We’ve all seen the headlines warning of “The Great Resignation” or “The Great Realignment” or “The Great (Insert Your Favorite Description Here)” that has shaken up the employment landscape over the last few years. In many ways, it is true that the tables have turned when it comes to the power balance between job seekers and employers. Companies have had to respond to a tightening of the labor market and a ratcheting up of demands from talent. Less remarked upon, though, is the effect that this phenomenon has had on the people we often expect to handle the hiring process: recruiters.
Recruiters find themselves caught between hiring managers desperate to fill vacant spots and job seekers insistent on receiving more from their employers. Throughout it all, they’ve been ghosted, pressured, villainized and often taken for granted. Are employment professionals finally reaching their breaking point?
HR: Harsh Realities
HR teams are often the canaries in the coalmine when it comes to concerning hiring trends. Think of it this way: The journey from posting a job listing to sourcing candidates, scheduling interviews, negotiations and, ultimately, onboarding can take weeks or even months. When an explosion in demand suddenly outweighs the available supply of talent, recruiters feel the effects first. By the time employers are ready to raise red flags due to delays in their hiring processes, recruitment professionals may already be seeing red.
Today, the effects of an exasperated hiring market are certainly being felt by recruiters. When polled, nearly one third of recruiters said they experience extreme stress on a weekly basis because of their work. Digging even deeper, this same research found that 77 percent of high-ranking recruiters are open to changing jobs, along with 65 percent of HR professionals. Now, the question is: What do we do when the people helping us navigate the Great Resignation resign themselves?
HR: Humanized Recruiting
Automation is the hot topic in the world of human resources these days, and with good reason. The application of people analytics at scale has the potential to positively impact hiring, retention and the way we work in ways we can only begin to imagine. Yet, what gets lost in these conversations is the fact that human beings will still be at the center of all of it. While many automated processes have helped to streamline the jobs of recruiters, it still hasn’t changed the fact that a living, breathing person is being tasked with creating important connections between job seekers and employers.
With that in mind, here are three ways that organizations can support their weary recruiters: invest in onboarding, celebrate success and prioritize mental health for all.
- Invest in onboarding. It takes a lot of work to hire someone. After all of the time and energy that goes into finding the right candidate for a job, it is downright dispiriting to lose that person just as quickly to turnover. One way to boost retention rates is to ensure a smooth onboarding process. Unfortunately, recent research indicates that only 44 percent of recruiting leaders said that they believed their onboarding processes were successful in introducing new hires to the company culture. Beginning any job with miscommunication only makes it more likely for bigger issues to bubble up down the line. Now, with the rise of remote and hybrid work environments, setting expectations early on with a clear onboarding process is more essential than ever.
- Celebrate success. Okay, maybe employee of the month plaques have fallen out of style, but there are still ways to show appreciation for a job well done. Now, it’s all about personalizing praise. One recruiter might appreciate their manager giving them a shout out in a public setting. Another recruiter might be more motivated by external rewards, such as a bonus for a job well done. It’s important to get ahead of the sentiments that lead to burnout by supporting employees in a way that speaks to their individuality.
- Prioritize mental health for all. It’s one thing to write a few sentences about valuing mental health to put up on a website; it’s another thing to follow through. Recruiters are seeing firsthand that job seekers today value opportunities where employers make their wellbeing a priority. After a while, it’s only natural that they, too, might consider making a similar move! Employers that make the decision to double down on mindfulness are seeing it payoff in a big way. A 2022 study by Deloitte found that these employers saw a return of nearly $5 for every $1 invested in mental health services.
Resign. Recruit. Repeat.
If employers take away anything from the Great Whatever You Want to Call It, it should be that employees of all kinds want their needs to be heard. Recruiters may have been the first to sense the shifting employment landscape, but now they find themselves in the center of a swirling sea of doubt. To avoid falling into a treacherous cycle of resign-recruit-repeat, employers must be ready to support their recruiting teams.
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