Change Management, Leadership, Talent Acquisition Problems
Just to get this out of the way, this is not a religious post, but rather a business operations post.
In our extremely demanding business culture we live in today, it sometimes feels like we never have enough time to do anything we need to do. We’re too busy with tactical day-to-day tasks that we can’t step back and strategically assess our operations.
When we can’t look at the operations strategically, we can’t look at the tools & technologies that drive our processes, which dictate certain challenges, which ultimately keep us from achieving certain positive business outcomes or producing negative business outcomes.
If you get this opportunity to strategically assess your business, YOU TAKE IT!!!
Missing that opportunity will result in a never-ending cycle of reliving the same problems over and over, because eventually that opportunity will pass, and you’ll be right back to the busy hustle of just trying to get through the day. You definitely won’t be implementing any real change in process, tools, or technologies at that point.
One department that has this opportunity right now is talent acquisition. Many companies have hiring freezes in place or hiring has significantly slowed. This is not only the best time to be looking at how you should be improving your operations, but also the best time to implement new processes and technologies.
Noah didn’t build the Ark after it rained. He didn’t build the Ark while it was raining. He built the Ark BEFORE it rained.
To all the talent acquisition leaders out there where they’re hiring needs have slowed down, it’s time to build your Ark!!
ATS, Change Management, Hiring Manager Engagement, Talent Acquisition Problems
Imagine this:
You walk into a Best Buy to buy a brand new flat screen TV with all the newest technology. You want Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/ Youtube and 50 other apps included, app store access, music streaming, 4k Ultra HD, and your smartphone is the remote.
Strangely, you don’t see any of these newer TVs, instead you see a wall full of 1970s tube TVs like the graphic for this post that come fully equipped with radio dials and “rabbit ears.” Totally confused, you ask a Best Buy employee where all the newer TVs are and they tell you that the industry has decided to stop manufacturing those newer flat screen models and are now going back to the 1970s models.
What would you be thinking?
Now wonder what an applicant thinks when they have to submit their résumé for your review, and they know that is the ONE determining factor that will either get them an interview or not. Now wonder what your hiring manager thinks when they have to review those 5 résumés you sent over email.
A LOT has changed in all aspects of society over the past 50 years…all except the process for evaluating job applicants. If you’re still cranking out those job descriptions, checking out those résumés, and even working with this “state-of-the-art” new technology called an Applicant Tracking System…then your process is very likely outdated…like 25 – 50 years outdated. If you think this process is a good one, well then there may be a high likelihood you are also perfectly content with your tube TV with rabbit ears at home!
Talent Acquisition Problems
The definition for “root-cause” is “the fundamental reason for the occurrence of a problem.”
So, 3 questions:
1. Do you have any of the problems ChatGPT mentions?
2. Have you identified what the root-cause (as opposed to symptoms) of those problems actually are?
3. Have you evaluated solutions that fundamentally solve the root-cause instead of symptoms?
When is the last time you have OBJECTIVELY looked at your entire systems and processes?
Talent Acquisition Problems
Multiple sources of data, including the Zippia article this graphic data came from, show that talent acquisition and HR have some of the highest turnover out of any department, especially over the past few years.
While we could speculate all day about reasons, let’s just look at some additional data points first.
According to some recent data by Aptitude Research:
Activities that take up recruiters’ time (in order):
1. Reviewing applicants
2. Finding applicants
3. Scheduling interviews
4. Screening applicants
5. Communicating
Resources that recruiters need (in order):
1. Better tools to automate processes
2. More time to engage candidates
3. Simple technology
4. Less time doing admin work
5. Data to drive decisions
And, “1-in-2 recruiters would leave their current role for better technology.”
So what does that all mean?
Recruiters spend A LOT of their time on manual and tedious tasks that SHOULD be automated, and they know it. Recruiters need (not want) innovative technology to help them do their job better.
TA and HR leaders are solely responsible for making their teams happier, more fulfilled, and removing barriers to their success. “We don’t have the budget” is just not an acceptable excuse.
Why?
