Recruitment seems difficult at the moment and has stalled completely in some instances.
I am seeing many jobs being advertised for what seems to be months on end and am hearing that this is because of a skills shortage and a lack of suitable candidates. And this is despite the fact that the pool of available people is larger than ever, due to ever-increasing numbers of unemployed people.
At the school-leaver and graduate end of the scale, people are struggling because nobody wants to employ people with little experience of the working world.
At the other end of the scale, with people in their 50s or older, there is a reluctance to recruit them due to ageism or a perceived lack of reliability or knowledge of current trends.
Probably the biggest issue at the moment is the economic environment and the fact that employers are facing huge financial challenges, with employment costs rising steeply and the cost of oil impacting everything.
In a time of high unemployment and low numbers of new vacancies, it is getting more difficult for people to find work and for employers to recruit.
Do you need a recruitment strategy?
Over the years, I have written blogs about the need for a proper recruitment strategy, rather than just recruiting by the seat of your pants when a vacancy suddenly arises. And that is more important than ever in the current job market.
If you want to know more about how and why to produce and work to a recruitment strategy, then read this blog I wrote in 2024 about why you need a recruitment strategy.
Why is it difficult to recruit the right person?
With such a large available pool of candidates, then it should be easy to find the right person to fit your vacancy.
The reason you can’t may be something to do with your recruitment processes and business culture than because the right person doesn’t exist. I wrote a blog last year which explores some of those barriers and what you might think about to improve your chances of recruiting a good fit for your vacancy. You can read the blog “Why can’t I recruit the right person?” here.
Have you thought about a recruitment audit?
Here at Heartfelt HR, we have been working hard on our support for recruitment and all things to do with hiring your ideal next employee, and it can start with a recruitment audit.
If you want to know how well your recruitment strategy and process is working and where the gaps are, then we can offer a free recruitment audit, including a free report afterwards, to help you to know what you need to do to make hiring and recruitment more successful for your business.
If you are interested in a FREE recruitment audit, then please get in touch.
Our support for your hiring process
We have now got some professional hiring and recruitment expertise on board (in the person of Nicki Hetfield Rogerson from https://nhr-resourcing.com/. Nicki has vast experience in supporting recruitment and hiring within a large range of environments and Heartfelt HR clients are already seeing the benefit of our partnership. Nicki can offer support with your whole hiring process, from designing your vacant role, to onboarding the new employee into that role, and all stops in between.
We can offer job design to help you produce job descriptions which work hard for you; salary benchmarking to ensure you are offering a competitive salary for that role; a hiring strategy and process review; management of your recruitment campaign from search to offer; and support with onboarding your new employee, including all those pre-employment checks to keep you legally compliant.
For the actual recruitment process, we can offer a simple, GDPR compliant and cost-effective Applicant Tracking Service; agency support for those hard to fill or confidential roles; advertising campaigns on the best channels for your industry, or on major generalist job boards; advice on interview processes and questions; training for your recruiting managers; a full recruitment strategy.
And you can have as much, or as little, of this support as you need. It is all tailored for your specific needs – and all at a great rate for small businesses and charities.
What next?
If you want that free recruitment audit, or already know which piece of the recruitment puzzle you need help with slotting in, then please contact us.
