5 Reasons Why Recruiting Sucks

Let’s face it recruiting sucks.  It’s difficult.  It’s time-consuming, and it’s expensive.  But it’s just recruiting?  Hiring good candidates couldn’t possibly be tough.  Let’s take a look at 5 reasons why recruiting really sucks.

• $$$$$. Recruiting candidates and advertising openings let alone the time it takes to interview and review the candidates takes money, time, and effort.  Recruiting candidates is a hard job and not for the faint at heart.  Companies evaluate the cost of recruiting looking at things like cost per hire and time to fill.

• Good Candidates are not EVERY where. Or are they?  With more than 18 million people who are actively looking for work, recruiting and hiring good workers for your company should be easy.  But it’s not.  Depending on the requirements of the job, educational or experience restrictions, and where the employees must be based, limit your candidate pool.  Try finding a P.h.D job candidate for a specialized position in Wyoming.

• Technology is not always our friend. Whether it’s the resume black hole or that pesky background check process, the recruiting and human resource tools and technology help us sometimes more than they hurt us.  Maybe you really need to reset a candidate’s password in your applicant tracking system or to have ATS Armageddon happen right when you need to get this candidate onboarded and scheduled for orientation.

• Job Seekers Can’t Market. Most job seekers are familiar or experienced with the fine art of the job search and candidate marketing process that is recruiting.  As recruiters we understand the process and the ins and outs of the business from a company advocate or recruiter perspective.  Most job seekers don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel or even have a plan to get there. . .

• Hiring Mangers don’t know what they want. The job description says one thing while the hiring manager has entire set of skills, requirements, and must haves.  The position description isn’t always an accurate view of what the position really entails either because the description was written 15 years ago or the person who wrote it didn’t have a clue.

And while I poke a little fun at the recruiting process and talk about why it sucks, clearly there is a serious underlying issue.  Recruiting is kinda broken and instead of writing snarky blog posts and adding to the Twitter feed, it’s time we do something about it.

That’s the premise behind Zero Unemployment which is a grass roots movement that involves me teaming up with my friends over at Smartrecruiters.  I’m excited to announce our campaign to change recruiting by developing a channel and platform in which to generate discussion about the topic.  The hope is this that by talking about the problem we can create a solution where candidates are easier to find and recruiting doesn’t suck quite so much.  The upside is that Zero Unemployment can be a win/win situation for both the recruiter and the candidate.  This idea is what my blog was originally founded on.  Helping educate the job seeker in the unwritten rules of the job search but this time, it’s in reverse.  We’re hoping to change an industry one tweet at a time.

So join me on the Twitter to discuss Zero Unemployment using the #zeroue hash tag, check out the Facebook Fan Page, and learn more about how to get involved at our unofficial movement page.  Because today Jerome and I have unofficially proclaimed April 1st as Zero Unemployment Day

Thanks for your support!

FTC Disclosure: SmartRecruiter is a client of Xceptional HR. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. And I believe in the Zero Unemployment Movement.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”