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9 Reasons Inefficient Recruitment is Costing You Candidates

18/10/2021
4
min read
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Are you having issues attracting top candidates in the industry? Or perhaps you are losing top candidates to your competitors, wasting a lot of money and time in the recruitment process all in vain.

If so, it could mean there are some weighty issues with your hiring process. Yes, your recruitment process is inefficient.

Without the right approach for recruitment, it's challenging to keep up with the competition. While there is no sure way for successful recruitment, knowing what to avoid is key. So, where are you getting it wrong?

The following are nine key reasons why inefficient recruitment is costing you, candidates.

1. Inaccurate Job Description

How do you create that job description post? Do you give the correct information? It's vital to describe the job honestly and accurately when advertising it.

Giving inaccurate descriptions could hinder you from attracting competent and adept candidates. A good job description is beyond giving a list of responsibilities. In the description, explain the role with respect to key responsibilities and overall purpose.

Give your candidates full information about the hiring process and organisational culture. The goal is to be transparent and let them decide if your organisation suits them.

Don't over-hype the position for candidates to believe it offers opportunities that don't exist. Doing this only increases the turnover rate. Imagine being promised a promotion after five months only to realize it was to entice you.

They quit; top talent candidates are less likely to work for an ingenuine firm.

Write a job description that will attract the most suitable candidates for your company.

2. Failing To Consider Internal Recruitment

Do you know the right candidates could be right in front of you, but you can't see them? You don't involve your employees in the recruiting process.

Is your HR department efficient enough to get you the right talent? By now, it has proved otherwise. So, what will it cost to implement an employee referral program to get the best candidates?

By using your employees' extensive and personalised social networks, it's easier to find candidates. In the recruitment sector, word of mouth plays a critical role.

For the success of this program, reward employees with bonuses if they recommend a candidate. This can easily inspire them even to find the right talents for the vacant position. Don't forget they already know what your company is seeking in a candidate?

Also, engaging your current employees to find new hires makes the process efficient, saves time and money.

Ensure your employees are happy and satisfied to be working for you. Survey to understand how happy the staff is. By keeping your existing clients happy, you can easily attract top talents.

If you are currently recruiting, why do you try employee referrals?

3. Long Interview Process

How long do you take to present job offers to your successful candidates?

Let's face it; you want a thorough interview process to determine if candidates are the right match, right? But how long will a candidate wait if they have alternative job offers coming in?

In simple terms, don't lengthen the interview process. You end up losing candidates who can't wait that long. If there is a licit reason, communicate to candidates about the possibility of the process taking longer during the interview.

Don't let your competitors get what's yours. Implement innovative recruitment strategies to make the process quicker and more efficient. Video interviewing is a great option to make recruitment faster and reduce the time to hire.

4. Long reference checking processes

How much do you trust the provided information on a resume? Are you aware that the majority of your candidates will give information to impress? This means most of the information on the resume can't be relied on.

While a candidate may have impressive qualifications on the resume, conduct a background check and take time to understand the insights obtained in reference checks. It's a conscious step to confirm the veracity of the provided information.

Reference checking should be fast and easy. Automating reference checks reduces the number of days in the hiring process and the number of hours that HR professionals need to spend on manual tasks.

When hiring a candidate, look beyond the eye-catching info on the resume. Determine if the candidate has the right skills by administering an exercise or test related to the position.

5. No Feedback

Do you provide timely feedback to candidates about their performance? If you don't, you could be spurning your candidates. It's frustrating and disappointing to lack any feedback about the interview's performance.

Irrespective of the candidate you are selecting, give honest feedback about their performance after the interview. Could you not make them feel disregarded?

Providing feedback to candidates can make you stand out and attract the best candidates.

In addition, it's important to get candidates' feedback. What was their experience during the recruitment process? Interview feedback is a two-way mechanism.

To improve on your recruitment process, you need insights from individuals who have already gone through the process. Inquire from them about the efficiency and smoothness of the process. Are candidates and hiring managers satisfied with the hiring process?

This information is fundamental to helping you rethink the hiring process and transform it to be result-oriented.

6. Dismissing Candidates

What do you do to those candidates who don't suit a certain role? Besides, not every candidate who applies for a role is suitable.

Note that even though a candidate lacks skills for a certain role, it doesn't mean they are not talented. What if some after some months you need an employee to fill a vacancy which they are a good fit. Will you find them?

It's important to maintain a proper recruits database to have options in the future.

7. Expecting Too Much, Too Soon

How long do your new hires take to reach productivity? Do you expect too much from them, or do they take so long?

It takes about three months for a new employee to integrate into your team and produce results fully. But why are your recruits taking so long?

