6 Signs to Spot Broken Recruitment Process

9/10 don’t even know their recruitment process is broken.

December 5, 2022

Businesses have never spent as much money hiring as they do today, and they’ve never done a worse job of it. Pekka Nebelung, COO at Jobilla, shares ways to improve processes to hire great talent.

In a study of over 200 HR professionalsOpens a new window , most organizations said they need help to find good-quality candidates. Despite increased resources for recruiting, 55% of the interviewees from the survey said that recruitment has become much more difficult in the past five years. I have even spoken with companies that say, “We’ve spent $15,000+ in recruitment using headhunters, and we didn’t get any results or qualified candidates.” 

The job market has changed permanently for many reasons: the digitalization of work and society, the changed values and behavior of people, changes in demographics, more global workforces, and remote work, to name a few. Many of these phenomena were reinforced and sped up by the pandemic.

The way we hire talent is outdated – from the employers’ perspective instead of the candidates’. It doesn’t suit their preferred ways of working. I’d say that as much as 90% of employers don’t know their recruitment process is broken. Here are six ways to tell if yours is and concrete tips on improving your processes to hire great talent.

Sign 1: Don’t get qualified candidates

The first obvious sign that your recruitment process is broken is that you don’t get enough qualified candidates applying for your positions. In the abovementioned study, less than 20% of the companies have been able to increase the number of quality candidates, with 51% saying that there was a decrease in the number of candidates with the required skills and background. This goes a long way to showing that most organizations have broken recruitment practices.

If we look at it by industry in our study, 83% of the organizations need help to recruit suitable candidates in IT. For nurses, it was over 90%.

Companies struggle to find top talent because the process is cumbersome – and it starts with the job description. Many job descriptions are ambiguous and full of non-specific descriptions and duties – or simply so boring that people don’t read them. These descriptions then get baked into the applicant-tracking software and find that no one meets the criteria for the role.

How can you then find better qualified candidates? Don’t make them sign up for anything, ask for CVs, or get them to complete tests or quizzes that demonstrate their skills. Have conversations and speak with the candidates. This helps to build trust and confidence with each candidate and demonstrates to them that you’re an employer who cares.

Sign 2: It takes hours for candidates to apply

Is your desired target group motivated enough to put in all the work and effort you are asking to show interest in the job on offer? Pretend to be a jobseeker and follow the process from A-Z for your current process – how long does it take? My best guess would be “too long.” On average, job seekers take 2 hours and 48 minutes to update their CVs, and only 12% of employed people have an updated resume.

Additionally, most applications require separate registrations to apply. From the candidate’s perspective, separate registration makes the application process more challenging and discourages passive applicants. Requiring registration can feel overwhelming to the applicants, who might be applying for several positions. Separate registration was commonly used, especially in the public and healthcare sectors

After that, how many tailored documents and files do they need to provide? Instead of making candidates jump through hoops – respect both their time and your time by only asking what you need to know to determine whether they’re qualified. Dump CVs, and ask questions. Dump cover letters, pick up the phone, and speak to them. This way, you’ll get a great indication of their abilities and skills without hours of unnecessary effort.

When a connection has been opened with a potential candidate, open communication is key to keeping the candidates committed to your recruitment process. The recruitment process strongly influences the candidate’s perception of the new employer. A Career Builder survey says that 68% of the candidates believe that the recruitment process directly displays how employers treat their employees in the company.

Sign 3: They have to apply using a computer or old-fashioned device

Would you update your CV with your thumbs? Didn’t think so. 

Companies should emphasize a smooth recruitment experience and ensure the whole process can be done on all mobile devices. Some of the traditional challenges of applying for jobs with mobile phones are open text fields and the requirement of attaching a full CV to the application, for example.

Making the experience nice and effortless for the candidate usually demands a complete restructuring of the current process. Do you need all that information in the initial stages to determine the candidate’s potential? Would it be possible to screen candidates in the first stages by just having a few clickable answers that they can do while riding a bus on their way home?

