Recruiting people is pretty easy, but getting the right person for the right job isn’t. It’s well known that companies all over the world face the same problem in high volume recruitment – attrition. Why does this happen? Largely, it is due to disillusionment of the staff in the face of great expectations.
Shocking though it is, a new study suggests that more than a third of volume recruiters deliberately hire unsuitable candidates for frontline roles, especially in retail, service and hospitality companies, which are often associated with high volume recruitment.
After surveying 102 U.K. organizations that hire 200+ frontline staff each year, it was revealed that 37 percent of volume recruiters are fully aware that they are hiring the wrong people for frontline positions.
But why would recruiters knowingly do such a thing?
In some cases, they just don’t have an option. According to Steve O’Dell, managing director, U.K, Talent Q, many recruiters compromise on quality becaiuse they are under tremendous pressure to fill positions quickly. Fill them they do, but with wrong candidates.
Because front line roles are not defined properly, employers are often inundated with a massive number of applications, with some managing 50,000-100,000 applications a year for frontline roles. Also, many recruiters don’t know what traits they are supposed to be looking for, and applicants are not correctly assessed for the skills required in the role.
The result is inevitable – the ‘A’ word that every company dreads – attrition. Every selected candidate comes in with high hopes, but their expectations are dashed. They leave, and the employer starts hiring all over again.
According to Dell, this results in unnecessary costs and untold disruption, not to mention damage to the morale of those that remain. Moreover, pressure on mangers increase, while the company’s image also suffers.
Dell has some suggestions for volume recruiters: Match requirements with candidate skills, identify correct candidates using appropriate tests, match job roles with expectations, and use selection methods that can be replicated in all locations.
Separate the chaff from the wheat, says Dell, and the vicious circle is broken. With the right people for the right job, everything falls into the right slots and everyone is happy. A happy employee begets a successful company.