Talent Shortage & 8 Other Challenges Recruiters Face In 2025

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When Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote "water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink" in his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, he could have been talking about recruitment in today's day and age. Because today, recruiting the right candidate is no child's play. It was never an easy task but with budgets getting leaner, the candidate pool getting wider, and competition getting tougher, recruiters are struggling hard to find the right talent. 

With recruitment challenges becoming more complex, the need to find appropriate and effective hiring solutions has never been stronger. Before we look for a solution, we first need to understand the exact nature of the problem.

Let's understand what recruitment challenges really entail, the most common problems associated with recruitment and selection, and the best way to deal with these challenges. 

What Challenges Do Recruiters Face?: Understanding Recruitment Challenges

Recruiters are the lynchpin connecting potential employees with the current workforce. They're responsible for sourcing prospective candidates for a role after taking inputs from relevant teams and departments, setting and sticking to a budget for the hiring process, and ensuring that the entire recruitment process goes off without a hitch.

Consulting firm PwC revealed that recruitment costs comprise 28% of a company's total operating expenses. That's a big chunk. If recruitment strategies are not planned properly, the costs could go even higher. 

A recruitment challenge is any issue or problem that hampers one or more parts of the hiring process, leading to delayed recruitment and higher expense. It's a regular problem associated with a role and not a one-time occurrence.

If not solved in a timely manner and with appropriate resources, a recruitment challenge can not only hamper for firm's productivity but also impact the employer's brand. Thus, the recruitment team works to identify these problems and find the most apt solution. 

Problems Associated With Recruitment And Selection

There are several problems associated with recruitment and selection today. Some of the biggest challenges that affect most organizations are: 

Talent Shortage

Talent shortage refers to a scenario where companies are actively looking to hire for a role but are unable to find qualified candidates. Whether it's due to the lack of qualified candidates, an issue with recruiting strategy, or fierce competition, the bottom line is companies are unable to attract the right candidates. One of the biggest recruitment challenges, this problem impacts organizations of all sizes - from baby startups to ancient firms. 

Global talent deficit could reach more than 85 million workers by 2030, states a Korn Ferry Study. This threatens the growth of businesses across the globe, including in India. In fact, as per research conducted by ManpowerGroup, 63% of Indian companies report talent shortages. The number is only increasing. 

How to overcome this recruitment challenge? 

Depending on the job requirement and size of the organization, hiring teams can adopt various solutions, like targeted recruitment, campus hiring drives, focused candidate sourcing, etc. However, it's critical that organizations first identify the reason for the talent shortage - is it the job market or a flaw in the organization's recruitment strategy?  

Pro Tip: Reach the right quality candidate and lower hiring costs by utilizing job boards and social media to post about vacancies. 

Attracting Passive Candidates

Active candidates are individuals actively looking for a role. However, an ideal candidate can be one who's not actively looking for a new role, i.e. passive candidates. These are candidates who're not actively looking for a job in the market but could be approached for a new role. These candidates may change organizations but remain in a similar role. Organizations that need experienced individuals for a specific role opt for lateral hiring to find passive candidates.

However, attracting these candidates is not easy. For starters, recruiters need to put in additional efforts to source these candidates, as they're not actively looking for a job. Secondly, since they're experienced individuals, recruiting them is more expensive than hiring freshers - and even more complex. 

How to overcome this recruitment challenge?

To attract passive talent, organizations need to focus on their job description, recruitment sources, compensation package, and assessment framework.

Organizations can also use tools to maintain a database of potential candidates and update it regularly.

This talent pool of candidates can include people who enquired about a role when the organization wasn't actively hiring, past employees, etc. This can speed up the process of sourcing candidates, especially passive candidates. 

Read here about advanced talent solutions that will help you find the right talent. 

Unclear Job Descriptions

Unclear job descriptions - one of the most common complaints by job seekers, it can greatly impact the quality of candidates who apply for a role in your organization. 

Hiring managers should focus on writing clear and detailed job descriptions. All basic information about the role and its responsibilities should be included in the job description. Job postings that skimp on this information are often ignored by qualified candidates. 

Unclear job descriptions can also attract the wrong talent. If the job description does not clearly specify the application criteria, unqualified candidates may also apply for the role. This, in turn, leads teams to spend excessive time screening resumes and increases the overall time taken to hire. 

How to overcome this recruitment challenge?

A few things that can help you draft better and cleared job descriptions (JD)are:

- Always mention the basic criteria for application. For example, if you require software engineers applying for the role of a web developer to know certain languages, ensure the languages are specified in the JD. 

