Recruitment Wars: Who’s Winning?
Job-hunting. Internship applications. LinkedIn adverts. Why does building up a CV seem like a part-time job in itself?
In recent decades, the world of work has evolved massively: reacting to large-scale changes such as the pandemic, alongside slow-paced evolutions such as higher qualification rates and a growing emphasis in knowledge work. Yet due to various technological advancements, recruitment has transformed into a monster process, both for recruiters and applicants. With competition at its highest, which party is winning this ‘war’?
The evolving job-search experience
With the advent of automated job-hunting software, such as LazyApply and SimplifyJobs, as well as key job-listers like Indeed and Glassdoor, the job-hunt process has never been easier. Or has it? Now that job listings are readily available on numerous sites, all of which advertise the ability to apply ‘at the click of a button’, applicants are inundated with choices. However, the widespread advertisement of vacancies has not correlated with higher chances of employment. The average firm receives 86 applications per vacancy, which was a 23% increase from last year (ISE, 2023), revealing how competitive the job market has become. The competition is rising because job adverts can reach more people than ever. Furthermore, without robust screening processes in place, applicants are able to overstate their capabilities for roles. On the other hand, despite there being so many different platforms out there to facilitate the job search experience, some students are finding the process harder. For example, final-year students have to balance the task of applying to every vacancy that appears in their inbox, with staying on top of and succeeding in their studies. Even though completing a singular application has been made easier, such as with automatic CV upload on Indeed, it is the quantity of applications that has become the new struggle.
Advanced recruitment technology
In order to win the recruitment war, recruiters have had to find ways to cope with the extensive volume of applications they now receive. In many cases, these methods have been powered by AI technology or algorithms, in the sorting and screening process alone. Very few companies rely solely on AI up until the interview stage, yet it remains to be seen how far recruiters are willing to go in order to make the process more efficient. Aptitude tests have become the new normal when applying to roles in the finance or legal sector. The battle for recruitment has become so complex and high-tech that many companies are driven to outsource the process. Is this really the best allocation of HR resources? AgeScotland’s workplace training promotes that, seeing as around a third of the workforce is over 50 (AgeScotland, 2024) companies would be better off investing their time and money into recruiting older individuals, rather than concentrating so hard on graduates. Employee retention is arguably one of HR’s most expensive problems, when related to the recruitment processes required to replace an employee. Workers aged 25-34 are found to have an average tenure of 2.8 years, which is 7.1 years lower than their older counterparts (Forbes, 2023). Despite this, recruitment post-pandemic has spiralled towards the attraction of young, qualified workers, but seeing as workforce demographics are rapidly evolving, companies must consider whether this is the most sustainable and cost-efficient strategy.
The unwanted vacancies
With the competition for talent becoming more and more competitive, almost half of employers believe that the most effective way to fill positions is to increase the starting salary (CIPD, 2022). At the highest end of the spectrum, leading law firm Baker Mckenzie raised its salary for newly qualified lawyers in London to £110,000 (BM, 2022); a salary that will no doubt increase yearly. Unsurprisingly, these lucrative jobs are highly sought after. However, few industries can match the uber-high salaries offered in corporate law, leaving other sectors struggling to fill vacancies. In the UK job market, all sectors are participating in the recruitment war, yet it is contextually different every time. In a recovering economy where inflation has reached record highs, and labour shortages are reaching their highest point since 1990 (Guardian, 2021), not all firms can afford to fill their unwanted vacancies by raising starting salaries. According to the Office of National Statistics, post-pandemic job vacancies were at their highest ever, with the Health, Hospitality, and Scientific sectors most in need of workers. In essence, vacancies are highest in the sectors which relied the most on EU workers before the pandemic, yet this does mean that UK job-seekers receive higher wages since a tight labour market has increased average wage growth (FT, 2022). Firms in struggling sectors are having to adapt their recruitment strategy to offer non-monetary perks such as in-house training, career progression opportunities, or more inclusion in decision-making processes.