Turnover is EXTREMELY expensive, and that alone justifies the additional cost. Leaders owe it to their teams to make the business case for better technology.
And by the way, we’re not talking about replacing a “traditional ATS” with a “newer traditional ATS” because that will probably only help with some of the symptoms rather than the root cause. We’re talking about transformative and disruptive technology that solves the root causes of the biggest problems in talent acquisition. Leaders need to stop following what everyone else is doing and start leading!
Talent Acquisition Problems
It’s all over the news…layoffs are happening, unemployment is rising, and now increasing inflation and uncertainty in the job market are causing people that were part of the “great resignation” to rethink their decision in what is being called the “Great Remorse” (great article in Fortune about this here: Click here).
So what does all this mean?
Over the past year, companies have been struggling with not getting enough applicants to apply. Talent acquisition teams would be thrilled to have more applicants, right? However, we may very likely see the pendulum swing harder than expected from having too few applicants to having too many applicants. While this seems like a great problem to have, it actually creates a whole new set of problems:
1. Many talent acquisition teams were recently reduced in size, which means now they have to process 3x, 5x, or maybe 10x the amount of applicants with a smaller team
2. Exacerbated by problem number one above, most talent acquisition teams are still using the same old tools of reviewing résumés one-by-one in a traditional ATS, that takes up a lot of time
3. Applicants are going to be more desperate to get a job, which means recruiters and hiring managers need to screen job applicants with even more precision or they risk missing important qualifications and ultimately hiring the wrong person. In fact, “over half (51%) of seekers agree that, as it stands, they would take any job offer that comes along”
4. Hiring applicants based on “hoping” rather than “knowing” they have the exact qualifications for a role can lead to bigger long-term repercussions such as higher turnover, lower productivity, and higher costs
Without proper automation tools, talent acquisition teams are going to get burned out for different reasons. Companies should really be focusing, RIGHT NOW, on what technology and process changes they can implement to head off the impending tsunami of applicants and prepare for when the market recovers and hiring goes through the roof again.
Talent Acquisition Problems
Sometimes it feels like there is a big divide between recruiters and hiring managers. These numbers prove that feeling is real.
Both sides are frustrated but what can fix it?
Data > Feelings. Having empirical data helps ease this tension and gets recruiters and hiring managers on the same page.
TA leaders, have you run into this contradiction?
Hiring managers, have you ever felt like you aren’t interviewing the right candidates?
Talent Acquisition Problems
If you have been in business long enough and been through a recession or two, you are probably familiar with the phrase, “we need you to do more with less.” We all know what that means. You are expected to do more work, as if you didn’t have enough on your plate already, and because times are tough, we also can’t pay you more money for that extra work. Well that seems like a raw deal.
There is no department that may feel this pain more than talent acquisition (TA). As a recession looms over the economy, we’re already seeing layoffs. While I will admit that the traditional business models of the past have been flipped upside down these past years, a recession usually means higher unemployment. Higher unemployment means more applicants applying to jobs.
Unfortunately, TA teams are some of the first to see downsizing as companies slow or halt their hiring. While this seems like it makes sense to have a smaller team when hiring slows, that’s not the entire picture.
First of all you have backfills when people quit. Next you have some companies that cut their TA teams at a faster rate than their slowdown in hiring. For example you cut your TA team by 50%, but only slow your hiring by 25%. Lastly, these TA teams have way more applicants to look at because of higher unemployment.
Worst of all, when we come out of the recession these teams are not equipped to handle the massive hiring expectations that companies put on them. And now the TA teams are being blamed for not hiring fast enough.
TA teams need a game-changing solution that TRULY (not marketing jargon) enables one recruiter the ability to do the job of many. That solution needs to solve BIG problems by addressing the root causes.
Last but not least, if you are one of the companies with a hiring freeze or a slowdown in hiring, and you are kind enough to not downsize your TA team, then this is the absolute best time to implement new solutions. Get ready for the market turnaround because it will be here before you can blink. If you don’t implement new tools and processes now to address the hiring onslaught that is inevitably coming, it’s going to be too late because everyone will be too busy to solve the big problems!
