HR Trends: Optimize your recruitment process with one key action

We talked to our clients in an attempt to identify the main challenges they’re facing in a recruitment process and we came up with a key action that can help optimize their acquisition efforts.

New recruitment challenges

Skills shortage

One of the most cited HR challenges nowadays is the availability of key skills.  70% of US business leaders are concerned about the availability of key skills, a noticeable increase over 54% that said so in 2013, according to PwC`s global CEO survey.

At the same time, employment rates amongst young people are not as high as we’d like them to be. It begs the question whether there actually is a shortage of skills or just too much online noise, making it difficult for companies to reach the right people.

Data

And that’s another recruitment challenge of its own – big data noise. Recruiters are living on LinkedIn and other Social Media channels to try and connect with potential prospects. They’re navigating through thousands of profiles every day, while, at the other end, talented individuals are also on the quest for the right job.

Expectations are high on both sides and it’s not that you can’t connect the two entities, it’s just they’re hyper connected in a way that makes it hard to actually conclude a recruitment process.

It has become close to impossible to leverage all this available data without the right technology. And the illusion of choice doesn’t stop here, you also have a multitude of HR software solutions to help you identify the perfect candidate by analyzing their online influence, activity, experience, history or bio.

Speed of hire

The name of the game is: “find great talent before your competition does”. Or, in some cases, it’s “find the right talent in time to deliver the project”.

Businesses move at a faster pace and that puts a lot of extra pressure on the HR function. The new rules of engagement add even more pressure, with higher turnover rates and their impact on workforce planning.

Startups, startups everywhere

They’re a new way of expressing human potential, freedom and creativity. Entrepreneurship can be seen as a new mentality, its most common manifestation being new startups that disrupt the status quo.

For young, talented individuals, startups seem like the golden ticket more often than not. It gives them the freedom, autonomy and ownership that they crave, leaving many companies at a loss for new hires.

One key action to optimize your recruitment process

All these challenges circle around the same problem: finding the “right” hire. Recruiters focus on the job requirements, search volume and recruitment process timeline but they’re forgetting a key aspect, which is cultural compatibility.

Knowing what kind of prospect would fit your company culture can give you a new perspective as a recruiter. It would tell you where best to look, what people to ask, or how to design your selection to optimize the entire recruitment process.

Checking for a cultural fit increases the quality of that hire lead. It also gives you a higher retention rate for new employees because their values match those of your company.

That’s why we designed a framework that helps our clients assess cultural compatibility for potential new hires and get a better understanding of their existing employees. It’s a very simple to use resource that can help you get to know your employees better. The goal behind it is to find out what drives a person, both on a personal level, as well as on a professional level.

Takeaway

Companies are on a global quest for the right talent. Recruiters are facing new challenges, mainly brought by the online age and all the noise that comes with it.

To optimize your recruitment process, start checking for a cultural match in new prospects. Not only will it act as an essential selection filter, but it will also help you identify candidates with a low turnover risk.