11 Biggest Recruitment Challenges Faced by Recruiters in 2024

Indeed recruitment landscape changed in recent years due to rapid development in technology. The year is 2024, and recruiters, hiring managers and recruitment teams are still struggling to attract the right candidate and engage with them effectively to hire them for growth. 

So, are you one of those recruiters or hiring managers who are facing recruitment challenges? Do you wonder how to overcome these recruitment problems? 

If so, then this blog is the right place. In this article, we will discuss various recruitment challenges and provide you with the best recruitment practices and tips to overcome the challenges recruitment recruiter are facing. 

What are Recruitment Challenges?

As we know, recruiting is not an easy task, and it takes a lot of effort to hire the right candidate for the job and avoid a bad hire. A recruitment team faces lots of challenges throughout the hiring process. And as a good recruiter, and to enhance the employer branding, the recruiter had to fill the open position within minimum time. 

Open positions for a long time affect the company's goodwill talent acquisition is now the priority of each company and organisation. Whether small or big, recruiting agencies want to form a meaningful talent pool that will suit them in the future. But do you think it is easier said than done?

The recruitment process is the most profound process from the inside, where the recruiter has to pass every stage along with the candidates. And during these phases, they confront various problems; that's what recruitment challenges are.

So, if you are about to start a hiring process, here are some recruitment challenges that you should be aware of and ready to face beforehand.  

11 Biggest Recruitment Challenges Faced By Recruiters in 2024 

Remember, problems come along with solutions. Identically we will discuss recruitment problems and solutions as well. 

1. Talent shortage

The market is competitive and candidate-driven, so the candidates have the upper hand. However, the main issue is the ratio of skilled candidates is less in the rapid technology development. 

In 2024, the lack of qualified candidates is the No 1 hiring challenge recruiters are facing. Also, the problem will only get worse. According to the McKinsey Global Institute study, companies in Europe and North America will need 16 to 18 million more educated employees that are going to be available. 

However, with a strong hiring process and good perks, recruiters can overcome this bigger recruitment challenge. Let’s see the recruitment solution to tackle this problem which recruiters can implement. 

Solution

Organisations have no choice but to survive and thrive in the fiercely competitive market to hire the best talent faster and effectively. Hence, they are providing attractive perks and benefits to draw potential talent. A survey by CR Magazine

found that 92% of people would consider changing jobs if offered a role with a company with an excellent employer brand.  

Also, Nearly 3 in 5 organisations (57%) plan to offer more flexibility for when or where work is done as talent scarcity grows, and 26% offer joining bonuses, according to a survey by Manpower Group. So, companies must offer amazing benefits to attract and retain the best candidate. 

2. Attracting the right candidates

Finding the right candidate that fits the job can be a difficult and tedious task. Hence, we recorded it in recruitment challenges. 

The options are limited when you try to locate the right person in a pool of unqualified talents, and in the end, you often end up settling for a candidate that is the best person at the time despite them not the best fit for the job. To avoid such situations, the best way is to form a smaller pipeline of more qualified talent over a more significant number of applications.

Solution

If attracting suitable candidates is one of your biggest recruitment challenges, follow this tip. One of the best recruitment practices is to be in-depth about the position requirement. Because the more you will serve in your ads, the more candidates will relate themself.

You can add a knockout question strategy. If you only want a candidate who holds a degree of MCA, set the question, did you complete a master's in computer application, and yes/no.

3. Targeting passive candidates

When targeting passive candidates, the hiring market for the executive and senior-level roles becomes fiercely competitive. It's a challenging endeavour to identify and attract individuals who are not actively seeking job opportunities. However, the use of executive search software provides a powerful solution to overcome this recruitment challenge.

According to LinkedIn's survey, passive candidates make up a significant portion of the global workforce, accounting for 70%, while active candidates comprise the remaining 30%. This statistic highlights the daunting task of tapping into this vast talent pool.

Solution

Recruiters implement passive recruitment strategies to hire people for managerial roles, and 49% of passive talent want to hear about new opportunities, according to LinkedIn. 

Recruiters must leverage the fruitful benefits of social media, job boards and candidate databases to source the most suitable candidates. Also, the organisation need to arrange employee referral programs that offer amazing bonuses and incentives to those who refer potential talent. 

Candidate interaction is the key to hiring a passive employee. Hence, recruiters and HR professionals must find ways to do effectively communicate with candidates. Cold emailing and cold calling are the best way to start engaging with the talent. Also, they must update their career page and make it more compelling and post content on social media that adds value. 

4. Engaging with qualified candidates

Engaging qualified candidates is one of the recruitment challenges. It is essential to reach out to suitable candidates and be noticed by them. A well-qualified candidate is swamped with emails from multiple recruiters. You have to make your email stand out in the sea, especially when the candidate has several offers under their belt. You have to put in more effort to attract and persuade you to choose your company in this sea of competitors, especially when it comes to passive candidates.

Solution

Passive candidates are the ones who are not eager for the opportunity, or we can say they are not interested in changing their job. Therefore, to remove this challenge from the list of recruitment challenges, first, create a scenario that seems interesting to them. Let them know what you are offering instead of what they will do for your company. 

Candidate engagement is a continuous process throughout the hiring procedure; thus, this is one of the best recruitment practices to maintain distance from recruitment challenges. 

5. Reducing Time-to-hire

Indeed, good recruiters try to fill up job positions as fast as possible because a vacant position costs them money and delays operations. Still, some industries take longer to hire, which frustrates recruiters.