During the initial weeks, you want to help new hires to acquaint themselves with the firm's goal. Introduce the employee to the existing team and make them feel welcome. Make them feel comfortable to ask questions or seek advice from team members.

If employees are taking too long before showing significant results, your recruitment process could be the issue. Are you hiring candidates who are not qualified for the role given? Or perhaps the provided training is not adequate.

Ensure you identify the fault promptly and redress it. Formulate the necessary corrective measures to ensure you get suitable employees. Also, assess your employee training program.

8. High Turnover Rate

Are new employees leaving your organisation soon after you recruit them? If so, your recruitment process could be inefficient.

Whether you fire them or they quit, it would be best to analyse the key reasons leading to this.

You already know how much it costs you to hire your last batch of recruits. You don't want to go through the time-wasting and costly process after firing a new employee or quitting.

Suppose this is the situation in your company; agree the hiring process is not being done how it should. Maybe you are not engaging the candidates; you provide false information or rigid work environment and culture.

Wait, did you carry out employment checks on the candidates? The earlier you identify the underlying issue, the better.

Upon identifying the mistakes, effectuate the best steps to alleviate the high turnover rate. This also eliminates any associated expenses with the recruiting process. Exit surveys assist to understand reasons for leaving.

9. Waiting for the Perfect Candidate

How long have you been keeping your team waiting to find the perfect employee for a role? Are you aware you are compromising their productivity?

Having a picture in mind of the skills and attributes of the employee you are looking for is harmful. It would help if you were flexible enough to accept change and know what you can compromise on.

If your team is overworking or has an extra workload, their morale is negatively affected. Don't lose it all trying to find the 'purple squirrel.' Picking suitable and ready-to-learn candidates gives you the chance to mould them to fit your idea of your perfect employee.

When hiring, pick a job seeker who satisfies most of the primary requirements of the role. Also, they should have auspicious soft skills and fit into your organisation's culture.

Improve Your Recruitment Methods to Attract the Best Candidates

If you are facing a recruitment problem, it's time to think it over. Identifying key problems and rectifying them will improve your recruitment process. 

Once you understand the existing inefficiencies you can take actions to attract and retain top candidates in the industry.

Overall, this will enhance productivity at your workplace and cut down recruitment costs.

How to improve efficiency for the hiring process?

Not prioritising efficiency will undoubtedly impact your recruitment success. But there are ways to turn it around.

1. Prioritise candidate experience

The hiring process is a two-way street. Of course, you must be impressed by the candidate and believe they’d be the perfect fit for the role, but they will also be forming their own opinions about your organisation. 

Keeping candidates informed and up-to-speed with the progress of their application is the very least you should be doing to reduce the risk of them heading elsewhere.

Read: Article on 6 Essential Elements for a Great Candidate Experience.

 

2. Make hiring a team responsibility

Inexperience can lead to discriminatory questions being asked, so, your recruitment process should be driven by a human resource professional.

Involving the team that would be working with a new recruit can be beneficial in terms of freeing up HR resources, as well as adding objectivity to the process.

Additional to the time saved, a new recruit will also benefit from having communicated with other potential new colleagues.

3. Tailor your processes

You expect candidates to tailor their application for a role, so why should you not tailor the recruitment process for it too. 

As an example, adopting the same template of questions for all reference checks and interviews will not provide the role-specific insight you need to identify the best talent. 

Ensure you have adopted an efficient solution to collect the greatest amount of relevant data, in the shortest amount of time - enabling you to make informed hiring decisions, quickly.  

4. Minimise the steps required

Xref research found that 35 per cent of HR managers and recruiters find the time taken to hire, the most frustrating element of the recruitment process. 

The use of admin-heavy practices distract HR teams from other, more valuable work, impact motivation and, at the same time, frustrate candidates. opportunity while waiting. Consider automating processes that include multiple manual steps.

While multiple interviews, tests and assessments might be necessary for the most senior roles, you should try to keep them to a minimum where possible.

It’s critical that recruitment processes are as efficient as they are robust. You must be able to on-board quickly and confidently, so as not to lose good candidates who become frustrated with delays in the process or find another opportunity while waiting.

 

Final thoughts

In a candidate-driven market, the need for a well-oiled efficient recruitment process is key to hiring success.  If you want to get the best talent, speed is of the essence. Taking steps to streamline your process will cut out inefficiencies and help you build a productive workforce.

At Xref, we’re here to help. Candidate verification is the final tick-in-the box for you to hire the right talent confidently. Our reference checking solution helps you gain insights on your hires from their ex-supervisors and co-workers. 

Contact us today to know more about the Xref online reference checking solution. 

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