Dive Brief:
- Nine in 10 CFOs said the competitive hiring environment is complicating their companies' ability to recruit talent, according to a new Robert Half Finance & Accounting survey.
- Respondents said it can take a month or more to fill staff-level finance or accounting positions. An average of five weeks are necessary to hire a manager-level candidate, the survey found.
- Robert Half suggested that employers streamline the hiring process by: describing three or four crucial skills applicants must have in an open position's job description; shortening a lengthy list of needed skills and credentials to avoid eliminating promising candidates who need some training; predetermining hiring parameters such as position and salary approvals, so job offers can be made quickly; and working with recruiting firms, which can absorb time-consuming hiring responsibilities and present skilled candidates for consideration in a timely manner.
Dive Insight:
The tight labor market has posed major challenges to companies across all industries needing to bulk up their staff. Traditional hiring tactics no longer suffice; recruiters are changing their strategies by shedding old requirements like threshold GPAs and certain credentials and are focusing instead on soft skills, expanding talent pools to include often-overlooked candidates. They're eyeing predictive data analytics, too, as a way to improve hiring outcomes.
Making the recruitment experience positive can raise the chances of getting top candidates to accept job offers. Most companies (84%) fail to personalize the talent experience throughout the recruiting process, according to recent research from Phenom People. The same study found that almost all employers (98%) fail to communicate with candidates about their application status. Companies that ranked high in providing positive candidate experiences fared well in the competition for talent, the research found.