting events (such as meetups, workshops, etc.) and invite potential candidates to attend.

4. Build Talent Pools

A talent pool is a database of candidates interested in working for your company. By building a talent pool, you can fill your job positions in less time with less money, because you already have candidates to choose from. The question is: how to build a high-quality talent pool filled with great potential candidates?

Invite potential candidates to join your talent network and learn more about your company as an employer and stay up to date with your company’s open job positions. Create a simple application form for your talent network. Add “Join our Talent Network” form to different places (for example: top of your career site, end of your career blogs, social media posts, Facebook career page, LinkedIn company page, next to your job openings, etc.) to reach potential candidates and ask them to join your talent network.

5. Improve the Candidates’ Experience

Career Arc’s candidate Experience Study revealed that nearly 60% of job seekers have had a poor candidate experience. As a result:

• 63% of these candidates reject a job offer (Source: Software Advice)
• 72% of these candidates tell others about it, either online or in-person
• 64% of these candidates stop purchasing goods and services from that employer

According to CareerBuilder Survey, an overwhelming 81% of candidates say that the one main thing that would greatly improve their overall candidate experience is employers continuously communicating status updates to them.

In short, if you don’t improve your candidate experience, you risk losing o not only your top candidates, but also your reputation, customers and money. First, you need to audit your current employee experience. Then, you need to take the necessary steps to improve your candidate experience.

Final Thoughts

To summarize, we all must understand that in business, there is a cost attached to everything including recruitment. So, it’s important to get it right the first time. You want to make sure that you recruit someone who’s the best professional for the job and who fits into your organization, so that you’re not facing continual turnover. here are things that a SMART Talent Team must look into:

1. Recruiters must understand the “ JOB” inside out. This is the only way they will be able to hire the very best. The Job Description (JD) should be very clear and to the point. Try to hire recruiters from cross-functional teams i.e. from the line.
2. Encourage hiring from within. According to a study by the Center for American Progress, it costs about 20 percent of an employee’s salary to replace him or her. If your organisation has a high turnover of staff, that can be very costly. Provide opportunity to your existing employees to move laterally if not horizontally.
3. Dont rely too much on the interview perception. Go beyond and use your professionalism.
4. Expecting too much, too soon from a new recruit isn’t fair. Relax and be patient. You tried your best.

5. Don’t rush or postpone just to please the line manager.

Learn how sometimes smaller things in our lives make huge impact and you can take some learnings on a personal and professional level by following me on LinkedIn and Evolve HR’s website.

Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder and Managing Director of Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan, Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.