Why does recruitment fail?

In the competitive recruitment industry, understanding failures is as important as celebrating successes, if not more so. This article explores each stage of the recruitment process, identifying common pitfalls and challenges. For recruiters, this detailed examination offers an opportunity to revise, question and improve their practices, with a view to maximizing the effectiveness of their recruitment strategies. Please feel free to add your best mistakes in the comments, for the benefit of future readers.

Position qualification

‍Thefirst, often underestimated step is job qualification. An imprecise job description or unrealistic expectations can lead to costly recruitment mistakes. It's essential to work closely with stakeholders to clearly define the skills needed, the professional experience required, and salary expectations. A promise to hire based on ill-defined foundations is doomed to failure. It's also important to ensure that the job description accurately reflects the company's culture and the values it promotes, as much as the position itself.

Sourcing

‍Sourcingis an art that requires a well thought-out strategy. The choice between internal and external recruitment must be made with the company's long-term objectives in mind. Ineffective sourcing can limit access to the most suitable talent. Employer branding plays a crucial role here: a positive, attractive image is essential to attracting quality candidates. Companies must therefore invest in their employer brand to ensure that they attract the best talent. Be careful not to constantly link failures to the employer brand, as this could prevent you from seeing the real reasons.

Candidate Qualification

‍Inadequatequalification of candidates upstream can lead to unproductive interviews. It's crucial to have a robust process for assessing candidates' skills, experience and aspirations before inviting them to interview. This often involves careful scrutiny of CVs, but above all an understanding of candidates' skills and career aspirations to ensure they are a good fit with the company's culture.

It's not easy to question the way you qualify a candidate, there's no real reference and everyone has their own preferences. In our view, the ideal is to strike a balance between a framework and improvisation. An overly well-prepared framework can give the impression of an interrogation,

You can also ask yourself, each time you fail, what elements, information or motivations from the candidate or the company you lacked upstream to avoid this failure. Learning through failure is the best kind of learning!

Candidate Presentation

‍Thepresentation of candidates to decision-makers is an often overlooked step. Clear and comprehensive communication is needed to ensure that decision-makers have all the information they need to make an informed decision. This includes not only the candidate's skills and experience, but also insights into their personality and fit with the company's culture. It's really about pitching a profile like an entrepreneur pitches his or her project. A word of advice: learn to detect in each profile what sets it apart from the others and what makes it atypical.

Interview assessments

‍Jobinterviews are critical moments. Mistakes can occur if the questions asked are not well targeted, or if the recruitment test is not tailored to the position. It's essential to prepare interviews that assess not only technical skills, but also soft skills and cultural compatibility.On the other hand, it's important to agree with all those involved in recruitment on the criteria to be

Closing

‍Closingis a delicate stage where time management is essential. Too long a delay between the interview and the decision can result in the loss of qualified candidates. It's also important to consider the candidate's geographical mobility, and to ensure that the proposed working conditions are in line with their expectations and needs.

The Offer

‍The final stage, the offer, may seem like a mere formality. Yet it is the final outcome of the entire recruitment process. It represents the positive outcome of the process and the company's willingness to see the candidate join it. An offer that doesn't match the candidate's salary expectations, or doesn't take into account his or her specific needs, can be rejected. A misunderstood offer can also be rejected. An offer is a logical result. In other words, it must flow from all the interview stages, be based on facts/data and be crystal clear. At the end of the offer, you need to understand why it was made at that price, whether it's low, high or in line with expectations.

Onboarding

‍Whilethe recruitment may well have taken place, a botched onboarding can still ruin everything → We explain how not to botch your candidates' onboarding in this article!

Conclusion

‍Eachstage of the recruitment process is crucial and interconnected. Recruiters must constantly reassess and adapt their methods to avoid pitfalls and improve the candidate experience. Ultimately, a thorough understanding and rectification of mistakes at every stage is the key to turning a recruitment process into a lasting success.