#hiring problems

As technology advances, the way we work changes, and remote work is rapidly becoming the norm. With the rise of remote work, many companies in India have started to hire employees remotely, enabling them to access talent from all over the country. However, remote hiring brings its hiring challenges that HRs must face.

According to a study, 70% of HR professionals in India faced recruitment difficulties when hiring remotely in 2022. The pandemic has only made remote hiring more prevalent, and this trend is expected to continue in 2023. 

In this article, we will discuss the top hiring problems HRs face when hiring remotely in India and provide solutions to overcome these challenges.

List Of Challenges In Recruitment 

In this section, we will cover the most prevalent recruitment difficulties while hiring an Indian remote talent:

Difficulty #1: Attracting Top Talent

Remote hiring opens up a much larger pool of talent for companies to choose from, but it also means more competition for the best candidates. In addition, companies that are new to remote work may struggle to promote their remote working culture, which could lead to candidates being hesitant to apply for their vacancies.

Solution: Companies should focus on bridging this recruitment challenge by building a strong remote working culture to attract top talent. This could include providing flexible working hours, investing in technology that enables remote work, and offering training and development opportunities to remote employees. Companies could also consider partnering with remote job platforms to access a larger pool of remote talent.

Difficulty #2: Communication

Communication is key in any remote working setup, but it can be challenging for HRs to communicate with the candidates, hiring managers, and other stakeholders from different locations.

Solution: HRs should adopt a communication strategy that considers the challenges of remote work. This could include scheduling regular video calls, using instant messaging apps for quick updates, and providing clear guidelines for communication etiquette.

Difficulty #3: Onboarding

Onboarding is a crucial stage of the recruitment process, but it can be difficult to manage remotely. Hence, it is considered one of the most important challenges in recruitment. HRs must ensure that new employees are fully trained and integrated into the company culture, even when not physically present.

Solution: HRs can use online training modules, virtual onboarding sessions, and mentorship programs to ensure that new hires are fully onboarded. They could also assign a buddy to new employees to help them navigate their new role and the company culture.

Difficulty #4: Technology

Remote work requires technology that enables employees to work from any location can be challenging for HRs to ensure that all employees have access to the necessary tools and software.

Solution: HRs should invest in cloud-based software enabling remote access to the tools and resources employees need to do their job. They should also provide training and support to ensure employees can use the software effectively.

Difficulty #5: Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a recruitment challenge for all companies, but it can be even more challenging in a remote working setup. HRs must ensure remote employees feel connected to the company culture and are motivated to do their best work.

Solution: HRs can use virtual team-building activities, recognition programs, and employee feedback sessions to engage remote employees. They could also encourage remote employees to attend company events and provide opportunities to meet their colleagues in person.

Wrapping Note

If jobs are in demand, why is it so hard to fill them?

Over the past year, several industries have observed an increase in hiring difficulty. This significant change in recruitment has even caused companies to exit contracts by paying penalties as they cannot find the right workers to uphold their end of the deal.

Talent availability, or lack thereof, overtakes implementation costs or security risks as a top hindrance to establishing new technology. Firms believe that the talent shortage is the biggest snag to adopting new technologies. IT leaders who want to deploy new tools & resources to boost their business anticipate that the lack of qualified talent will prove problematic at some point.

This has helped spark a massive hunt for talent as companies loosen their purse strings to fill their ranks with skilled people. 

Read on to know more about the hiring problems companies are facing.

People are questioning if they even like their jobs

In the last couple of years, many employees have felt their relationships with their once-loved jobs deteriorate, as work has become remarkably different. Some found pre-existing disinterest amplified, while others discovered a new level of distaste for their positions or entire fields. The pandemic made them realize that life is too short to stay in a job they aren’t passionate about.

Business Insider India reports that from a pool of 1200, 4 in 10 people from tech backgrounds said that limited career progressions, inflexible working hours, and toxic work environments are some of the top reasons causing them to resign. 

Read how you can provide favorable conditions and retain your employees here.

Employment paradox

On the one hand, firms can’t seem to find candidates, and on the other hand, people can’t seem to find decent jobs. What is this dichotomy? 

Sure, there are many vacant roles, but that doesn’t automatically mean they are perfect for job seekers. This reflects the lingering issue in the labor market – the mismatch between the workforce and the open jobs.

Despite the talent shortage, employers continue to demand ‘several’ years of experience. Workers who have an employment gap of over six months, either because they switched fields or dropped out to care for a child or an elderly, are not even coming by the hiring manager’s desk. And using automated hiring software is filtering out qualified applicants that may be fit for the role. 

This rigidity in wanting a candidate with precisely the proper education, years of experience, or range of qualifications that perfectly fits a job’s requirements might be leaving behind an untapped group – the applicants who are ‘STARs’ – Skilled Through Alternative Routes. Not recognizing skills gained through alternative ways is failing these workers and failing you from finding the talent your company needs.

