With both sides of the recruitment equation represented, we wanted to take some time to see how closely candidate preferences align with firms’ talent strategies and how well firms understand and meet candidates’ needs.
50% of firms say that temporary placement is increasing as a proportion of their revenue, and more than ⅓ now report that temporary placement exceeds permanent in their business mix. At the same time, 57% of candidates say they are considering leaving contingent work to find permanent employment. With this fundamental disconnect, it is more important than ever for firms to understand how to attract and retain the most qualified talent.
Some Key findings include:
- While 84% of firms meet the expectation of placing candidates within a month, there is still room for improvement as 72% of candidates desire even Faster placement times
- Both staffing firms and candidates acknowledge that talent engagement is a major challenge, with 30% of firms struggling in this area and an equal percentage of candidates leaving due to insufficient communication
- Firms underestimate the challenges of the interview process and paperwork for candidates, with 54% of candidates listing them as a top pain point
Financially successful firms are thoughtfully investing in talent engagement
When asked what strategies they are employing to address the ongoing talent shortage, firms were most likely to indicate they are investing in technology to improve talent engagement. And the GRID 2024 Industry Trends Report found that there is a significant correlation between these investments and revenue growth.
Talent still wants more communication than firms are giving
One key part of talent engagement is proactively communicating with candidates. Firms could stand to reach out to candidates a little more frequently, especially since it has such a strong impact on candidate loyalty. Given that 43% of firms still cite talent shortage as a top challenge facing the staffing industry, they cannot afford to lose any top candidates from their database.
A plurality of firms communicate with candidates once a week. However, nearly ¼ of healthcare candidates and 20% of commercial candidates want their recruiters to communicate with them more than once a week, primarily by email.
Firms also need to pay particular attention to ad hoc communication, such as when candidates have specific follow-up questions or need more details about a potential assignment. 19% of candidates say recruiters didn’t respond to their questions in a reasonable timeframe.
Certain candidates still want faster placement times
A crucial part of talent engagement is placing candidates as quickly as possible. Comparing what candidates want to what firms deliver, firms are doing all right, but there is room for improvement. Candidates’ expectations seem to be increasing, especially as self-service gig platforms are on the rise.
72% of candidates want to be placed in one month or less, and 84% of firms say they are meeting that goal. In fact, 59% of firms say they are placing candidates in less than 20 days on average.
Paperwork is still a big pain for candidates
When we look more closely at each stage of the recruitment lifecycle, there are some areas for improvement.
Interestingly, 30% of staffing firms say talent engagement is the most challenging part of the recruitment process. The exact same percentage of candidates say they gave up working with a recruiter because they did not reach out or communicate frequently enough. So, both sides know they need to connect more consistently, but firms may lack the resources and tools to keep up with candidate expectations. AI might be the silver bullet for this issue, with automated workflows prompting the outreach and AI generating tailored, omnichannel communications that keep talent engaged and happy.
One-third of staffing firms say waiting causes the most friction for talent — that roughly correlates with the 32% of candidates who say they stopped working with a firm because the process was taking too long. With continued competition for qualified talent, moving talent through the funnel as quickly as possible will not only lead to financial gains but also candidate loyalty. Automation remains the best tool for improving talent funnel conversion and enhancing the candidate experience.
Individual verticals also had specific pain points. Commercial staffing firms were 57% more likely to cite background checks as the stage with the most friction for talent, whereas healthcare firms were 70% more likely to say onboarding and paperwork are the biggest issues for their candidates.
When candidates were asked a similar question — Which parts of the recruitment process were the most challenging? — their responses overlapped with those of the firms but had some key differences
.
Firms seem to be underestimating how big a pain point the interview process represents for candidates. 54% list interviews as one of the most challenging parts of the recruitment process — 60% in healthcare. Only 10% of firms feel paperwork and onboarding are a point of friction, but filling out forms was actually the top choice for candidates when it comes to the most challenging part of the recruitment process.
27% of candidates said the process of filling out paperwork was still mostly manual, a bottleneck that can easily be addressed with automation. And 80% of healthcare candidates felt submitting time was a top pain point, another opportunity for automation to substantially enhance the candidate experience.
Firms are right that job match is a key concern for candidates as this was the second most popular choice when firms evaluated what is most difficult for candidates. And more than 60% of candidates indicated that job fit was one of the most challenging parts of the process. In fact, 22% of candidates stopped working with a staffing firm because the jobs presented were not a good fit for them. The good news is that, at the end of the day, 72% of candidates feel the recruiter found them assignments that matched their needs and skillsets.
