Partner Article

Businesses Still Struggling to Attract the Right Candidates

A new study from CV-Library, the UK’s largest job site, has revealed that despite the growing jobs market, business are still struggling with recruitment, with over 65% of recruiters admitting to difficulties when it comes to finding the right candidates for job roles.

The research addressed over 700 of the UK’s leading recruiters (including agency and in-house professionals) to establish the main challenges faced when trying to attract candidates and fill job vacancies. With 39.9% of those asked encountering problems filling permanent job roles, CV-Library suggests that more needs to be done to attract the savviest applicants. Key findings revealed:

• 67.5% of recruitment professionals struggle to find the right candidates
• 37.7% are experiencing serious skills shortages
• Over a third of recruiters (34.2%) believe that candidates have unrealistic expectations
• 32.1% feel hindered by the slow speed of the recruitment process

CV-Library’s latest statistics also shed more light on the recruitment industry’s current situation. Whilst last month saw a 29.3% job rise compared to August 2014, there was only a 19.1% increase in the number of job applications in the same time period, indicating that candidates are being more selective with the roles they apply for.

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library comments: “In a job market where candidates now have more selection, it’s unsurprising to see that recruiters are struggling to fill the growing number of roles available. That, combined with the growing concern over skills shortages continue to cause a problem.

“However, we hope that the increasingly stable financial market and the rise of other work benefits, such as bonus schemes, mean businesses can afford to do more to attract the best talent to their organisations. Highlighting the provision of training and mentoring, and providing opportunities for career progression are other key ways to improve application rates.”

Furthermore, when asked to rank the top 5 most challenging roles to fill by sector, recruiters said:

• Engineering – 49.9%
• Oil & gas / energy – 27.2%
• IT – 24.9%
• Aerospace – 21.9%
• Medical – 20.1%

The following roles were revealed as the most challenging to fill by department:

• Operations – 49.1%
• Management – 48.2%
• Business Development – 42.7%
• IT – 40.9%
• Sales – 39.1%

For further information on CV-Library and to view its extensive database of over 9.1 million active job hunters, visit www.cv-library.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michelle Smithson .