The reason behind a longer duration for recruitment can also be a result of a shortage of qualified candidates, which leads to a real struggle for the hiring teams to conclude and the right candidate gets hired elsewhere. That's why recruiters add it to the menu of recruitment challenges.

Solution

To eliminate this challenge from the recruitment challenges, you need to ask several questions to yourself. You know the whole hiring process very well. Look with the tiny eyes where you are going wrong, why you cannot hire faster and why this is on the list of recruitment challenges.

And ask questions such as, can I remove any stages of the hiring process that does not affect the overall hiring? Is there a lack of communication between you and the candidates? Are you using the right technology for recruitment? Need to change your applicant tracking system? Need to use screening language assessments?  etc.

6. Building a strong employer brand

Employer brand is a crucial factor when it comes to accepting an offer letter. A survey conducted by Corporate Responsibility Magazine has found that 75% of people would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation - even if they were unemployed! 

A strong employer brand is vital as it attracts top talent, engages them, and has a better chance of making a quality hire and avoiding a bad one. Hiring is a complex process and requires a continuous, collective effort. And To enhance the employer brand, recruiters have to ensure that candidates get good recruitment experience whether they are hired or not. 

This continuous process might distract recruiters from concentrating on crucial tasks, which is one of the recruitment challenges that recruiters face.

Solution

Always reply to the comments and reviews concerning your hiring process or employer product and brand on social media, website, or anywhere else. Encourage existing employers to share their experience on social media and the website in the form of videos and blogs.

7. Creating an efficient recruiting process

The fifth challenge from the book of recruitment challenges is creating an efficient recruiting process. The recruitment process can be tricky, so it is mandatory to have an efficient recruiting process to hire the right candidate. Hiring teams must communicate proficiently and fast to evaluate candidates quickly, and they should be aware of all the steps during the process. Their main task is coordinating all this communication which is not always easy. Also, administrative tasks take up too much time that they can use in the hiring process instead and provide a good candidate experience.

Solution

One thing you need to invest in for this recruitment challenge is technology. Adopt the best applicant tracking system or CRM that brings accuracy and streamlines your process. Moreover, reduce the time of hiring due to its automation recruiting features. Thus, its prominent features diminish the manual tasks of the team member.

8. Eliminating bias in hiring

A company must provide equal opportunities to all candidates to hire the best person for the job. Also, it is a legal obligation and is an excellent way to engage a person without the interference of stereotypes. Many companies struggle to bring diverse candidates on board, and unconscious biases are one of the reasons behind it. This leads to an inclusive workplace and diminishes your company's image.

Solution

To overcome this one of the recruitment challenges, recruiters need to make some modifications in terms of technique. Adopt the structured interview, i.e., the same questions and activity for every candidate. And use different blind hiring software.

9. Securing a positive candidate experience

During the hiring process, providing a good candidate experience is beneficial as it increases the chances of the candidate accepting the offer, and a bad experience makes them less likely to get the job. Positive candidate experience enhances employer brand and is an integral factor when candidates weigh in on job offers. This creates more suitable candidates to apply to your job posting.

Solution

Communicate with candidates as per the expectation level. Using the latest recruiting technology or Recruiting CRM Software, you can set reminders and choose the email template according to the conversation. Use ATS to improve candidate experience.

10. Implementing data-driven recruitment

The recruiting process can be improved using recruitment data and metrics, which helps make more informed decisions. But the drawback is that maintaining these data can be tiresome and require a lot of time. Keeping track of data through spreadsheets is one way as it simplifies the data, but it requires tons of manual work and can be prey to human error. So, it is not a very reliable method. It is hard to organise data accurately and efficiently and keep it updated.

Solution

You can collect data from google analytics and from recruitment marketing tools. There is a metric of recruitment; follow that but not every metric.

11. Conducting collaborative recruitment

Recruiters are often struggling with effectively involving hiring managers and recruitment team members in the recruitment process. Gallup discovered in a survey that 51% of hiring managers are disengaged, and 14% are actively disengaged. 

Sometimes, hiring managers are not completely satisfied with HR’s methods of conducting hiring workflow. A survey by Viser found that 71% of recruitment managers think HRs need to enhance the quality-of-hire and recruitment strategies.

Hence, recruiters are finding ways to include every member in the hiring process and efficiently run a collaborative hiring workflow, so they must follow effective strategies. Let’s find out the recruitment solution to the collaborative recruitment challenge. 

Solution

Recruiters can opt for recruitment tech to hire collaboratively with ease. Online software such as Applicant Tracking System is the best recruitment solution for recruiters and hiring managers to effectively conduct team-based hiring. It is all-in-one recruitment software where every member of the team has access to the recent activities and status of the candidates. 

The system will enable hiring managers to take data-driven and joint decisions after taking feedback from other members. This recruitment technology will lessen the number of bad hires and make hiring a pleasant experience for the recruitment team. 

Final Thought on Recruitment Challenges Faced by Recruiters in 2024

Recruiters face numerous recruitment challenges, even when the economy is good and the employment market is high. So, diversifying the recruitment process helps them by using social media for job postings, attending job fairs, etc.

These hiring challenges in 2024 can be resolved by investing in recruitment tools and technology like the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Recruitment CRM Software and training a hiring team to make the process easy. 

Want to know How? 

Want to solve all of your recruitment challenges efficiently? If so, then look no further. Then, book a free demo. 

See how our AI-powered recruitment software can help you streamline your overall hiring process from sourcing potential applicants to hiring the most suitable talent faster and more effectively.