Are you struggling to hire? Struggling to secure the candidate after making an offer? Are your job ads getting little response? Do you keep seeing the same candidates over and over again? Well, chances are that you are not alone. If we take one recent statistic from the USA, around 30% of people changed job over the last 12 months. This trend, often dubbed ‘the great resignation’, is spreading across Europe and beyond. So, just what is happening out there and how can we stop it? To answer that, we consider if broken hiring processes are exacerbating the great resignation.
Hiring processes and vacancies
What do you normally do when hiring employees? In white-collar jobs, you may go through recruiters, LinkedIn, Indeed or other job sites. You may also tap your network and your team or refer-a-friend schemes. Some might attend networking events, run apprenticeship schemes or simply post jobs on social media. In general, the number of applicants for a professional job can range from 50-200 depending on who you believe. This means that there was no problem hiring before the pandemic struck – the main issue was distilling the applicants to find the best candidate. At large employers, sifting is automated and CVs filtered by keywords, language or algorithmic patterns.
Before the pandemic, the UK employment rate stood at 76.5%[1], 0.6% up on the prior year and 0.4% up on the previous quarter. The UK economic inactivity rate was also at a record low of 20.5%. Fast forward 2 years and the UK employment rate stood at 75.5%[2] and the economic inactivity rate stood at 21.2%. It is also estimated that more than 200,000 EU nationals left the UK[3] due to Brexit and the deepest economic slump in three centuries. Furthermore, there was a record 4.4 vacancies for every 100 employee jobs[4], a record 12th quarter of consecutive growth to the end of February 2022. Whilst this has fallen back to 4.2[5] vacancies as of July 2022, there are nearly 1.3m job vacancies and the May-July vacancies are 60.2% higher than pre-pandemic. So, the jobs are going begging and people are not applying for them. What is happening?
Broken hiring processes
If many job vacancies are going unanswered or very few CVs make it onto your desk (metaphorical of course, as most is now digitised), what is the reason? Let’s look at a few examples. A recent article from Bloomberg, reported on survey results in the UK finance industry[6]. From 502 respondents, over 85% no longer view the office as their primary place of work. Only 14% consider the office to be their main place of work. Wow. This contradicts many city finance firms pushing for a return to the office. Furthermore, they found that over 56% cited quality of life as the main reason for leaving the UK finance industry.
Interestingly, the job ads and the hiring process appear to take little heed of these warnings. Remember 2020 statements such as, “it no longer matters where people are based when looking for talent”? Well, no, many of the vacancies are now primarily office-based and workers are being pushed into the office. Does this facilitate a great employee experience and do we care how employees feel? In the USA, some companies are offering pay cuts if you choose to work from home. Could the same thing be coming in the UK?
Additionally, we know that most applications are screened by computers. That’s right, despite your best efforts, your CV maybe never made it to human eyes. A bot, artificial intelligence and machine learning have decided your fate and your CV was discarded. Let’s look at that in a little more detail.
1. Losing talent due to hiring processes
Okay, so if many CVs never make it to your inbox, why were they discounted? If we put aside accusations of ‘programmed’ discrimination in AI and assume it is based on tangible factors, what are they? Some look for educational establishments attended, companies you worked for, criminal records, gaps in employment, promotions and more. Took 6 months out to look after a loved one? Nope, the algorithm probably discounted you. Worked at small companies and applying to a household name? Nope, the algorithm doesn’t recognise where you worked. Educated to a reasonable standard? Nope, the algorithm looked for grammar schools, boarding schools, Oxbridge, US Ivy League universities and a few others.
2. Losing talent due to a narrow focus
We often ask businesses how they hire engineers. This prompts many admirable responses. These include ex-armed forces personnel, telecommunications engineers, people who worked in construction or who simply demonstrate an engineering mindset. Yes, this is often seen as more of a blue-collar job, but the right kind of relatable or adjacent experience can land you an interview. Viewed next to some white-collar vacancies, you can see why so many ads are going unanswered.
Furthermore, we have on occasion asked people who have a semi-specialised job what their role entails. It may be that you need a certification to tackle the role. Such a certification can take 3-6 months. When asked, “Could you teach us this role in 3 months or less and make us as proficient as you?”, the answer was, “Yes, probably”. It therefore seems that the hiring process may be a huge factor in leaving vacancies unfulfilled.
3. Losing talent due to unattractive job roles
Another inconvenient truth is that many job roles are unattractive to candidates. If we ignore location for a moment, when was the last time you considered the attractiveness of a role? Sure, you took the previous candidate’s role and added a few bits on, but would you do it? If the answer is “no way” or “they should be grateful to have a job” then probably not. The crux of the matter is this. Neither you nor the last half a dozen managers looked at it either. That’s right, the job description is full of tasks of little value, the objectives are unclear and the requirements over-inflated. Additionally, when was the last time your HR department challenged the job description when you advertised it? Typically, whoever is responsible simply asks for it and makes sure it includes the right job standards and disclaimers. So, the next time you advertise a job role, ask yourself first if you would do the job full-time for 2 or more years.
