How to overcome Recruitment problems and solutions

Overcoming recruitment problems involves strategic approaches such as refining job descriptions, leveraging diverse hiring channels, and enhancing candidate experiences.

Start by refining job descriptions to attract suitable candidates. Utilise multiple recruitment channels, including social media, job boards, and employee referrals, to widen your search.

Implementing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) can streamline the hiring process and improve candidate management. Offering competitive salaries and benefits, creating a positive company culture, and emphasising career development opportunities can attract top talent.

Additionally, conducting thorough interviews and personality assessments ensures the right fit. Regularly reviewing and updating recruitment strategies based on feedback and trends will also help address evolving challenges and enhance overall effectiveness.

The Society for Human Resource Management predicts that the cost of replacing a salaried employee is equivalent to 6-9 months salary. So, to recruit a manager earning £40,000 a year could cost between £20,000 and £30,000 in recruitment and training expenses.

Recruitment is expensive, time-consuming and complex. Getting it wrong can have consequences that you hadn’t even imagined.

At some point, all businesses need to recruit. Whether it is to replace an employee who has been promoted, through normal churn or because the company is expanding and needs to add to its headcount.

The list of requirements for your new employee is most likely a long one that combines realistic expectations of skills and experience they will need and use and your aspirations for the role.

There is one extra requirement that should be on you must-haves for this recruitment but often isn’t.

Cultural fit.

Why cultural fit is so important and how to recruit the right people

Cultural fit is the glue that holds an organisation together.

It is the likelihood that a prospective employee will have similar beliefs to those of your company or will be able to easily adapt and adopt the core beliefs, attitudes and behaviours that your company promotes.

When you start the recruitment process it is vital that you have identified the critical characteristics that are important in your company and have taken these into account when putting together your requirements for the role. One of the ways you can achieve this is with disc personality profiles.

As an example, if your company believes strongly in collaboration to achieve its goals then prospective employees who believe that collaboration is the most effective way of working will fit your culture better than a person who prefers to work autonomously.

When you are putting the job spec together emphasise the type of culture in your company, the environment, work practices and ethos.

It is useful when you begin interviewing to ask questions that will help you to assess how well an individual might fit in your company

1. Why do you want to work at this company?

2. How would you describe our culture? Is that what you are looking for?

3. What type of environment do you thrive in?

4. Tell me about a time where you worked at a company where the culture wasn’t a good fit?

As part of the interview process walk the candidates through the offices to allow them to experience the way your existing staff are working and what it is like to be a part of your team.

You’ll be able to get a feel for how comfortable they seem in your environment which is a good indicator of how well they might fit in.

Employing staff who not only have the skills you need but fit in with the culture of your company will allow them to do well in their new roles, be an asset to the company and will save you time and money by having to repeat the recruitment process.

Retaining staff

Employee engagement

Once your HR department has completed the recruitment of new employees for your company it is important that they become engaged and motivated so that they enjoy working with you and are productive from the start.

If they are engaged, motivated, valued and allowed an opinion they will be more invested in the prosperity of the company and will work harder and more effectively to ensure the success of your organisation.

How easy is it to effectively engage your employees?

The CIPD in its factsheet on employee voice and its importance in the workplace says that for employees, being able to communicate their views to their employer and know that they’ll be acted on has a significant, positive impact on productivity.

They go to say that it helps to build trust and drives commitment to an organisation as well as increasing innovation and problem-solving.

Additionally, empowering your employees to make decisions that will improve your customer’s experience will motivate them to strive for greater customer satisfaction and enjoy the recognition of their achievements.

The benefits of ongoing employee training and development

When your new employee starts working for you I’m sure they go through the mandated training provided by your HR team.

1. Company history and culture

2. IT training

3. Safety training

In the average company, once that’s completed, they’ll get a run through of the systems that the company uses and perhaps shadow an experienced staff member for a day or two and then left to get on with it.

If that is the extent of the training that they receive then you are in danger of losing them before they have begun.

When your employees understand the job that they do, from the reasons behind their role to the technical skills they need to develop to be effective, they will be engaged, motivated and productive.

When you ensure that your staff are given regular in-housetraining to sharpen their skills, you’ll be improving the quality of the work that they do for, increase their job satisfaction and this in turn will improve morale and motivation.

A motivated, well trained employee who enjoys their job is significantly less likely to leave than one who is poorly trained and frustrated.

By lowering your churn rate, you are not only saving yourself the cost of recruitment but you will benefit from a team of experienced, motivated staff who want your company to thrive.

Conclusion

Effective recruitment is a far more complex endeavour than putting an advert in the local paper and sitting the first bodies that come through the door behind a desk.

If you’re not going to waste your recruitment budget, your new hires have to be a good fit with the companies values and ideals as well as having the relevant experience and skills.

This requires an experienced HR team with recruitment backgrounds.

Ongoing training, when it is performed in-house, is best carried out by a dedicated trainer who understands how to teach and engage their students.

For SMEs it is often more cost effective to bring in external trainers with the experience to coach your employees in specific areas. You can take advantage of having a person who is an expert train your staff in an engaging and fun way.