“We thought placing a direct ad would attract the right talent, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”
Job ads are proving to be more unrewarding and costly than ever, with many companies finding subsequent re-advertising campaigns equally disappointing.
Direct advertising alone might have worked well in the past, but today’s recruitment strategies require well sought out plans and hard work, and are not always easy to manage. This is especially true when it comes to more senior or specialist roles.
These are some of the reasons why relying solely on direct ads is likely to get your year off a bad start.
Manpower’s 2018 talent shortage report concluded that recruiters are facing an increasing struggle to recruit people with the soft skills they need, but job ads make it notoriously difficult to screen for these.
Some 62% of job adverts no longer require applicants to submit CVs; instead employers are opting for methods such as Application Tracking Software (ATS), questionnaires and video interviewing. You might argue these provide better screening of soft skills compared with that of a standard CV, but by the time you get to these methods it is highly likely that you will have invested a lot of time and effort on unsuitable candidates. And the technology isn’t always reliable. Some soft skills might only become apparent once you’ve actually hired someone.
While ATS has its place in the early stages of recruitment – particularly in the case of lower level roles – we believe there’s no better way to screen candidates than having real conversations and building meaningful relationships with them.
Last year saw a dip in professional employment in some sectors in Wales. However, professions such as accounting saw a rise in available roles according to the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo). With Brexit imminent, vacancies may increase across the board, which means candidates will have more options open to them. Direct ads are not a strategically viable way to recruit the best candidates, who research suggests get snapped up within just ten days.
You can read more about the best times to outsource recruitment on our blog.
According to Oleeo, businesses employing up to 250 people see 39% of their new employees leave within six months. What’s worse, a large number of candidates renege on job offers, leading to lengthy and costly repeat recruitment processes.
In our experience, candidate expectations play a large factor in this, because direct ads usually don’t include salary figures or adequate information about the company culture and benefits on offer. This means candidates end up making assumptions and are more likely to become dissatisfied.
The recruitment process itself could be to blame. The average recruitment process is now requiring around 91 touch points; with pressure to recruit quickly, some quality checks may be missed.
A good recruitment partner can help organisations avoid the hidden costs of recruitment, by spending time engaging prospective candidates in conversation and communicating their findings back to the employer.
Posting job ads online limits the pool of candidates available to you, not just because only 27% of candidates are actively seeking a new job, but because of the variety of candidates you’ll attract too.
As an example, in a recent People Management article, Emily Andrews at the Centre for Ageing Better advised that employers can hire more age-positively “by using multiple channels to advertise vacancies rather than just online, using age-neutral language and images in job adverts, and having ‘blind’ application processes to minimise age bias in recruitment.”
A good recruitment partner can invest in a more proactive approach to finding the right people for your organisation, which will in turn maximise the width and breadth of your audience.
At Sitka, we’re pleased to support our clients by writing job descriptions and providing other value-added services and adopting the multifaceted candidate search necessary for today’s recruitment market.
Thankfully, this meant we were able to help our aforementioned client find someone ideal for the role – and not through a direct ad. They said:
“For this particular role, we would have been better off working with Sitka from the outset to save time and to ensure we attracted the right calibre of candidate”.
Don’t let direct ads see your recruitment fail in 2020. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help.
The recruitment process was very straight forward and communication and updates were very regular. Sitka staff are very professional and have an excellent customer focus. They were extremely focussed on what WCR needed and gave us a great calibre of candidates. Sitka will be my first point of call when I’m next recruiting.
The process was thorough and very individual – time was spent finding out about the culture and style of the organisation and the exec team. Sitka worked with the candidates well to find the best fit for both employer and candidate. There was a sense of strong relationship building to ensure that this happened.
The experience of working with Sitka has been fantastic. They provide an excellent service with a professional and friendly approach. Karen kept me informed every step of the way, even sending through interview technique tips.
Having now worked with Sitka for a number of years, they have a real understanding of the type of people we employ and that the ‘fit’ is as important as having the right skills for the role. Sitka provide an excellent service and make you feel you are their only customer. They are quite unique and such a pleasure to work with.
I felt Ita really understood my skills and experience and the service I received was great. I felt that Ita was invested in my future career and did everything she could to help me land my new role.
I’d have no problem recommending Ita and the Sitka team to anyone entering the job market. They made the whole process much easier for me.
The recruitment process was thorough and straight forward, and the quality of candidate provided was very good to say the least. The best thing about the recruitment process was, apart from explaining the job role and what we were looking for, I had little to do but to interview!