Another mismatch is people wanting remote working options and firms wanting them available in person. Candidates are exercising their right to work in a safe environment, and with COVID playing peek-a-boo, businesses are gradually opening their office doors. Candidates are open to expanding their job search for remote flexibility over attractive salaries, and 17% would consider quitting their job if they’re required to return to the office five days a week, according to Glassdoor.

People are stressed and burnt out

After an unprecedented 2020, employees are focused more than ever on their well-being, work-life balance, and finding meaning in their work. Data shows that 45% of people worked more hours during the pandemic, causing resignation due to burnout. 

This puts added stress on your remaining employees as they take on extra duties while you struggle to fill positions, making them spread too thin & burn out.

Working your existing workforce harder is not sustainable and certainly not the answer. If all your strategies to hire fresh talent have proven obsolete, it may be time you partner with a recruitment agency.

People want to be their own boss

With more people looking for flexibility, anxious about covid exposure, or simply disenchanted with pre-pandemic office life, it aggravates labour shortages in some industries and adds pressure on companies to revamp their employment policies. 

Professionals today have multiple choices, which don’t include joining another company but starting on their own. Some top talents prefer to lead a more nomadic life, work remotely as consultants, and are drawn to gig work rather than being pigeonholed in one organization. This is also one of the reasons why the job rejection rate has seen an upward graph.

Thanks to the pandemic, people had the chance to pause and re-evaluate their priorities. They are no longer settling for mediocrity; they don’t want to be rushed, they want time with their families, and they’re making some bold changes to achieve that.

The rise of the gig economy

Unstable employment and low job growth are the big reasons that most workers are getting job opportunities through freelance or contractual work. Our workforce is changing. Traditional employment lacks lustre. Millions are leaving their jobs daily. Contract-based roles are more attractive to millennials than permanent roles. Gig workers are in huge demand, and companies must adapt to this rising change. 

ASSOCHAM reports that India’s gig sector is expected to touch $455 billion at a CAGR of 17% by 2024. The startup ecosystem in India has seen rapid development, and hiring full-time employees lead to high fixed costs. Startups are hiring skilled technology freelancers on a per-project basis in engineering, product development, data science, and machine learning to bolster their tech platforms.

60% of tech-based companies are predicted to hire gig workers in 2-5 years. ​​MNCs are adopting flexi-hiring options, especially for niche projects, to reduce operational expenses after the pandemic. This tendency is significantly contributing to the gig culture in India.

Stiff competition

Competition is fierce for high-skilled professionals right now. Quality tech talent is hard to come by, and everyone is fighting over the same candidate pool.

Once you’ve proven your company’s mission and vision, think about other ways to attract talent. Think beyond salary and perks. It’s more than about money. You want to focus on what matters to your candidates and give them a clear direction, career progression, and rewarding work.

It’s valid that you want the right employee but what makes you the right employer? Think about that, and your chances of acquiring the best talent will increase exponentially.

Offer-shopping is the new norm

Today’s labour market favours the candidate. With abundant opportunities, job seekers are increasingly choosy. They are highly cautious about the new roles they are choosing. Most candidates are prepared to wait a few months longer to avoid making a desperate move.

The fear of job losses has diminished due to the upbeat mood of tech startups. The candidates maximize their salary offers by putting one offer against another offer. Offer shopping has become quite the norm and has been a massive challenge for organizations to onboard candidates.

Candidates in technical industries like IT are rejecting more offers than any other industry. These applicants are in high demand and can compare competing offers.

Every company is offering a maximum salary hike, but it often boils down to other factors. 

Ineffective interview process

The internet is awash with stories of job seekers becoming frustrated with companies that turn the interview process into a marathon. Candidates are pulling their names from consideration at firms with interview rounds as high as nine! Drawn out interview processes can negatively impact their interest in the role. This experience drives them to leave distasteful comments about your company on review sites anonymously.

If your recruitment process makes the applicants feel like they are being strung along, this could potentially harm the chances of attracting future talent. This indecisiveness provides the people with crucial insight into your company culture and drives them further away.

Final thoughts

Employees across all industries re-evaluated their relationships to their jobs after the pandemic briefly caused a global economic shutdown. People have largely decided they don’t wish to return to the old ways of working.

Your best strategy for winning today’s war on talent is to retain your skilled employees by fighting the top causes of employee turnover. The more you control the churn rate among your top players, the more robust your bench strength of home-grown talent who will bring long-term value to your enterprise.

With millennials mainly making up the global workforce, organizations will face increasingly transactional personnel, not hesitating to request greater flexibility in their working arrangements.

Now is also an excellent opportunity to reassess your employer branding. The pandemic drove firms to lay off employees without batting an eye, which left a bad taste. You must prove to the candidates again that you have their best interest.

Another method to get ahead of the talent shortage is proactive hiring. Not waiting until you have a vacant role but promptly filling your pipeline for rainy days. Establish meaningful connections with passive candidates, and your company will likely be the first they will consider when it’s time to change jobs.