Recruitment is causing stress on both sides of the fence. From ghosting at interviews to a lack of feedback for candidates. Last year, we asked what are your current recruitment challenges and we have the results, but more importantly, how can we solve them?

What did employers say to us about their recruitment challenges?

We spoke to employers from across the UK to understand their recruitment challenges and to see how they matched, or differed, to the current recruitment trends. Overwhelmingly the story across the UK for employers is the same: recruitment is difficult at the moment.

Over half of respondents feel that recruitment is difficult

Of those that we surveyed, 54% said that they felt recruitment is difficult or very difficult at the moment. That might make you think that the remaining 46% are finding recruitment easy. But this is not the case. Only 9% of respondents feel that recruitment is currently ‘easy’ and 1% finding it ‘very easy’. If you’re in the 90% that are finding recruitment less than easy the above results will hopefully make you feel less alone.

Recruitment still hasn’t returned to pre-Covid levels for employers

A massive 88.2% of respondents felt that recruitment was more difficult or just the same as pre-Covid with only 11.8% finding it easier. After all this time, we can’t keep blaming Covid alone for the recruitment challenges employers face, but we can say that it has changed things for employees in terms of working from home, flexible work-life balance and other benefits that traditional recruitment strategies don’t always lend themselves to.

Traditional recruitment strategies may be a part of the challenge

Over a third of respondents said they were:

• Struggling to find the right candidate
• Needed to use different ways to attract candidates
• Experiencing a high volume of CVs to pre-screen
• Receiving applications from candidates without the relevant skills.

All bar the last challenge can be a result of traditional recruitment not lending itself to sourcing the right candidate for a business. While the last challenge feels more focused on the prospective candidate, it maybe because job descriptions are less ‘fine-tuned’ and are resulting in lots of applicants with a range of transferable skills.

Over a third are getting ‘ghosted’

That’s right, over a third of those we surveyed were reporting ‘no shows’ at the interview stage. Meaning that those carefully selected candidates were not necessarily turning up at interview. Leaving businesses already invested a high-level of time and cost without finding the right person for their role.

But what are the answers to current recruitment challenges?

For us, the challenges point towards a need to refresh recruitment. There is a need to be increasingly detailed in job descriptions if you are hoping for candidates to come to you. Focusing in on those key skills or attributes that you want from an employee, will enable your job advert to appeal to individuals with those skills.

However, that is only part of the answer. At Good Egg Recruitment, we’ve spoken about passive versus active recruitment and investing in this can be a solution that overcomes the above challenges. But it takes time to search, build those relationships, and convert to an employee. If you have the time to invest within your business for this approach, it will help you get results.

When to invest in a recruitment consultancy like Good Egg Recruitment

If the active approach feels like the right solution to you but you don’t have the time to invest, Good Egg Recruitment can help. We have the time, experience, and expertise to understand your objectives, hone the job description, and actively source candidates for your business.

We’re always happy to have an initial no-obligation chat with you and see how we can add value to your business. Email Nicola nicola@goodeggrecruitment.com or Annette annette@goodeggrecruitment.com to book a chat today.