Put yourself in the shoes of the candidates – “how can I demonstrate my competence for this job I saw on LinkedIn without my laptop at home?” Then design your recruitment process around that.

Sign 4: Your recruitment process is designed for active jobseekers

Most of the workforce are already working – they’re not actively looking for a new job. They don’t look at job boards and aren’t researching new job opportunities online. Yet, they could be amazing talent and bring the perfect skill set to your company. Just because they’re not looking doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be interested if the right job presented itself.

So people don’t always hang out at job boards, but nearly everyone has social media. Utilize these channels to find more prospects for your recruitment. Remember that for a passive jobseeker, the threshold to show interest in a job needs to be as low as possible.

To attract and retain your top talent, you have to create a workplace culture and environment that is compelling and strong enough to make people want to join and stay. 

See More: Navigating the Workforce Shift To Hire and Retain Talent in High Tech

Sign 5: Your hiring process hasn’t changed in 5 years

If your company’s recruitment process hasn’t been updated in the past five years, it’s no longer fit for purpose. Approximately one-third of the interviewees in the HR report said that they had developed their recruitment processes. However, most of these had developed their recruitment process to be organization-driven – meaning that organizations have developed it from an employer branding perspective instead of smoothening the recruitment process.

You may have also invested an eye-watering amount of money into an applicant tracking system, but your overall process hasn’t changed. With new tools should also come new ways of working. It might hurt to say it doesn’t work, but that’s the first step to optimizing a broken process. Approach recruitment from the candidate’s perspective and redesign your processes to optimize that best. 

Over half of the respondents reported managing recruitment through a recruitment system. Using software, social media, and advanced marketing methods can improve the candidate experience to some extent through automation.

Companies prioritizing candidate experience are more likely to demonstrate to top talent that they’re a desirable workplace and will attract better-qualified candidates. Today, digitalization has made it possible to create ways that weren’t possible before.

Sign 6: You don’t measure the effectiveness of recruitment channels


Online job boards like Indeed.com, social media, or referrals – show how under-valued recruitment is in business. Yet the people we hire are the ones that directly affect the success of our businesses, so why aren’t we measuring it more?

Take a production line, for example – if the production line manager can’t say how much output they are producing and how much it will cost, they’d most likely be fired. Yet, the cost of recruitment is often unknown – and yet we don’t question it. It’s normal to have no idea of the true cost it takes to recruit someone. Clicks might be measured, but these can’t be confused with the results and the process. That’s how I know the process is broken.

Additionally, in what other field of business do you directly advertise next to your competitors – or even pay for their success? If you advertise solely through job boards, you pay for the ad, you’re listed directly next to your competitors, and then they could get the talent.

Fixing recruitment starts with accurately measuring the effectiveness and costs of the different recruitment process steps and implementing efficient candidate marketing tactics that make applying as smooth as possible to the right candidates. Measure what’s going wrong at every step, make it better, target the costs to the right tough points in the process and get better-qualified talent as a result.

To sum up

Companies that are not ready to radically change their ways of working will face major challenges in their recruitment efforts. The result of poor recruitment practices is that companies do not attract high-quality job seekers to their vacancies.

Ten years ago, there weren’t solutions available that are available now. The digital era has changed how the world works, and recruitment needs to catch up. By optimizing the recruitment process to a candidate-driven model, companies can attract talent already employed but open to new career opportunities.

Employer branding and employer image are not synonymous. Recruitment has many more touch points than marketing, and a broken recruitment process will ruin your company image, undo your employer branding and waste your money.

Which strategies have you implemented to streamline recruitment processes? Share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .

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Pekka Nebelung
Pekka Nebelung has a strong foundation to succeed in the business world and the world of digital recruitment through his background in the creative industries. Nebelung has extensive experience in initiating and leading different complex projects of multiple stakeholders and establishing them as daily operations. His strengths lie in the areas of growth and leadership, where he has achieved remarkable results regardless of the industry in which he has worked.
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