There are many challenges along the path of hiring for an open role. According to a LinkedIn study, 77% of surveyed employers struggled to fill their open positions this year. As a hiring manager, you want to do all your research, learn about your interviewees, and make the right decision about which candidate will fit into your team and have the technical and soft skills to do the job well.  

The recruitment process isn’t always easy. With budget constraints, tight timelines and strategic goals, checking all the boxes isn’t as easy as you wish it were. However, there are common challenges and issues faced by most hiring managers. When you are aware of these issues, you can find a way to overcome them and become skilled at navigating these challenges in the future. 

5 Challenges Faced by Hiring Managers – And How to Get Ahead of Them 

While recruiting may not be a piece of cake, here are tips to help you navigate the challenges of hiring successfully. 

Challenge #1: Attracting and finding the right candidates 

When you are looking to fill a role, you are trying to find the right person for the job. This person needs to qualified, have the skills necessary to do the job and also be a good fit into the culture and team. Sounds complicated! That’s why attracting the right candidate can be very difficult. You will need to make sure that you don’t end up going through a ton of resumes that don’t fit the specific parameters you set for candidates. 

Tip: When posting job requirements, make sure you are very specific with what you are looking for and what type of experience the candidate needs to have. Include a supplemental application with questions specific to the role to further screen candidates and only move forward the best ones. 

Challenge #2: Hiring fairly  

Hiring means being inclusive in your process. When you hire for an open position, your goal is to eliminate bias as much as humanly possible and hire the right candidate. Additionally, you will want to focus on long-term diversity goals, incorporate fair workplace policies and provide equal opportunities to all coworkers and employees. 

Tip: Review your hiring processes to ensure they are free from bias. Be sure you are searching from multiple and non-traditional sources of candidates. It could be a good idea to conduct ‘blind interviews’ and keep your job listing specific to the job while giving access to all communities and types of people. 

Challenge #3: Data-driven hiring decisions 

In today’s world, we rely on data to help us make good decisions. This data and analysis can help recruiters and hiring managers to collect and analyze hiring data efficiently to foster improvement and pick the right people for the role. The market keeps evolving, so attract the best candidates, you need to evolve with it. 

Tip: Focus on which metrics are important and implement what is the highest priority for your business and the open role. Train hiring managers to focus on specific data to help with the hiring process for maximum efficiency.  

Challenge #4: Focusing on the candidate experience 

Your brand image is important to attract the right candidates – this means that starting from the first touchpoint, you need to strive for a positive experience with every candidate your company interacts with. Candidates will immediately get a glimpse at your company culture in the way they are treated during the application and interview process. It’s important to focus on improving the candidate experience. Including clear communication and prompt updates. 

Tip: Expectations regarding timelines, the recruiting process, and communication touchpoints should be explained. Avoid ghosting any candidate and keep communication lines open to let candidates know the status of hiring for the open role. 

Challenge #5: Remote hiring 

One of the biggest challenges of work-from-home is conducting a search online. It can be difficult to truly gauge a candidate simply from meeting them on a screen. How can you improve the experience and have confidence that communication will still be effective? 

Tip: Use efficient video chat systems during interviews so that you can get to know the candidate well without technical problems. Create a series of tests or sample projects to ensure the candidate has the technical skills required to do the critical aspects of the role. Additionally, don’t forget to ask behavioral questions and assess candidates on their soft skills.