Finding good candidates top recruitment challenge

Job boards still most popular source for candidates: Survey

Finding good candidates remains the number one recruiting challenge for employers and the more specific and higher skilled the job requirements, the harder it is to find qualified candidates. That’s according to a survey by Talent Technology.

In looking at recruitment challenges, “finding good candidates” was rated 2.49 on a scale of zero (easiest) to three (most difficult), found the survey of 1,100 recruitment professionals in North America. “Filling positions” came in at 2.32 while “dedicated hiring managers” was at 1.82.

Also a challenge were “managing applicants” (1.68), “sub-par job descriptions” (1.56) and “negotiating job offers” (1.51).

It typically takes an employer 45 days to fill a job vacancy and, on average, recruitment professionals spend 4.5 minutes reading a resumé, found Talent Technology.

In looking at the sourcing for job candidates, job boards (17 per cent) were most popular, followed by employee referrals (15.8 per cent), corporate websites (13.8 per cent), internal applicants (13.7 per cent), social networking (12.5 per cent), outside recruiters (9.9 per cent) and corporate applicant tracking systems (ATS) and an outside agency (both 8.7 per cent).

Looking ahead at 2012, 51.4 per cent of respondents think the size of their company will increase while 35.4 per cent feel it will stay the same (and 7.8 per cent are unsure), found the survey. But 63.4 per cent said their organization is exhibiting signs of recovery from economic difficulties.

“We are excited to see over 60 per cent of companies are seeing signs of recovery from economic difficulties,” says James Thomas, vice-president of marketing at Talent Technology. “With an increased demand for candidates, and good skilled candidates being harder and harder to find, it will become more critical to build a solid talent generation strategy to lead you to recruitment success for 2012.”



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