A Talent Works survey has found fifty-eight per cent of HR managers believe delays to hiring are having a negative impact on business performance. Sixty per cent of HR leaders say it’s taking significantly longer to hire people compared to 2019.
The Recruitment Processing Outsourcing (RPO) provider, surveyed 400 HR leaders on their experiences on recruitment and employment in 2022 in both the US and UK. The survey found that half of HR leaders say it’s taking double the time to hire talent as compared to 2019, and a further 21 per cent say it’s taking triple the time. The leading reason for it taking time to hire (28 per cent) is reported as it being harder to find quality candidates.
In terms of 2022 priorities, Employer Branding was rated even higher than hiring at speed. Getting an Employer Brand developed or updated and out to market was identified by respondents as the top priority, with thirty-one per cent relaunching/developing their employer brand in 2022, and a further 20 per cent having already done it. Twelve per cent of HRs said they didn’t have the time to focus on it.
Other priorities followed, with employee retention (21 per cent) and adapting processes to hire at speed (20 per cent) ranking closely. When it comes to brand awareness, just under a third (29 per cent) believe it has an impact on their ability to hire. However, 42 per cent don’t believe they have a strong awareness as an employer or don’t measure their brand awareness.
“These statistics clearly show that 2019 thinking isn’t going to work in the 2022 employment market, which is the most competitive we’ve ever seen,” said Neil Purcell, CEO and founder of Talent Works. “Companies need to get strategic about how they can speed up hiring to accelerate business performance, and as the research indicates, effective Employer Branding is the most widely recognised way of doing this. It’s great to see that companies are beginning to think differently in such an oversubscribed market, but over one in ten companies surveyed were still unaware of the Employer Brand concept, which shows that there is still work to do.”
