The Five Biggest Hiring Challenges And Solutions To Compete In 2022

1. The shortage of candidates we have seen in the past two years will continue and plague companies with unfilled roles. We are all too familiar with the great resignation affecting  Canada, the USA  and global business with vacancies not seen in years. These vacancies do not discriminate by education, role, expertise or level within an organization. Finding qualified and ideal candidates to fill positions continues to be a challenge.

Solutions: 

• Looking at candidates from transferable industries will be even more critical.
• Hire high potential new graduates into entry-level roles or mentorship programs for succession opportunities within the organizations for difficult-to-fill positions.
• Use data, candidate and employee feedback on current worker needs to attract, hire and retain employees. This may include increasing overall compensation, hybrid or fully remote work, diversity and inclusion hiring, and speed to hire, among other current trends.

2. Competition is fierce, and companies will continue to see a shortage of skilled professionals; hiring from a select pool of candidates will be difficult as each corporation will compete to hire these candidates. As a result, many candidates presented with 2-3 employment options simultaneously vying for their expertise. 

Solutions:

• Shorten the time to hire to decrease or eliminate the potential candidates who accept competing offers.
• Be open to interviewing less qualified candidates as there is no longer a plethora of candidates available.
• Consider recruiting candidates with similar skills from outside the industry who have the ability and attitude to succeed in the role.

3. Employee turnover issues are a problem that is not going away anytime soon. Companies are experiencing turnover in some of the most critical roles within their organizations. As a result, this affects employee morale, customer relationships, and overall corporate performance. 

Solutions:

• Retention of all employees, not just crucial employees, will be essential for a business to succeed in the marketplace. Therefore, developing retention and succession strategies will be necessary.
• Develop an ongoing proactive hiring strategy.
• Partner with an experienced recruiter with industry knowledge and access to candidates to help backfill these critical roles.

4. Accommodating remote employees is a hot topic with many corporate leaders. 

Solutions:

• Being able and willing to accommodate fully remote or hybrid employees may give your organization a better chance of acquiring and retaining talent.
• Be open to understanding what your employees are looking for to gain a positive work-life balance while being a positive contributor to the organization’s goals.

5. Trying it alone is a significant recruitment issue for many organizations. However, their stubborn attempt to try it alone and treat recruitment firms as a last resort can result in long recruitment times with little or poor results. This is understandable as many organizations might not have experienced the power a professional industry recruiter can offer to the hiring processes. 

Solutions:

Recruiters are effective for many hires, but not every hire. So first, assess which role you need a recruiter to help. Evaluating the cost-benefit of utilizing an external recruiter to help you build a team of high performers for your essential and time-sensitive roles will be important.

• Specialized searches
• Difficult searches
• When you want to hire fast
• When your resources are limited
• Limited access to the desired candidate market

For the past 20+ years, Robertson Human Assets has been the recruitment partner of choice for Medical Device and Dental companies across Canada and the USA focused on Sales, Marketing and Executive Leadership roles. We leverage our network to take your Medical Devices and Dental Teams to the next level and to find your next great career opportunity.

Our goal is to help equip you with some advice and information we give our clients. If you have any more questions or are hiring and aren’t sure whether you should use a recruiter or not, feel free to reach out to me directly!