7 Challenges Facing Today’s Recruiter

The world of recruiting has rarely been so competitive. With over 4500 recruitment start-ups joining the UK market in 2016 alone and a major skills shortage making top talent scarce, recruiters have to be smarter, faster, and more skilled than ever to get ahead.

Here are some common problems for recruiters (and how to overcome them).

1. Problem: A lack of good candidates.

Top candidates are hired within a shockingly quick time frame ( last week I know one candidate went from brief to decision in 72 hours) so you need to be lightning fast and devilishly effective when acting on leads. Outdated, overly narrow, or inefficient recruiting techniques will seriously hurt your chances of attracting the type of talent you need to place in order to succeed.

Solution: Hone your talent mapping and time management skills, streamline your processes, network like crazy, and get data on your side. Are you using the LinkedIn Talent Pool to locate geographic clusters of available talent? Do you have the best technology available, and have you ensured your database isn’t riddled with outdated information? Are you networking in every spare moment?

Are you connecting with the upcoming hot candidates to funnel them into your talent pool? Have you put serious attention into improving your job-spec writing skills? Do you sparkle on social media?

2. Problem: Fierce competition.
You’re far from the only choice for recruitment solutions. Not only do you have to compete with a horde of other hungry recruiters (with thousands more companies joining the market each year), but you’re also up against job boards, social media, advertising, RPO’s, and internal recruiters you need to please and work with.

Solution: Prove why and how your services outstrip the rest. Use case studies, referrals, and social proof to impress clients, and be very clear about the limitations of the rival recruitment techniques—as well as how you can utilise some of those tools (such as social media, LinkedIn search, and job-boards) to create multi-pronged recruitment strategy which delivers .

3. Problem: Your brand is weak.

Perhaps your company brand is failing to stand out in the sea of recruitment companies. Or perhaps it’s deeper than that- it’s your personal brand as a recruiter than needs some work to make candidates and prospective clients notice you.

Solution: It’s time to network like crazy, build your social media platform, publish some hard-hitting blogs, comment on recruitment forums and get yourself known. How can you hitch your name to something special, and make your own star rise? Consider speaking gigs in your recruitment field, running seminars for this year’s crop of grads, and doing a huge blitz on growing your client leads.

4. Problem: Your client isn’t sharing enough information for you to do your job.
Whether it’s giving zero feedback about unsuccessful applicants or not giving sufficient information in the first place to write a great job description, this is a gnarly, frustrating situation that you must learn to manage with skill and diplomacy.

Solution: Ask the hiring manager searching questions about the role and the company culture, and what kind of person they imagine succeeding in the role. (You’ll soon get a picture of what they value in candidates.) If they’re still not forthcoming about details of the role, it’s quite possible the hiring manager doesn’t actually have the in-depth knowledge you need, so ask permission to contact the direct manager or the outgoing employee to find out specifics.

5. Problem: The client’s expectations are unrealistic.

Whether the salary’s too low or the company just doesn’t have the prestige to attract really high quality candidates they’re hoping for, you need to frame this one very delicately.
Solution: Always explain your concerns backed with data that shows why they’re not competing in recruiting top talent. Use data tools like LinkedIn Talent Pool to show them how few skilled candidates exist in the area, and display industry salary benchmarks and rival job ads if the offered salary is too low.

Your job here is to gently guide them towards either lowering their expectations or offering a more attractive package (and in some cases, both.)

6. Problem: Your passive candidates are cheating on you.
You’ve expended significant effort to source and reach out to a top passive candidate, and you’ve treated them to a lovely lunch. You were charming and persuasive, and they’ve agreed to an interview. You’re thrilled.

Yet your passive candidate has almost certainly walked away from that lunch thinking ‘Well that was interesting. But if I’m going to interview for that role, I may as well see what else is out there. What was my last recruiter’s name? She was great. I should also call…’ Your chances of placing this top-calibre candidate are shrinking by the second.

Solution: You need to ensure this candidate is interviewed FAST, and that they are treated to a very good interview experience. Brief the hiring manager on what the candidate is looking for, encourage a friendly conversational style interview over a more formal interrogation, and encourage the company to get a senior executive to drop by and meet the candidate. Above all, make sure the candidate isn’t messed around—the company must also be ready to make a quick decision and be transparent about opportunities and expectations.

7. Problem: A rapidly changing recruitment landscape.

For successful recruiters, ‘every day’s a school day’, and those that don’t keep pace with the changes will fail to make placements and secure new clients.

Solution: Average skills will get you nowhere in today’s market, so it’s your responsibility to hone your pitches, study up on recruitment trends and best practices, and study your industry until you become the office expert, and become a lean, mean, recruiting machine!

There are some significant challenges for today’s recruiters, but as in all markets, there are exciting opportunities for growth too.

Until next time,

Cheryl