Top Challenges and Priorities Facing Recruiters This Year

Recruiting top-level talent can be a real challenge. Dynamic markets, staffing shortages and economic changes all require recruiters to be fleet-footed and able to change their priorities to meet evolving challenges.

Results from the Global Recruitment and Insights Data (GRID) report, Recruitment Industry Outlook 2019, provide insight into the challenges today's recruiters are facing, and the priorities they are using to get ahead in a tough market.

Recruiting Challenges

It shouldn't be surprising that this year's top reported challenge and priority are aligned with each other and focus on candidate shortages. Close to three-quarters of recruiters report their main challenge continues to be related to talent shortages and that there aren't enough qualified candidates to fill the vacancies.
Compensation changes appear to be a continuing challenge for many recruiters who report that they are having to work to get organizations to meet increasing compensation demands due to candidate-driven markets. Disparate views between prospective employees and employers have many recruiters working even harder to bridge the perceived compensation gaps.
With 17% of Physicians reporting that they are considering a career change in the next 12 months, employee turnover can be a real challenge for recruiters in the field⁽¹). More than a quarter of those surveyed report that high employee turnover rates pose a real challenge to their success.
A recruiter must be able to utilize new technology if they want to succeed in today's market. Transitioning over to new technologies in order to improve efficiency appears to be an obstacle for many, who report it as a top challenge in their work.

Recruiting Priorities

The majority of recruiters surveyed report that due to candidate shortages, their top area of focus will be on finding suitable candidates to fill their positions. To increase the likelihood of their success, many of these recruiters will also be placing a priority on improving their interactions with candidates. Over a third of those surveyed plan on refining their candidate interactions and engagement efforts in order to boost their placement rates.
Whether it be using more AI, data solutions or automation, technology is playing a big role in recruiting today. This is highlighted by the sizable number of recruiters that report they are placing an emphasis on improving their use of technology to increase their operational abilities.
Top-notch branding and marketing can take your recruiting game to the next level. This fact is not lost on the scores of recruiters who say it will be a priority for them moving forward this year to increase their success rates.