This is what one of our public sector clients had to say after unsuccessfully attempting to attract senior marketing candidates via their own website last year:
“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.
Your screening will be inefficient
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.
You’ll have more competition
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.
Direct ads have hidden costs
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.
You’ll lack diversity
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.
To find out how we can work with you, please drop us a line
This was the most professional recruitment processes I have experienced as a candidate. I felt really well prepared for the hiring process. Ita took the time to understand my experience and align my skills and values with those of role that I was applying for. This meant that I felt really prepared for the interview process and confident that I understood the role, culture and values of the organisation.
I would recommend Sitka and I would also consider using them as a client in the future. Having experienced their service as a candidate I have seen the effort that is made to ensure there is a good fit between candidate and client. Thank you Ita!
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.
My recruitment experience with Sitka has been brilliant. I was dealing with Karen who is so friendly and attentive. She really listened to what it was I was looking for and put me forward for a role I am now in and love.
I felt like they truly cared and weren’t just trying to fill vacancies as quick as possible. Other agencies kept suggesting roles I had already said I wasn’t interested in. This wasn’t the case here, and they really wanted to find the right person.
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I thoroughly enjoyed communicating with Karen and having her represent me. Karen was very hands on and made me feel very informed. Therefore I was able to relaxed and feel at ease during my interviews.