- Include evaluation metrics for the job role in the description. For example, a daily or monthly target of articles for content writers; a monthly sales target for sales executives, etc. 

- Include both hard and soft skills. If a role requires client communication, you need an individual accustomed to good communication and problem-solving skills. 

- Mention the salary range. Knowledge about the compensation structure can be an attractive feature for potential employees and is also indicative of a company culture that values honest and fair communication.

Pro Tip: When mentioning the compensation structure or salary range in your job description,  make sure that you're meeting the industry standards; or have an explanation for why it's lower than the market benchmark. Also, make your job description SEO-friendly to stand out from the competition.

Adopting Data-Driven Recruitment

Organizations want to move towards data-driven recruitment, but collecting and maintaining data can be more trouble than its worth, if not done properly. Especially in the case of large volumes of data, common tools, like Excel spreadsheets can be cumbersome to manage. Not to mention, they're more prone to human error.

Similarly, physically conducting assessments can be time-consuming and manual labor-intensive. But, if digital assessments are not developed or tested appropriately, they can hamper results and even negatively impact the candidate experience. 

How to overcome this recruitment challenge?

Recruiting team can look for software and tools that can streamline the recruitment methods or partner with a hiring platform with the required expertise. As a general rule of thumb, all assessment frameworks should be tested thoroughly before being taken live. Moreover, while measuring recruiting metrics is important, tracking data on all available recruitment metrics is nearly impossible. Thus, hiring managers should collaborate with department heads to finalize recruiting metrics. 

Pro Tip: Before using a new recruitment technology or partnering with a hiring platform, request a demo.

Improving Candidate Experience

Multiple research reports and studies have revealed that more than 50% of hired employees were influenced to accept the job due to a positive candidate experience. Thus, investing time and effort in creating a positive and engaging candidate experience is crucial to improving recruitment. Multiple reasons--like a long-drawn-out process, misstated information, etc.--can impact a candidate's recruitment experience. When candidates have multiple offers or are actively interviewing with various, similar organizations, a poor negative experience can mean the difference between a candidate's acceptance and rejection.

How to overcome this recruitment challenge?

Build a recruitment process that is fine-tuned to the job role and talent pool. Ideally, an interview should be combined with other modes of engagement - this helps candidates engage with different people in the organization and helps organizations holistically assess employees. 

Point to Note: Through its Campus Employer Branding Report 2024, Unstop discovered that competitions of all kinds - Case-Study, Quizzes, Simulations, etc. emerged as the most preferred engagement activity to connect with a company, followed by Placement Talks and Informal Alumni Talks.

Building A Strong Employer Brand

Stand out from the competition - this is not just a requirement for candidates, but also for employers. With multiple competitors existing in every industry, this has become a common recruitment challenge. If you don't have a strong employer brand, a candidate may be tempted to opt for another organization offering the same perks and roles. 

How to overcome this recruitment challenge?

If you're a new organization and face stiff competition from well-established brands, or exist in an industry with intense competition, include informal conversations with current employees as part of the recruitment process.

Point to Note: The Unstop Campus Employer Branding Report 2024 revealed that 77% of B-School, 80% of Engineering, and 60% of Arts, Science & Commerce students like to have only one to two interactions with the company to understand it better before choosing their prospective employers.

Eliminating Hiring Bias/Improving Diversity & Inclusion

Adopting fair recruitment practices is not just a legal requirement but also essential for the smooth running of an organization. Hiring bias can make it difficult to find the best person for the job, and even impact an organization's diversity and inclusion mandates. Hiring managers need to take accountability for eliminating hiring bias from the recruitment process, meeting D&I mandates, and ensuring that the most suitable candidate is hired for the role. 

How to overcome this recruitment challenge?

Organizations need to invest in training recruiters on best practices, conduct workshops and focus on building a strong employer brand. Some strategies that organizations can employ are rethinking the interview panel to make it more diverse; focusing on structured assessment practices, blind hiring software, etc. 

In certain cases, organizations may also struggle in sourcing candidates that can help meet the D&I mandate in a particular location. If this is the case, collaborative hiring can help, i.e., reaching out to local organizations that can help you find the right talent pool and organization a diversity-focused hiring process.

Notable example: Walmart CodeHers was a diversity hackathon organized by Unstop for Walmart Global Tech India. It helped the firm exceed its gender mandate. Read about it here. 

