Creative Sourcing Strategies: Actionable Advice for Tackling Hard-to-Fill Roles and Programs
Almost every recruiter is faced with the challenge of filling challenging positions or programs. Unlike those positions where you have dozens of qualified applicants and your biggest struggle is deciding who to advance among a number of great candidates, these roles might receive few applicants each season. Or perhaps you receive hundreds of applications, but very few candidates fit the requirements of the role. What do you do when you have a role you just can’t fill?
We shared some tips during RippleMatch’s Fall User Conference. Here are the top takeaways from that presentation.
Shortage of Qualified Candidates
There are a few reasons you might be having difficulty finding qualified candidates for your roles. Chances are, it’s not just because there are no candidates to choose from.
Your qualifications are too limiting.
The first thing to consider is whether your job description itself is filtering out otherwise qualified candidates. Do you have a strict, yet unnecessary GPA requirement? Are you expecting candidates to have skills that can be taught or trained? If you’re hiring for a specialized position like a mechanical engineer, you won’t be able to consider English majors, but if the student only had one internship instead of two, are they really unqualified for the role? It’s important to decide which requirements are truly critical, and which are simply nice to have.
How to resolve:
Remove gate-keeping qualifications.
Take an audit of the job description requirements that could be needlessly limiting your candidate base. Remove those that aren’t completely necessary. Once you have expanded your preferences, renew your search for talent.
Students don’t know they’re qualified.
Do you have a relatively obscure role that candidates might not know about? Similar roles often have different titles at different companies, which can be confusing to students who aren’t familiar with the opportunities available to them. Or you might have an entry-level management position, but students automatically assume a job with “manager” in the title requires years of experience. It’s important to educate potential candidates on the requirements of these types of roles, or you risk losing applicants who don’t realize they’re qualified.
How to resolve:
Source candidates and focus on education.
Reach out to students who could be successful in your role, even if they don’t feel they are an obvious fit. Tools like RippleMatch can help you easily find good fits for your role and allow you to reach out to them with a click of a button. It’s also important to create robust educational and marketing materials for the role to ensure more students apply on their own.
There’s a skills gap and systemic shortage
In some cases, there really are more roles than qualified candidates. How is your company helping close the overarching skills gap?
How to resolve:
Invest in Early ID programs & support.
Work to help students develop the skills necessary for these types of roles. In order to ensure your pipeline is filled with more qualified candidates in the future, make long-term investments in helping candidates learn the skills they need.
Lack of Candidate Interest
The other type of challenging role is one where there is no shortage of qualified candidates, but you have difficulty getting students to apply. There are a few reasons this might happen.
Student perception (or lack of) toward industry/company
Some industries and companies are much more well known, or perceived as more exciting and interesting than others. Students might gravitate towards industries they’re most familiar with or to companies that they think will look the best on their resume.
How to resolve:
Educate candidates on the benefits of your company and industry
Candidates may not understand why your company or industry can help them in their career. It’s important to educate them as to what makes you special. For example, if your industry offers great job security, that can be very appealing to students. If your company has standout benefits, make sure candidates know that early in their career search. If your company lacks brand recognition in general, you can also invest in Early ID programs to help students learn more about you months or even years before they begin applying for jobs.
Student perception toward a role
Some roles—like sales—are surrounded by misconceptions. As a result, they often aren’t heavily pursued by students. This is especially true if candidates don’t understand the career potential at a company or don’t know what career paths are available to them.
How to resolve:
Educate candidates on role fit and career path.
Students may have misconceptions about what a position entails or how they can progress in their careers. Help them see themselves in the role! Share what a day in the life looks like for someone in that role. Make sure they know all of the opportunities available to them once they begin their career in that position. It’s important that you can help students see beyond their first impressions and understand why that role could be perfect for them.
Lack of interest in relocating
Barriers to relocation—like cost of living, perceived lack of activities, and lifestyle differences—can keep students from accepting offers. If the role requires employees to work in person, it’s important that you help candidates see why your city would be a great place to live.
How to resolve:
Highlight the benefits of your location
Review the data on why candidates would choose to relocate (or not relocate) for a job. Let them know what makes your city standout, life if it has a low cost of living or a great culture. If your company offers relocation assistance, also make sure to highlight that during the interview process for candidates who may be concerned about the upfront costs of moving.
Don’t let hard-to-fill roles keep you up at night. Once you’ve analyzed why the position is so difficult to fill, you can start to take steps to find more great candidates. In some cases, it may be as straightforward as tweaking the job description. In others, you may need to dedicate marketing resources to help change the perception around the role. With some intentional planning and a little bit of creativity, you may soon be trying to figure out how to turn down droves of top talent instead!