4. Losing talent due to bias
A review of hiring processes would not be complete without tackling bias. Whether you are a minority or marginalised group, of low social status, low attractiveness or low self-esteem (often called ‘imposter syndrome’), it may not affect your ability to do a job. Like it or not, bias is all around us. Long gone are the days that people are trusted to objectively rate the performance of colleagues. It may make for uncomfortable reading but managers have favourites – people they unconsciously view as ‘like me’. People also hire people who to their eyes look good, have pleasing accents or are full of confidence. If you have all three of these and the hiring manager can ‘see themselves’ in them, you have a very high chance of getting the job. Unfortunately, it is in these very blind spots and biases that recruiters may play. Have you ever noticed what an uncanny job many recruiters do of finding people they think you will like? Unfortunately, it can create a small group of ‘mercenary’ candidates who recruiters know that they can sell. These are often not aiming to be in the role for long and are already looking for their next opportunity. With companies so desperate to hire, it leads to scenarios like this one in The Economist, in reference to investment banking. “Decent candidates will line up half a dozen offers when they used to only pursue one”[7].
Return to work schemes
In the US, many companies are looking at return to work programmes and we have seen the same in the UK with the NHS. Some companies are trialling such schemes in specific roles with acute shortages of skills. This is watershed thinking in the UK. Yes, it is possible to hire people who had career breaks, went self-employed, retired early or suffered ill-health. In fact, many such candidates suffer from shattered confidence and know that they are excluded from the employment market for no other reason than they are not ‘typical’ hires. Consider that many of these might be so grateful to be considered that they make excellent employees. Loyal, hard-working, good interpersonal skills and adding to your neurodiversity.
Many articles touch the delicate subject of hiring ex-employees. But why is it delicate? Just because an employee left the organisation does not make them off limits. Who really knows why they left? Many people lie in exit interviews or give reasons they think won’t offend. Some leave for very simple reasons such as their pay, the office environment or the role they had at the time. Many have no axe to grind and simply thought life would be better elsewhere. Perhaps excluding these people is costing you more in hiring fees, remuneration (competing for ‘perfect’ candidates) and staff turnover.
Hiring is exacerbating the great resignation
In many cases, the automation or ‘sifting’ of CVs and the relatively glacial pace of change in the interview process means that many good candidates never get a look in. Unless managers, HR departments and internal recruiters widen their net and address bias in recruitment, vacancies will stay open and hiring will get more expensive. If the great resignation is not just a short-term anomaly and we are actually in the grip of a once in a generation shift in work-life attitudes, you need to take action. Remember that your existing staff are over-burdened until your vacancy is filled. Also remember that more of the potential workforce are looking for meaning, social purpose and work-life balance. Yes, it isn’t just millennials and Gen-Z who want to work for great companies that focus on employee experience.
Conclusion
Let’s wrap up what we have learned. Broken hiring processes are exacerbating the great resignation. Many people have left employment and the rate is increasing. It isn’t clear cut that people want to return to offices. Your ‘perfect’ candidate may have a ‘mercenary’ approach to the process and is flirting with other offers. You are missing out on many good applicants due to algorithms and life choices. Businesses are losing talent due to hiring processes, a narrow focus, unattractive job roles and bias. There are relatively few return to work schemes aimed at breaking the cycle and encouraging people back into full-time employment.
If you think that the ‘perfect’ candidate will appear eventually, consider how difficult it is to fit your criteria. If you believe that advertising a role a second or third time will yield results, consider how many adequate candidates were already sifted out. Finally, when filling a job role, ask yourself if you would be happy to go through your recruitment process, experience your onboarding process, stay in the role for more than 2 years, work under you as a boss and for that salary. To test you, what was the key word in the last sentence? The mercenaries and narcissists will apply as long as the salary is high and it gets them to their next opportunity. They may make the right noises but be ultimately focused on their next move. Over-confidence often wins out at interviews and these candidates know that. Wrong, the key word was ‘happy’. Happy about the opportunity, about an attractive role and the employee experience your company offers. Can you really look yourself in the mirror and say that this is who you look for and what you can deliver as an employer?
Thinking beyond a broken hiring process and focusing on employee experience
Stop the great resignation. Stop the increase in hiring fees and offers of remuneration. We offer solutions for strategic planning, organisational design, transformation and the measurement of employee experience. If every employee deserves to enjoy their job and enjoy coming to work (Simon Sinek), what are you doing about it?
If you would like to book a free consultation, simply write to us and we will arrange it.
Alternatively, please email sales@think-beyond.co.uk or call 01565 632206 to speak to a human.
Finally, why not check out our recent article looking at the death of staff surveys.
References
[1] ONS Feb 2020
[3] Bloomberg
[4] Jobs Mar 2022
[5] Jobs Aug 2022
[7] The Economist