Six tips for smarter hiring

As we embark on the final quarter of 2024, hiring managers face considerable challenges. Macroeconomics and the UK labour market make it harder for organisations to find, hire, and retain the right people.

Workers are retiring later, and Gen Z has different needs and priorities. New employment legislation is on the horizon. AI and automation are diversifying ways of connecting with candidates. Last month's labour market figures from ONS show that vacancies continue to fall, and the unemployment rate is below that of 2023.

Six challenges and tips to overcome them

1. Talent shortages

Almost two-thirds (62%) of organisations struggle with skills gaps. These findings come from this year’s Business Barometer report from The Open University and the British Chambers of Commerce.

While many businesses want to address the shortage, the report reveals that 63% of firms still do not have specific recruitment, training, and retention initiatives for under-represented groups. This includes younger and older workers, and those with disabilities, including neurodiverse conditions.

One approach HR teams adopt is skills-based hiring. This assesses candidates through tasks and scenario-based questions, focusing on skills.

According to the State of Skills-Based Hiring 2024, 81% of employers are using some form of skills-based hiring in 2024 (up by 8% from 2023). And a staggering 94% of hiring managers say that skills-based hiring is more predictive of on-the-job success than CVs.

Tips

Skills-based hiring will become a dominant recruitment trend, especially as AI and digital skills become prerequisites for more roles. There are several ways to adopt a skills-based approach. Hiring managers could consider removing degree requirements from job advertisements. This can attract a wider pool of candidates.

Updating job descriptions to focus on the skills needed for the job and giving a transparent list of responsibilities, rather than a long list of previous experiences and qualifications, helps.

Finally, skills-based assessments, such as online tests or scenario-based questions, can be effective. Diversity, retention, and reduced mis-hire rates are all growing for companies using skills-based assessments.

2.Flexible working

A big recruitment challenge since the COVID-19 pandemic is remote working. It has been a big hit with many professionals. Bloomberg reported that 40% of staff would consider leaving their current role if their company took remote work away.

Remote working enables employers to recruit from a larger and more diverse talent pool, making it easier to find skilled candidates. This is useful when many employers face skill shortages, which are prevalent in IT, business services, and banking.

Tips

Offering virtual job interviews at least for the first stage of the process is useful and can save the hiring manager time. Yet, remote recruitment and onboarding bring challenges. Clear policies, negotiated terms, and detailed onboarding for a remote hire are needed. If you can’t offer remote working, what could you offer to candidates that could make you stand out in the market?

3. Gaps in internal hiring capabilities

Insufficient emphasis on in-house recruitment expertise can harm businesses’ growth potential. When organisations embark on a recruitment drive and don’t have an in-house talent acquisition team,  HR teams also have to hire new people. HR teams are already overstretched. The Employment Bill has arrived during an already transitional time for HR teams.

Tips

Investing in in-house recruitment skills is worthwhile, especially if you’re hiring for many roles. Build a business case for setting up your talent acquisition team, or use a specialist recruitment firm such as Meraki Talent.

4. Time to hire

Q4 is a short and hectic quarter, with half-term holidays affecting candidate availability. Employers need to act fast to secure the best talent. The average time to hire has grown to six weeks, according to the Totaljobs Hiring Trends Index Q2 2023. Sometimes hiring managers want candidates to complete competency tests and multi-stage interviews. Candidates prefer shorter, two- or three-stage hiring processes.

Tips

Skills-based hiring can streamline the recruitment process. It decreases hiring costs by lowering expenses associated with lengthy recruitment stages.

Consider introducing early-stage screening tests to help narrow the pool, and take forward the right candidates to interview. Understand the job’s requirements and what you need from a candidate; detailed job profiles will help here.

5. Candidate attraction

In Q4, many employers vie to hire the same types of candidates. This causes the talent pool to shrink. HR and talent acquisition teams must convince candidates that their organisation is the right employer for them.

Candidates also scrutinise the employer's online presence: social media channels, review sites and websites. They want to know what it’s like to work there, how the business is doing, and how they treat their employees. Company reviews are now an external recruitment challenge as how potential candidates perceive an organisation is, to some extent, outside the hiring managers' control.

Employees now want benefits besides gym discounts, Fussball tables, and free fruit. Instead, they’re more likely to value things like personal development training.

Tips

Focus on growing and communicating your employer brand values.  HR can work with marketing teams to share good news stories through social media and websites. Employers can work with Glassdoor and Indeed to boost company profiles. Underpinning this should be delivering a positive candidate experience, so that, if a candidate has multiple offers, they will pick yours.

Remember, skills-based hiring can improve diversity and attract a wider candidate pool from diverse backgrounds.

6. New tech tools

According to LinkedIn, 76% of recruiters believe  AI will impact their talent acquisition. Automating routine tasks, like CV screening and interview scheduling, enables HR to focus on the strategic aspects of talent acquisition. When demand for skilled talent is high, using AI can speed up the process.

Tips

If you have outdated recruitment technology, or an old applicant tracking system (ATS), your processes will take longer than they should. Investing in people analytics is a useful asset to HR teams. It can analyse historical data to predict candidate success. By using AI, firms can access data and intelligence around candidate capabilities. By examining patterns from past hires, AI identifies traits associated with high-performing employees. 

Recruitment challenges won’t go away in Q4—but Meraki Talent is here to help.