TIP TUESDAY! Hard-to-Fill Roles - A Roundtable Round Up!

WHAT IS THE TIP?

What Makes A Hard-To-Fill Role?

💡 Understanding what is making your role hard to fill is key to being able to take positive steps to improve!

A common misconception is that hard-to-fill simply means low applicant volume. Our customers confirm that hard-to-fill often means an abundance of applications, but with a significant quality deficit - too many applicants, but none of them are the right fit. The causes are multifaceted, stemming from market conditions through to self-imposed process barriers. Here are some reasons that came out of our customer round tables:

Market and Competitiveness

• The War for Talent: Roles like social work and care professions face fierce competition, requiring an immediate response to candidate applications to avoid losing talent to swift-moving competitors.

• Compensation Gaps: Salaries are not competitive and the absence of expected benefits, such as working from home options, puts organisations at a disadvantage against the private sector.

• Organisational Perception: Being perceived as less tech-advanced can deter modern candidates.

• Funding Pressure: Roles are frequently recruited only when business-critical, creating unnecessary urgency and high-stakes recruitment scenarios.

• Location and Logistics: Positions in remote areas or those that involve travel over a wide area, as well as roles with awkward hour commitments like split shifts.

Internal Process Barriers

• Unrealistic Expectations: Hiring Managers often create self-imposed barriers by demanding lengthy lists of criteria or seeking a "finished product." This is a key question: "Is it hard to fill, or are you making it hard for yourself?"

• Poor Job Advert Design: Bulky job descriptions, complex jargon, and acronyms confuse and deter applicants.

• Talent Scarcity: Roles demanding niche, rare qualifications or involving challenging logistics, such as remote locations or split shifts, inherently struggle for talent.

• AI Noise: The prevalence of AI-generated CVs increases application volume while simultaneously lowering the overall quality of candidates, making strategic sifting essential.

• Repeated Unsuccessful Attempts: A role is often flagged as hard to fill after multiple failed attempts at shortlisting, or if it requires re-posting multiple times.

What Can I Do About These Hard-To-Fill Roles?

💡 Once you understand what is causing the problem, you can take action.

The consensus is clear: a successful hard-to-fill strategy requires a shift from passive posting to proactive, data-driven talent engagement. We discussed several strategies, from advertising adjustments to broader organisational changes: 

Optimise Your Sourcing and Content

• Refine the Ask & Simplify the Advert: Don't just re-post the same ad. Collaborate with Hiring Managers (HMs) and challenge expectations - focus on the bare minimum skills needed rather than seeking a "finished product." Reviewing the advert length to be compact and jargon-free. Ensure the job title makes sense to an external audience and place additional detail in a person specification attachment.

• Boost Your Brand (EVP): Promote your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) by bringing your organisation's story to life on your career site and platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor. Use review sites to your advantage by creating content that highlights what it’s like to work for you.

• Embrace Targeted Channels: Leverage platforms like LinkedIn, where customers have seen increased application numbers. Use tools like Indeed Hiring Insights and sponsored ads for precision targeting.

Accelerate and Modernise the Process

• Speed Up the Process: With candidates receiving multiple offers in a matter of days, it's crucial to reduce the time to hire. This includes chasing hiring managers and approvers to speed up the process and even making same-day offers where possible.

• Modernise Application Methods: Offer alternative application options, such as video statements, which can appeal to a younger demographic (Gen Z and Alpha) and allow for a more authentic showcase of a candidate's personality.

• System Agility: Ensure a quick turnaround to configure a new role or role type internally within the system.

• Resource Allocation: Put dedicated resource in to manage the hard-to-fill role and streamline all associated activities.

• Strategic Sifting: When facing high application numbers, it's not about rejecting people but about focusing on the best candidates. This can involve using an initial sift based on specific job family skills or even having a partner service help with the shortlisting to save managers' time.

Build Internal Capacity

• Internal Development and Upskilling: Combat talent shortages by "growing your own." This can include creating academies for specific roles like social work or apprenticeships.

What Are Customers Doing Next?

💡Our community is focusing on leveraging system capabilities and shared intelligence to drive transformation. Here are some of the key next steps that were discussed and that customers will take away:

Driving Process and Metrics Excellence:

• Enhanced Reporting: Metrics to understand where the problems lie.

• More Proactive Monitoring: Understand what is causing a role to be hard to fill, rather than only reacting when it becomes a problem.

• Streamlining Processes: Improve the approval process within recruitment systems by using automated reminder emails to managers and creating multi-form approvals.

Technology and Collaboration:

• Embracing Modern Tools: Exploring the use of AI tools for advert enhancements and establishing clear guidance on the acceptable use of AI by applicants to maintain authenticity - as well as how to incorporate modern media like TikTok and Instagram into recruitment advertising. All while acknowledging and providing guidance on the acceptable use of AI by applicants to maintain authenticity.

• Leveraging Technology and Partnerships: Exploring how to use technology and partnerships more effectively, such as considering Indeed recruiter licenses for advanced search capabilities and looking at how to build and manage talent pools for silver medallists and in-house agencies.

• Talent Pools: Building and better managing Talent Pools for silver medallists and supply registries to create readily available talent pools.

• Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Leveraging other departments, like the communications team, to manage review sites and social media, creating a more cohesive and impactful brand presence.

Leveraging the Community:

• Configuration Best Practice: Requesting discussions on "best practice" for system configuration - specifically, what was the easiest to launch and the resulting impact on time to hire or quality of hire.

We encourage all users to leverage our shared knowledge by engaging in discussions with your peers on the community, joining our community groups, and finally getting involved in the Oleeo Self-Configuration Forum - coming soon, launching on the 5th November 2025! 

😊 All our customers came away from the sessions with ideas and next steps - what is your experience with hard to fill roles?

What do you classify as a hard to fill role? What steps have you taken? We’d love you to share your thoughts with your community!