How to Overcome 5 Most Common Hiring Challenges of SMBs in 2024

The year 2024 has been a tough one to tread for Indian SMBs. One of the impacts of this has been seen on recruitment drives across different sectors. For a better part of the year, hiring has been acutely limited.

But as the year draws to a close and the pandemic reeling somewhat less severely, companies are proactively recruiting once again. In such a scenario where everyone would be looking to hire only the best and talented, certain hiring challenges online are bound to crop up.

Challenges in Hiring Employees: Hiring Trends Across SMBs in 2024 (Online Hiring Challenges & More)

We touch upon some of the most major hiring trends which might help devise a sound strategy for the coming year.

• Investment in cloud based services- Indian SMBs invested heavily in cloud based services and other utilities to enhance their technical know-how. Close to 60% Indian SMBs showed inclination for enhancing their technical prowess.

• Indian SMBs recruiting faster than American counterparts- Hitting some of the hiring challenges for startups out of the park, Indian SMBs recruited at a faster pace as compared to western, especially, American companies.

• Proactive hiring in Tier-2 cities– In the month of September, a 24% increase in hiring was observed as compared to August. Proactive hiring was taking place not just in Tier-1 but also Tier-2 cities such as Ahmedabad and Jaipur.

• Adoption of modern tools- Heeding to the hiring challenges, several organisations have shifted to modern talent acquisition tools involving AI based recruitment strategies.

• Big Corporates have shifted to remote hiring- In a recent survey, more than 85% people were happy with their productivity levels while working from home. This includes staff from major corporate such as Adobe, Facebook and Infosys.

Challenges in Hiring: Top factors influencing recruitment drive in current scenario

As the pandemic rages on, workspaces across the world are adopting novel methodologies for filling up their ranks with fresh talent. We drew up an analysis of the most prominent factors influencing recruitment drives. Here are our findings-

• Diverse skill set

To counter startup hiring challenges, companies are looking to hire people with skill sets that they can serve across a multitude of roles without compromising on productivity.

• Remote hiring and onboarding

Businesses around the world are adopting remote hiring and onboarding methods which includes video sharing platforms, AI and AR powered tools and much more. Such technical factors have made hiring streamlined.

• Adoption of Human Resource Management Platform

One of the effective ways to counter diversity recruiting challenges, that organisations have recently discovered, is to use HRM tool. It is extremely useful for following up with prospective candidates and lining up their interviews. This factor contributes to making the hiring process more transparent.

• Supply demand ratio

The first half of this year was mired by high unemployment due to the pandemic. This resulted in over supply of candidates for jobs that had limited openings. Such a misbalance between availability of jobs and number of applicants has emerged as a major challenge in hiring new employees.

Suggested Read: What is the Role of AI in Recruitment

5 Biggest Hiring Challenges for Startups and SMBs During COVID Era

Someone rightly said that the employee makes the company. We would like to tweak it a bit and say that a talented employee makes a profitable company. So when the word is out there, why do companies struggle during the process of talent acquisition? Our guess is that enterprises around the world might be making these 5 glaring mistakes-

• Not being able to connect with suitable candidates

The creme de la creme of the candidates are being pursued by all your competitors. Many SMBs make the mistake of not engaging enough with a good prospective candidate.

In such a scenario, the candidate is more likely to end up at a competing firm, even if you offer a better work culture. Just because you didn’t communicate well.

• Slow and Sluggish Responses

One big accusation levied on upcoming SMBs is that their response to good candidates is pretty slow. No skillful candidate likes to wait for weeks or months for getting a response on their application.

If your organisation also likes to take things slow, then sorry to say but the best candidates might be successfully poached by rival firms.

• Keeping Records Manually

As mentioned above, one of the major hiring challenges during COVID has been numerous applications for roles with limited openings.  In such a scenario, if your organisation is making use of manual ways to enter candidate data, then you are definitely in a soup.

Not only is it a time taking process which will soak all the productivity out of your HR department, it comes with a large margin of error. This means that you might miss out on the right talent or not take a follow up from them.

• Inherent Biases of the Hiring Executive

Existing biases among the hiring team prevent the workplace from becoming truly inclusive. The biases might range from racial, gender, religion and much more.

If your organisation does not overcome diversity recruiting challenges then it might be robbed  off unique ideas and perspective that employees identifying with different ideologies and background bring along.

• Department Heads Being Far Too Stringent

At times department heads might be expecting too much from a prospective candidate, leading to unwanted online hiring challenges for the recruiting team.

Such a myopic approach on the part of department heads not only makes the overall hiring process lengthy but also prevents your organisation from providing each candidate with a unique experience.

Thrive Amidst Crisis: How to Overcome Hiring Challenges for Startups in 2024

Now that we have listed the most prominent challenges in hiring employees, we tell you some easy to implement solutions for mitigating these challenges.

• Not Being Able to Connect With Suitable Candidates

Solution – To avoid such hiring challenges online, do send out some relevant information regarding the role and the USP of your company. You can also include a short form where the candidates can answer questions based on their education, previous work experience, etc. This way, you can know whether a candidate would be suitable in the long run or not.

• Slow and Sluggish Responses

Solution – Such hiring challenges can be avoided by using HRM software which help recruitment teams to promptly reply to each candidate’s application, even if they are not suitable for the role.

Most HRM software have the feature of sending out automated replies at a particular time schedule, intimating the candidate of their rejection. For more information regarding HRM software, do get in touch with us.

You can also relook your hiring workflow to see whether any of the step is preventing you from having quick communication with the candidates.

• Keeping Records Manually

Solution- For mitigating such challenges in hiring, you can make use of HRM software which automates repetitive tasks and leaves out ample of time for your HR team to focus on important processes.

Such solutions also help in creation of a talent pool from where you can contact candidates for future openings without any hassles.

• Inherent Biases of Hiring Executives

Solution- Diversity recruiting challenges can be avoided by providing sensitivity training to hiring executives. This would enable them to judge each candidate solely on merit basis and not on the gender, religion the candidate identifies with.

• Department Heads Being Far Too Stringent

Solution- Such common startup hiring challenges can be sidestepped by having a clear conversation with department heads, so as to know what exact skill set they desire in a candidate.

You can also set up one to one conversation between the candidate and department head so as to bridge any communication gap.

A learning on the job type of approach can also be followed where department heads are motivated to conduct skill building workshops or seminars for their team. 

Conclusion

Organizations around the world will continue to face challenges in hiring new employees till the pandemic does not come in control. This is the best time for your organisation to revamp their hiring strategies and to nullify various hiring challenges during COVID. By doing this, you can hire talented and suitable candidates for your company without any hassle.