“Recruitment is broken. Companies do not want to engage - it’s a tick box exercise. Talent Acquisition people are only focused on filling the role, they forget there is a human being at the end of the application who has put time, energy and hope into it.” Job candidate, 2021.
Cambridge Network in partnership with local Business Psychologist, Kelly Drewery, from Talent Glue and recruitment expert, Katherine Wiid, from Recrion, set out to explore what was happening at each stage of the recruitment process. Key findings from the recently published report:
‘Keep it human’ by maintaining contact with candidates: human contact matters at various points in the hiring and onboarding process. As you gather information about the candidate, make sure you’re collecting the right information, not only to make a selection decision but to better understand their aspirations, values, their deal breakers and their attitude to hybrid working. Attitudes to the workplace have changed in recent years, some candidates aren’t articulate about their views yet, so you may find you need to help them.
“Keep it social’ by involving colleagues in the whole process: previous opportunities to involve a broader spectrum of colleagues may have been lost as many have shifted to hybrid recruitment. There can be a lot of value in engaging the recruit’s future colleagues from the early stages of the process. What values might be important for the candidate to have when joining the team? Is there any opportunity to meet team members online during the process? There is so much benefit in building this social contact as it helps the candidate to feel a sense of belonging and make an emotional connection with their new team. It also reduces the risk of ghosting or surprise attrition.
‘Keep it lean’ by developing and maintaining an efficient hybrid process: for those organisations that hadn’t taken the time to streamline and refine their online recruitment activities, they are missing out on candidates who are snapped up by other faster recruiters. Some report that the hiring manager can sit on the critical path causing delays. To help better engage managers, some have shared job market data, skills shortages and the size of some candidate pools to help manage their expectations.
However, efficient doesn’t always mean effective. In efforts to speed up shortlisting, some have relied on easy-to-evaluate criteria such as whether candidates have a postgrad qualification. This may be appropriate for technical or senior-level roles, but it is also being used to sift people in jobs which don’t justifiably require this level of education.
People Management magazine from the CIPD recently published a similar outlook on shortlisting and how inappropriate filters mean employers are missing out on untapped talent pools.
Claire Angus, Head of Recruitment Gateway at Cambridge Network said “Reflecting on recent conversations with members, we've been noticing that both employers and candidates are having a tough time in the post-pandemic job market. Candidates are actively looking for new roles, sending out lots of applications and hearing nothing back – while employers are reporting frustration at not finding the right skilled candidates for their jobs. We want to be doing everything we can to help our members find the right candidates, so this bit of research has been valuable in helping to get answers on what is happening in the local recruitment market.“
To read the full report, visit www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/bridging-recruitment-gap-our-latest-research-local-employment-market. With special thanks to Kelly Drewery, Talent Glue Business Psychology for compiling the report.
If you work in Talent Acquisition, you may be interested in attending two Recruitment and Retention Masterclasses – ‘Recruitment Reimagined’ on 1 Nov and ‘Onboarding from Day Zero’ on 22 Nov, designed in a group coaching style, so you have the space to work on your organisation’s particular situation. If you’re interested, please contact Claire Angus at claire.angus@cambridgenetwork.co.uk for more details.