Low Offer Acceptance Rate

A low offer acceptance rate implies that the organization is missing out on suitable candidates -  candidates who met the application criteria, passed all assessments, and were judged to be the right match for the organization. A declined job offer gravely impacts the company's resources. This is the last stage of recruitment and the time and resources invested in hiring a candidate can't be recuperated in this case. 

A dropout may also occur because a candidate found a better alternative - which again, is an indication of the employer's brand value or company culture. 

How to overcome this recruitment challenge?

The first thing to do is evaluate the compensation structure and understand the brand value. Understand the industry benchmarks and focus on the additional benefits valued by employees. It's not always about the salary component.

Through its Campus Employer Branding Report 2024, Unstop discovered that B-School students prioritized Career Progression & Growth within the company over Salary & Benefits. Interestingly, Work from Home and Flexible Working Hours, Relocation or Travel opportunities, and Training Programmes were of the least importance. 

Pro Tip: Utilize social media to understand the public perception of the company. Social media is an important tool to not just disseminate information, but also understand and change perceptions. 

Remote Workforce & Gig Economy: Emerging Recruitment Challenge in 2024

Apart from the aforementioned challenges, the recruitment industry in 2024 is also encountering challenges with a remote workforce and gig economy. 

In the aftermath of the pandemic, a remote workforce is a reality for most organizations and industries. Consequently, firms need to have plans in place for virtual hiring or hybrid hiring and engaging employees remotely.

Gig economy refers to the labor market characterized by a temporary workforce, engaged on a contract for a short period of time. These can include anyone, from freelancers to daily-wage laborers. Recruiters need to tap into this job market and identify ways to attract and retain talent. 

Recruitment Problems & Solutions In 2024: Key Takeaways (Tips)

There are multiple challenges in recruitment. And for each challenge, a different solution exists. But broadly, the approach is to identify the problem and solve it. 

To overcome recruitment challenges organizations need to track data on relevant metrics and locate the problem areas, implement changes, and compare performances to see if the solution is effective. 

An effective recruitment solution can help reduce the time taken by unproductive administrative tasks, help organizations find talented candidates quickly, and improve overall productivity. 

The recruitment space today is not the same as it was a decade ago. Remote working paved the way for virtual hiring, the incoming Gen Z workforce pushed companies to reevaluate compensation and benefits, and fierce competition has organizations investing in new-age communication tools to build a stronger brand. 

Here are the key takeaways for recruiting problems and solutions: 

i) Build a talent pool of potential talent and maintain it regularly

ii) Use digital solutions to streamline processes, eliminate biases, and make assessment frameworks more efficient

iii) Regularly train teams to stay updated with ongoing trends, like quiet quitting, moonlighting, etc. 

iv) Use relevant recruitment metrics to track performance

In case you're struggling with finding the right talent to meet your recruiting needs, you can request a demo of the hiring solutions offered by Unstop. Unstop has an ever-growing community of 6 Mn+ students and young professionals. The platform can help you meet your virtual hiring needs, organize campus hiring drives, and hire laterally with better strategies. It also provides new-age solutions to assess candidates and engage with employees, while utilizing best-in-class proctoring technology.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are some of the major reasons that organizations face hiring challenges?

Here are the major reasons why organizations face hiring challenges: 

• Ineffective recruiting strategies
• Shortage of quality talent due to poor job descriptions, misidentified recruiting sources, etc. 
• Poor candidate application experience
• Weak employer brand
• Inability to communicate needs to the recruiting team

2. Should organizations focus on branding to attract candidates?

Yes. A strong employer brand can impact the quality of candidates who apply for a role. It can also influence a prospective candidate's decision of joining the firm. 

3. What's the impact of negative candidate experience?

A negative candidate experience impacts an organization in several ways:

• It can lead to organizations missing out on a perfect candidate. 
• It can generate negative publicity for the role and organization. 
• It can impact the current workforce, who will not get the support they need. 
• It can lead to high recruitment costs.

4. What are the most common recruitment challenges in 2024? 

The most common challenges in recruitment in 2024 are: talent shortage, inability to attract passive candidates, poor job descriptions, recruiting automation, low offer acceptance rate, hiring bias, and a weak candidate experience and employer brand. 

Suggested Reads: 

• A Detailed Guide To Online Recruiting AKA The Future Of Hiring
• Lateral vs Fresher Hiring: Which Is A Better Choice?
• Do You Need Targeted Recruiting? Find Out In This Detailed Guide
• Ex-Google Recruiter Shares The One Step In Application Process That ‘Everyone Fails’
• Lateral Hiring: A Complete Guide To The Process, Its Benefits, Challenges & Best Practices