10 Hiring Challenges Faced by IT recruiters

Recruiters relying solely on traditional methods will struggle to attract and retain top candidates for the organization. This includes searching for suitable candidates, managing recruitment workflow, and more.

However, recruiters must address these challenges and find the right solution to deal with them.

In this guide, you will find 10 common hiring challenges faced by recruiters and HR managers. Let’s get started.

1. Rather quit than comeback 

An interesting survey by a global staffing firm Robert Half shows that 34% people working remotely now would rather quit and search for a new job if they are asked to comeback to office fulltime. That’s a whopping one third!  

And yet another 49% of employees would prefer a hybrid environment between office and remote. These statistics needless to say, speak out the challenges hiring professionals face. In such a scenario, how is it possible to retain the right talents? 

2. Lack of hiring agility 

Lack of agility is one of the reasons the talent acquisition teams would be struggling. In case of crisis, mass layoffs and resignations it is critical that fast action is taken to handle the crisis. But the process of approvals and scarcity in finding the right talent etc., gives a tough time for TA professionals.  

The pace at which the positions needs to be filled with right talent and the time required to do so doesn’t really match in the post-pandemic times and this is a major challenge the hiring teams face.  

3. Forecasting future hiring needs 

 Studies show that talent acquisition managers are finding it extremely difficult in forecasting future hiring needs. Employees getting laid off, employees unwilling to come back to office to work fulltime and other aspects are making the job of TA professionals fairly difficult. The talent acquisition requirements are expected to be highly volatile following the work culture changes post-pandemic era which is one of the biggest challenges they face. 

4. Reduced recruiting capability 

The pandemic has made the environment totally unpredictable and a study confirms that over 95% of talent acquisition leaders are having a reduced recruiting capability. That means a smaller recruiting force. How would such a small team suffice the increasing demand for finding the right talent, especially in the post Covid scenario? May be it is now time to think about implementing intelligent workflows for TA professionals to bridge this gap. 

5. Challenge in retaining talents  

 In today’s yet unsettled market, it is a big challenge to attract and retain the right talents. The candidate experience is witnessing a massive change, since all the processes have gone virtual now. Starting from Video interviews to event management becoming virtual to even the onboarding process. More interactive hiring, onboarding & training methodologies, are to experiment to help minimize attrition and retain the right talents. 

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6. Upholding employee engagement 

 It is the duty of HR & TA professionals to keep employees engaged so that the employee productivity is at its peak. Not surprisingly, it is a challenge to keep employees engaged while working from a remote environment. Team communication, official meetups, personal interactions, coordinating cross-functional teams are all compromised with remote working and this is another challenge that needs to be dealt wisely. 

7. Seamless employee communication 

 Why talk about employee engagement, when employee communication itself is a challenge? We need to sort this out in the first place, even before talking about having employees engaged. That too when the workforce is working remotely, communication becomes a real challenge. We need to have proper established communication channels without which employees cannot be managed remotely.

8. Handling the all new ‘WFH’ culture 

Working remotely seemed like a better solution after the lockdown that followed the pandemic. But experience shows that it wasn’t as seamless as it looked. Moreover sensitive services like banking and other financial services obviously can’t encourage remote working due to the fact that they handle sensitive confidential data.  

So they obviously did not have a remote working mechanism prior to the pandemic. They have to build it all from scratch if they need one. Finding talents that adapt to remote working without compromising on confidentiality is a big challenge that the TA professionals face while hiring. 

9. Overall employee health  

Organisations used to formulate wellness programs to help track any health issues, mental glitches of employees and providing a fix. But, with change in work culture shifting to a work from home model, the job of hiring professionals now becomes difficult. There is no way to track and follow overall employee health. 

Hiring challenges small and medium businesses

10. Doubts, fears & uncertainty 

Last, but not least the challenge of handling a crew of demotivated minds. With mass layoffs and cut in workforce, employees are worried what would happen for them in the near future. They are daunted with the feeling of not knowing what is in store for them the next day. This obviously will have a paralysed effect in their productivity. Maintaining the workforce with this mind-set is sure a big challenge. 

Okay, enough that we have discussed the challenges. But, are there solutions? Well, every problem, every challenge is born with a solution in itself. In fact, every challenge is an opportunity in disguise. If we look for creative ways to solve, the missing piece of the puzzle is out there right in front of us. It might be in the form of innovative technologies, or bringing a paradigm shift in the mind-set of both employers and employees or whatsoever.  

Now, over to you, what do you think? We missed any challenges that you can relate with personally or you have interesting solutions to suggest, feel free to comment by clicking on the social sharing icons.