We published an article not long ago called “Four Big Hiring Challenges and How to Overcome Them.” In it, we detailed four common hiring challenges that hiring managers face, and then we gave tips on how to diagnose them and ultimately succeed in finding the right hire.
There are so many additional challenges to talk about that we decided to create a brand-new list. Here are four more hiring challenges, complete with advice on how to overcome each one of them.
We keep losing candidates to our competitors
This is one of the most common challenges impacting the job market today. In fact, in an article by Ladders, Peter Yang, Co-Founder of ResumeGo, expressed it like this:
While we offer competitive salaries and a host of employee benefits, many times job candidates are more drawn to the perceived status and job stability associated with bigger companies.
If this challenge has been a roadblock for you, you need to ask yourself what it is that people are getting from these other companies that you’re not providing. Yang’s statement gives us an important clue, as he mentions “perceived status” and “job stability” as things people are looking for from these other companies. Can your company offer these things? If not, why is that?
If you haven’t yet looked into this, prepare to open a tightly packed can of wriggly worms. The answers to these questions might get to fundamental issues with your business practice. Yet, these answers are crucial in getting to the core of this problem, so they should be addressed sooner rather than later.
So let’s talk about the elephant in the room here: perceived status. It’s interesting that Yang chose to say “perceived status” rather than simply saying “status,” and we’re confident that this was a deliberate word choice. This implies that some companies have a level of status that causes people to automatically think of them rather than their competitors. If you ask a random person on the street to pick between two similar companies, their answer will probably be based off a general perception rather than extensive research.
Let’s be clear, companies are very intentionally creating and curating this perception. This isn’t random or automatic.
How can you create a positive perception of your company? We’ve said this before, but it involves becoming an Employer of Choice. An Employer of Choice is the sort of company that cultivates this perceived status among highly valued candidates. If you’re losing candidates to a competitor, that competitor is likely better at living out the core values of an Employer of Choice.
Those core values are:
- Consistency
- Creativity
- Competitiveness
- Innovation
- Flexibility
- Adaptability
We have an entire article that goes over all of these in great detail, so we won’t do that again here. These values are what people are looking for in an employer. Applying them and effectively living them out on a daily basis is what separates Employers of Choice from other companies.
Candidates keep asking about remote work opportunities
If this has been a challenge for you, it’s time for some real talk. The job market that exists now looks radically different than the one that existed just a decade ago. We’re living in an environment of constant change, and that means workplaces are evolving at a rapid clip. To keep talent interested, you’re going to have to rise to the challenges of the 21st Century workplace.
The very simple solution is offering remote work opportunities. If people keep asking about it, it means you’re perceived as being in a position to offer it. If you’re not offering it, why not?
We’ve created a list of reasons you should let employees work from home, and a few reasons you might be hesitant to open that Pandora’s box. Read that article if you need any convincing. The simple fact of the matter is that this is a modern-day expectation, and by not allowing it, you’re making your company seem out of date to potential hires.
Be flexible, and the next time a great candidate asks if you offer remote opportunities, respond with, “Yes we do, and we’d love to talk about those!”
Candidates are underqualified
Are you spending a lot of time sifting through resumes, only to find out in the end that not a single person who applied actually possessed the qualifications you’re asking for? There are numerous causes for this, but we’ll talk about two of the biggest ones.
First off, you might simply be offering too low a salary for the position. The reality is that you’re not going to get highly qualified candidates applying for positions with entry-level salaries, even if those positions are high-level. If you want quality, you must be willing to pay for it.
The other possibility we want to talk about is that your qualifications might be off base. You might have to adjust your expectations a bit. How much experience is really necessary? Can you be a little less strict about this? Can you reduce some of these expectations if you offer better training?
If you’re almost exclusively hearing from candidates who don’t quite meet your prerequisites, try looking for candidates that have proven track records at being fast learners, then offer them training. If you’re unwilling to raise that salary, you might have to home-grow your own experts.
There’s nothing wrong with hiring someone for their potential rather than their history. After all, the work they will be doing for you is in the future, not the past.
We don’t have the resources to be constantly looking for new recruits
You have to cultivate an environment of hiring. If you read a lot of recruiting blogs like ours, you’re probably familiar with the idea already. If this is your first time encountering this concept, it basically just means you’re always ready to hire. Instead of having to shift focus from your main tasks to the hiring process, hiring should be a regular point of focus that never really goes away.
The reason for this is simple: The sudden departure of a necessary employee should never disrupt the essential functions of your company.
Of course, this is easier said than done, and if you simply don’t have the resources to nurture the “always hiring” workplace, you’ll need some support. Thankfully, this is where staffing agencies come in. Staffing agencies like Staffing Proxy maintain that “always hiring” mindset so you don’t have to. If you simply can’t give up the time or money to kickstart the hiring process, you’re better off in the hands of companies that specialize in that very thing.
If you’re looking for new recruits but haven’t been able to start the process due to time or money, get in contact with Staffing Proxy today. We’d love to help you make your next connection.