The newfound ‘overqualified’ applicants
Individuals at the beginning of their careers, such as students or graduates, now face multiple challenges when trying to get onto the career ladder. Our parents’ generation were taught to work their way up from the bottom, regardless of their qualification level. Nowadays it is impressed upon us how essential it is to get a degree, since a ‘good’ degree will secure you a ‘good’ job. Is this the reality? So many applicants are now facing the unexpected issue of being ‘overqualified’ for entry-level roles, with employers assuming that they would soon become ‘bored’ in the role and wish to progress or even resign (BBC, 2022). Graduates are now confronted with this catch-22 of building up an extensive CV detailing copious work experience in order to be attractive to an employer, yet it can sometimes incite the opposite response. It may signal to employers that you are simply ‘job-hopping’ and that you only have short-term gains in mind. However, is this caused by the recruitment processes themselves? As workforce entrants, graduates aim to do everything they can to stand out in the degree-waving crowd. Unfortunately doing the most is, for some companies, just too much. Due to the widespread issue of employee retention, especially within the arts, entertainment and recreation industry (Forbes, 2023), some recruiters are looking for candidates with only a basic level of experience. This is because they can grow and develop within the company, with room for progression over the long-term, therefore the company gains a committed and established employee. Yet those who have acquired a vast repertoire of corporate experience, may find themselves stranded between being overqualified for many entry-level positions, but inexperienced for the most lucrative roles (BBC, 2022). Unfortunately, it seems that the graduate workers do not hold the power in this war.
Implications of remote working
Thanks to the pandemic, remote working was incorporated into the daily operations of the majority of companies across the world. Firms were not afforded the luxury of time or preparation for the shift, yet after a long period of ‘making do’, remote working began to settle into a key part of modern working life. Still a contested issue to this day, no one can argue against the benefits it has brought recruiting in regards to facilitating meetings and correspondence across national and international borders. Not only has it made the interview process quicker and easier, but it has opened recruiters up to a wider pool of applicants. With the benefit of working from afar, a company in Manchester can now consider hiring applicants from Edinburgh, Cornwall, and even Belfast. This improves their chances of finding the most suitable candidate by allowing access to a richer pool of human capital. HR teams must assess whether this potential benefit is greater than the task of considering a greater volume of applications. For job-seekers, the availability of flexible working arrangements may become a non-negotiable factor when considering prospective positions. What was previously a rare phenomenon, flexible working has become the new normal, and individuals at the beginning of their careers can now benefit from a wider network of jobs in locations and industries that they may not have had access to before.
What does this mean for the future?
Overall, recruitment is tricky. Both parties are struggling to keep up with rapid digital, demographic, and economic transformations. Job-seekers should try not to be intimidated by the competition and accept that there is unfortunately no one-size-fits-all approach to applications. Due to this unprecedented competition, graduates should adopt a 5-10-year career plan because it has proven difficult to land a top job immediately. Especially with the ageing population in mind, the average career length is ever-growing. Graduates should not feel rushed or pressured to achieve their dream career goals as soon as they leave university. Furthermore, firms should evaluate whether they are efficiently allocating time and resources into creating a complex and lengthy recruitment process when competition is as high as it currently is. Employee retention has become increasingly difficult in the last decade, which raises the question as to whether this is due to the transformation of recruitment processes. While technological advancements have brought significant advantages, excessive reliance on them could result in a depersonalised and digitised hiring process, potentially diminishing employees' sense of being valued overall.
Bibliography
AgeScotland, 2024. Scotland’s population is ageing and so is its workforce, yet many businesses feel they are not fully prepared to make the most of these social, demographic changes. Available at: https://www.agescotland.org.uk/how-we-help/workplace-training
Baker Mckenzie, 2022. Baker McKenzie increases London NQ salaries to £110,000. Available at: https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/newsroom/2022/07/baker-mckenzie-increases-london-nq-salaries
BBC, 2022. Worklife: The over-qualified workers struggling to find a job. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220705-the-over-qualified-workers-struggling-to-find-a-job
CIPD, 2022. Competition for talent remains fierce but employers are running out of steam on raising pay, new CIPD research finds. Available at: https://www.cipd.org/uk/about/press-releases/160522-competition-talent-pay-rises/
Financial Times, 2022. Brexit intensifies labour shortages as companies struggle to hire. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/a9677ee4-281d-4d0d-8456-661982890304
Forbes, 2023. Key HR Statistics And Trends In 2024. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/hr-statistics-trends/
Institute for Student Employers, 2023. Robust yet competitive graduate labour market. Available at: https://insights.ise.org.uk/home_featured/blog-robust-yet-competitive-graduate-labour-market/