It’s a brand new year! And with that comes the opportunity to start fresh and work towards new professional goals. It’s also a chance to take what you’ve learned the previous year and use that knowledge to avoid past mistakes—especially when it comes to your hiring strategy.
Since we’re here to help you succeed, we compiled the top eight mistakes to avoid when it comes to your recruiting and hiring strategy in 2018. Steer clear of these pitfalls and you’ll be well on your way to finding hiring success this year!
1. Ignoring the skills gap. We know it can be difficult to find candidates who have all the right skills for a job opening—especially in a labor market with an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent. But instead of bemoaning the lack of suitable talent, do something about it. Start in-house and consult labor market data to see if the salary you’re offering is actually competitive. Also, consider training or re-skilling employees to help fit your specific needs. There’s a lot you can do to improve your own hiring situation.
2. Using Boolean searches exclusively. While we commend your deep understanding of Boolean logic, relying solely on this technique to search candidate databases severely limits your candidate pool. Consider adding semantic search to the mix. This approach broadens your relevant results to include related job titles and skills that you might not have originally considered. More importantly, it bridges the gap between how job seekers describe themselves in their application materials and the keywords recruiters and sourcers use to search for the same candidate. Give it a try and see what great talent you can find.
3. Failing to communicate during the employment screening process. If there’s one thing we learned in 2017, it’s that candidate experience matters—and employment screening plays a major role in shaping that experience. CareerBuilder research found that 2 in 5 employers lost a job candidate due to a poor experience with their background check process. Don’t make the same mistake. Infuse transparency and constant communication into your background screening approach so that candidates know exactly what’s happening during each step in the process.
4. Moving away from job postings. HR technology is rapidly advancing and it’s easy to get caught up in the latest bells and whistles. But getting rid of job postings is a huge mistake. In addition to gaining you access to a network of active and engaged job seekers, they help create a robust talent pipeline that will ultimately make your talent search easier.
5. Letting your hiring manager set unrealistic expectations. While every recruiter is in search of a job opening’s “purple squirrel,” this over-specification of requirements on the part of the hiring manager can make even a relatively qualified candidate hard to find. Instead, commit to using data to understand your company’s hiring market so you can set realistic expectations regarding the best—and most attainable—candidate for the job.
6. Filling out paper work. It’s 2018. There’s no reason your HR department should be running on paper. It wastes time and opens the door to costly errors. If you do one thing this year, commit to finding an HR software solution that enables you to automate the many tedious tasks that consume your time, so that you can focus your resources where they’re needed most.
7. Juggling multiple platforms. HR technology solutions have the ability to make life easier, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Trying to juggle multiple software platforms for various HR functions can cause inefficiency and increase the likelihood of costly errors. So do your homework and find a single provider who fits all your needs.
8. Not building a talent pipeline. Recruiting can be a tedious process. Do you really want to start from square one with each new job opening? Speed up the process by building a pipeline of potential qualified candidates that you can refer to when a position opens up. It’ll help you build a faster—and more effective—recruiting process.
Want more insights into how to improve your workplace for the future? Check out our latest staffing report.
