The company surveyed over 50 heads of HR from some of the UK’s biggest recruiters, and found that despite high unemployment rates in some parts of the country, finding scarce talent still preoccupies almost a third (32%) of organisations. A further 19% are struggling to manage the recruitment process with reduced budgets.
The research was conducted among top decision makers who attended the CIPD’s HR Software Show event in London. Commenting on the figures, Steve Tope, WCN’s Director of Client Services said: “People often assume it’s an employer’s market, but just because you are flooded with CVs and applications doesn’t mean it’s any easier to spot the perfect candidates and seamlessly bring them into your recruitment process. In fact, if anything, it can get tougher as your processes and team become overwhelmed – especially if at the same time budgets are under pressure as they clearly are at the moment.
“Add to this mix of challenges the big changes in candidate behaviour such as the use of social and mobile media and you can see why many companies without well thought through e-recruitment solutions are struggling.”
WCN’s research supports this. Over one in ten major companies say coping with high volumes of applications is a top issue, while a further 9% are struggling to ensure their recruitment process properly exploits social media and the use of mobile devices.
According to WCN, which authored the Government sponsored Best Practice Guide to e-Recruitment, these figures should act as a wake-up call of all those who have yet to move to e-recruitment, or are unhappy with their current system.
Steve Tope again: “We’ve a retail client using e-recruitment which has reduced the time it takes to sift candidates by 70% – that’s a big reduction in workload. Another in the industrial sector has used the tracking and reporting capabilities of their e-recruitment system to narrow down the number of job boards they use from 40 to 3, delivering a huge cost saving, without impacting on the quality and quantity of applicants. These are not isolated examples. That’s why for companies, like those in our research, struggling to find and handle the talent they need, there has never been a better moment to reassess their recruitment approach.”
WCN currently works with over 60 of the biggest employer brands including its Onrec award-winning clients Credit Suisse, Marks and Spencer’s and William Hill and is the leading supplier to Central Government.
