If your company is like most others, and it’s having considerable difficulty finding qualified candidates to fill skilled positions in the hiring process, there are a number of reasons why you might be going through these difficulties. To some extent, all companies are going to be affected by the fact that there is a smaller talent pool available now than there has been in the past, and with many companies scrambling to secure the services of qualified individuals, there is just too little supply to satisfy too much demand.
However, the supply and demand component may not be the only thing that’s hindering your company from securing the talent that you need to fill open positions. Here are some other factors to consider, which may be complicating your hiring process. If any of the scenarios described below pertain to your company, you may want to take steps to overcome these particular obstacles, and thereby give yourself a better chance of hiring the qualified individuals you need.
Are you Raising the Bar Too High?
When you went into the hiring process, you undoubtedly had a set of criteria which you intended to use, in order to measure each potential candidate by. This would have included the specific set of job skills needed, the interpersonal skills, and all the intangibles like commitment, motivation, and character.
However, it’s very possible that in establishing this checklist of qualities that your ideal candidate should have, that you set the bar too high and you’re looking for a super employee who simply doesn’t exist. Even a quick look at the classified ads for job listings will make it clear that many employers are simply asking for an entire catalog of skills and qualities, which no one person in Western civilization is ever likely to own.
While it may have been your intention to simply find someone who has as many as possible of those skills, you may also have been discouraging a great many candidates who looked at this laundry list and simply give up without even trying. In order to give yourself a better chance of finding skilled candidates, it might be better for you to choose the four or five skills which are most useful, and which would require the least amount of supplemental training to get someone up to speed. If you find someone who matches up well with these requirements, you can probably train that person to fill in whatever gaps in experience or skills he/she has.
Are you Really Committed to the Hiring Process?
Being committed to the hiring process doesn’t mean that you shuffle through a few resumes each day, shake your head, and discard them all in frustration. If you happen to be a hiring manager and you have other responsibilities as well, you’re bound to have to spend a certain percentage of your day handling those other responsibilities.
But if you start to use that as an excuse for spending very little time with the hiring process, you will simply not be doing yourself or your company any favors, and it’s not very likely that you’ll find qualified candidates with this kind of lukewarm approach.
The bottom line is, you have to make hiring a top priority, and any other responsibilities have to be sandwiched in around it. If it’s the centerpiece of your day and you commit your energies to make something happen, you will have a much better chance of finding qualified candidates who might be a fit for your company. If you really want to make this a priority in your day, put it on your organizer or your daily calendar, at a specific time slot every day, until you have achieved the desired results.
Are Other Workers Taking up the Slack?
When there has been an open position in your company for any length of time, it’s only natural that all the other employees in the workplace will end up shouldering part of the load until a replacement has been found. Of course, it’s likely that some of these employees are going to be so good at covering for a missing person, that you don’t even notice any loss of productivity or efficiency because of it.
Believe it or not, this can actually be something of a danger to you as a hiring manager. When employees are so good at taking up the slack for a missing person that you barely even notice the difference, that can lull you to sleep somewhat and make you feel that there’s no real urgency about replacing the individual.
This, of course, can lead to other problems, such as low office morale, and it could even result in some of those harder working employees wanting to leave the company themselves, because they’re overworked, and because they don’t see any real solution in sight. With all this being true, it’s definitely to your advantage to make hiring your top priority, and consider it one of the most urgent tasks you have on your daily agenda. When you’re pushing hard to find a solution, it’s a lot more likely that it will happen, and hopefully, that solution will be found sooner rather than later.