The biggest hiring challenges for 2024/25 and how to overcome them
Are you struggling to hire good-quality talent for your business? You’re not alone. The key to successful hiring is knowing how to handle the current recruitment challenges happening in today’s market, and learning how to overcome them.
Although inflation has slowed recently, there are still a variety of costs such as housing, fuel, and food, which is putting a lot of stress on employees. This is predicted to still have an effect going into 2025.
Salaries have often not increased in parallel with the cost of living, meaning some businesses are losing talent as people are looking elsewhere.
Businesses should conduct salary benchmarking research to ensure they remain competitive with others. If your business is in a position where you can’t meet salary expectations, then perhaps consider what other benefits your company offers that might be appealing to candidates, such as bonus schemes, hybrid working, etc.
Equally, if you’re partnering with a recruitment company, a good recruiter will be able to conduct salary benchmarking activates for you.
After events such as The Great Resignation and the UK’s missing workers, there is a shortage of talent, leaving many struggling to hire.
The number of people classed as economically inactive rose significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, although some people have returned to the workforce, many have chosen not to.
The Institute for Employment Studies estimates there are 600,000 fewer people in work than before the pandemic, this is likely due to several reasons such as tighter VISA restrictions for migrants, people choosing to retire early, and more younger people in further education.
This makes attracting talent to your business more difficult than it was several years ago, but the good news is that it’s not impossible.
The remote vs office debate is stronger than ever, with more businesses calling employees back to the office full-time.
If possible, offering some form of flexibility, whether that’s in the form of hybrid working, core working hours, flexitime, or buy-and-sell holiday schemes can help to attract and retain talent to your business.
Talent shortages combined with a higher number of vacancies in comparison to pre-Covid means that businesses are facing much fiercer competition when it comes to attracting talent.
Although it’s not impossible to attract talented job seekers to your business, it’s important to consider tapping into passive candidate talent as well.
Working with recruitment agencies can be a great way to tap into passive candidates who might not be actively seeking a new opportunity but are still open to work. Recruiters often have more tools and a larger network at their disposal, giving them an advantage when it comes to engaging with passive candidates.
Not sure if working with a recruitment agency would be the right thing for you? There’s no harm in getting in touch for a conversation about your hiring needs and whether or not you might benefit from a recruitment agency.
It can be a lengthy process to hire a candidate, depending on the number of interview stages, candidates who might face counteroffers, and hiring managers managing this within their other work responsibilities.
Not to mention the time it can take to onboard candidates at the start of their employment. Getting onboarding wrong can be costly, with estimates that it costs a business approximately 20% of the original employees’ salary to replace them.
Not only this, but a negative onboarding experience can double the likelihood of an employee seeking a new opportunity straight away.
Working with a third party such as a recruitment agency can ease some of these processes, making the recruitment experience easier to manage. Allowing recruiters to source candidates, prep them for interviews, and deal with feedback and candidate communication can ease a lot of the pressure businesses are under to hire quickly.
Regardless of this, it’s important to ensure you have a clear recruitment process, knowing in advance how many interview stages you want candidates to go through and what they will look like. As well as an onboarding process that is clearly mapped out and allows for clear communication with the new starters.
Recruitment agencies can often bring down recruitment fees as you only pay them for their services if you hire the candidate that they source for you.
As well as this, they have a large number of recruitment tools at their disposal, which would be a great cost to a business looking to hire using in-house recruiters and talent acquisition partners only.
Often working with recruitment businesses can be less expensive than having an in-house team, which must be paid a salary by the business regardless of whether they manage to hire anyone or not.
While the recruitment landscape requires a strategic approach to address the myriad challenges businesses face going into the end of 2024 and the start of 2025, it’s still possible to attract top talent to your business.
The fierce competition for top talent means tapping into passive candidates and working with recruitment agencies can provide a significant edge. Ultimately, partnering with experienced recruiters not only reduces hiring costs but also expands access to valuable recruitment tools and networks.
By making yourself aware of the current hiring challenges and adapting your strategy accordingly, it’s still possible to successfully attract and retain the high-quality talent needed to thrive in today’s market. For tailored recruitment solutions, reach out to T2M Resourcing and discover how we can support your hiring needs.