Candidate Whisperer #7: Talent shortage is no April fool’s joke
Are we back to the “candidates’ market”? In some industries, for sure. Let’s see how you can always be your ideal candidate’s first choice employer.
Happy April! 🐣 Welcome back to the Candidate Whisperer: every Talent Acquisition professional’s favorite monthly newsletter. 🌟The clocks have gone forward this weekend (at least here in Copenhagen) and we’re ready to embrace the sunny spring days ahead.
Besides April Fool’s Day (don’t worry, we’re not putting any pranks in here today…), April 1st marks the start of Q2; a breath of fresh air and a promise of a new beginning. We’ve made it out of the trenches of winter, but how has hiring in 2025 been treating you so far?
Last week, I hosted our Data Deep Dive on the findings from the 2024 Candidate Experience Benchmark Report and asked how your 2025 hiring was going so far. It looks like all the predictions were right – hiring in 2025 will get easier:
Report
The Talent Shortage is Here to Stay
There is no escaping the infamous talent shortage. It’s here to stay, and the only thing we can do about it is adapt. The Manpower Group reported over 70% of organizations struggling to hire the right candidates for the 4th year in a row.
On the one hand, unemployment rates have stayed at all-time low and finding the skilled candidates needed to fill the hundreds of jobs created every week is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
On the other hand, recruiters are drowning in applications, unable to process all the candidates in good time. Yes, the yearly average number of applications to process per recruiter increased to 2,526 (that’s 28% more than in 2023 and 106% (!) more than in 2022).
The paradox of this situation is striking: how can companies attract, hire and retain the top quality talent they need to fill their roles, especially when they don’t have the budget to lure them in with high salaries or fancy perks?
You already know what I’m going to say: stand out with exceptional Candidate Experience. This is an example of a real comment from a candidate who dropped out of the process:
“Not super impressed by the corporate culture that I sensed: too difficult to schedule meetings, failed promises, no strategic priority apparently to fill the role. The recruiter was awesome though!”
Your recruiter team might be doing a great job, but if the other parts of the process are falling behind, so will your ability to close those 10/10 candidates you’re dreaming of hiring.
Read more about this in our 2024 Candidate Experience Benchmark Report.
Report
For Every 76 People You Hire, 100 Drop Out
Neglecting your Candidate Experience is no different from throwing money and time out of the window.
For every 1000 candidates applying to work at your organization, 100 of them will withdraw their application due to bad Candidate Experience.
Ask yourself: how often have you had to restart the whole recruitment process because the only really qualified candidate rejected your offer? How many times did you have to hire the “second-best” when they weren’t 100% a fit? Only for them not to pass the probationary period, or to leave within their first month on the job?
Situations like that happen and they cost you thousands of euros every time.
“I had outstanding offers and I wasn't even given an estimate of when my next interviews would be or if I even passed the first round.”
The only ones benefitting from your bad Candidate Experience are your competitors.
Video
Behind on the Latest Hiring Trends?
Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. February and March were full of great findings for us and we couldn’t hold any of it in. We celebrated the release of our 2024 Candidate Experience Benchmark Report with not one, but two separate webinars:
News
What We're Reading in the News:
🧑🏻💼 White collar job recession: is it time to reinvent yourself?
⚖️ It’s time to implement AI in your hiring process, but let’s not lose the human touch.
🏎️ Looking for ways to increase your hiring efficiency? Yes, the answer is AI.
🌟 An example to follow: Capgemini make it a priority to make it even easier for candidates to submit their CVs
💻 Hiring tech roles? Your candidates are here to tell you what they expect from your process.
♻️ A sustainable approach to hiring is the way to go in 2025.
Updates
What We're Celebrating at Starred:
🕵🏻♀️ In March, we embraced our detective skills and got the whole company together to solve some murder mystery cases. If we’re this good at solving crimes, no wonder we’re out to get all those bad Candidate Experience culprits…
We cannot wait to see what the Social Club cooks up for us in Q2! 👀
We’re excited to go into Q2 together and continue on our mission to make the process of hiring and getting hired more enjoyable for everyone involved. 💪
If you made it this far, I’m curious: how has your hiring been in 2025 so far?
See you soon! 👋
Best,
Content Marketing Manager