Are You Scaring Away Top Talent?

According to a recent report, the number one recruiting challenge that companies of all sizes face is lack of talent. This is especially true when employers seek candidates for a specialized profession or when they try to fill higher-level roles. While lack of talent is certainly a problem worth addressing, the flip side is that you, as a hiring manager, may be scaring talent away.

Below are the top 5 factors that scare job seekers away. If you’re guilty of any of them, use the subsequent advice to make the necessary changes to your hiring process before it’s too late.  

You Don’t Have a Website

You may be a long-established business with hundreds of loyal customers and a reputation for success in your area, but if you don’t have a website, you’re going to have a hard time filling roles. Most smart jobseekers perform a quick Google search before they even submit an application. If a person cannot find any information on your company, what it does, who your leaders are, and the type of company culture you have, he or she may be disinclined to apply to your ad. 

You can quickly fix this problem by creating a clean website with relevant information about your company, its history, and your industry in general. You don’t need a ton of content – just enough to show potential candidates that you are who your ad says you are.

Your Ad Is Too Specific

Yes, you want to hire a person who is more than capable to fulfill the role that is open. However, if you are too picky, and if you list too many requirements, you may unwittingly disqualify a lot of otherwise qualified candidates.

Before you list 50 requirements, ask yourself if each requirement is absolutely necessary. If a qualification is not necessary to excel in the job’s day-to-day responsibilities, exclude it.

Your Interview Process Is Too Complex

It is standard for a company to host a phone interview, followed by two to three in-person interviews before making a hiring decision. This, candidates expect. However, when employers ask potential candidates to “work two-to-three days in office as a trial period,” or to “send a detailed essay explaining why you’re a good fit for the position,” candidates are immediately turned off. A candidate that has made it through the first round of interviews has already devoted a significant amount of time and energy to the hiring process. To ask him or her to devote even more unpaid time on unnecessary steps may seem like a slap in the face.

You Talk Too Much 

When a person shows up for an interview, he or she expects to learn about the job and inform the employer of why he or she is a good fit. He or she does not expect to sit through a diatribe about how the owner built the company from the ground up and won the “such-and-such” award and was invited to “so-and-so’s” charity gala because of said honor. If you make it a habit of touting your achievements in an interview, it may be the reason candidates don’t call YOU back.

You’ve Created a Submission Black Hole

Top talent likes to know to whom they’re sending their applications: to the hiring manager, the company owner, or a computer system that vets applicants. If a person doesn’t know where the application is going, they are unlikely to waste their time applying. You can easily remedy this by asking applicants to send their applications to an email address, preferably one that belongs to a specific person and not an “[email protected]” address.

If you’re guilty of any of the above, it may be the cause of your talent shortage. Resolve the issues today to start reeling in qualified candidates tomorrow.