Study shows that the majority of UK companies are struggling with recruitment quality

A new study has revealed that as a result of time and market pressures, UK businesses have adopted a ‘culture of compromise’ and have appointed the wrong person in a job. A staggering 91% of those questioned said that they have ‘settled’ for a candidate because they needed to make a quick hire.

With one-in-three hires being described as ‘less than ideal’, this poses a huge threat to British businesses and the economy as a whole. 74% of respondents even recognised that a culture of recruitment compromise is not healthy but continued to do so because they weren’t sure what else they could do.

Allocation of time in the recruitment process is the biggest pressure that respondents said they face. Over half (52%) said they spend more time vetting CVs and briefing everyone involved in the process than they do interviewing candidates. Believe it or not, the time wasted doing this adds up to a whopping eight million hours of recruitment.

The survey indicated that the top three negative implications of hiring the wrong person for a role include:

• The need to invest further in developing new recruits (54%)
• An impact on company performance (47%)
• A requirement for line managers to invest additional time into new hires (35%)

Simon Swan, the co-founder and CEO of Hiring Hub commented:

“Appointing the wrong candidate for the job is a costly mistake if you run a business. However, HR professionals and business owners compromise on recruitment quality almost as a matter of routine. This is a catch-22 for UK businesses that waste the little time they do have in finding a candidate they then have to replace or dedicate more time line-managing in the long-run. It’s ineffective and a huge drain on a company’s resources.”

Despite struggling with the quality of their recruits, business owners and HR departments do recognise that more time needs to be spent getting to know candidates. More than two thirds (66%) admitted that their business would benefit from investing more time into interviewing and subsequently selecting the right candidate for the job.

Speaking about how these problems can be resolved, Swan continued:

“We’re living in a digital age where innovative tools and techniques that enable us to be more efficient and competitive are at our disposal. By replacing improvisation with innovation, companies can reduce the time spent reviewing CVs in order to focus on interviewing and selecting the right candidates to grow their business.”

If you’re having problems with any aspect of your recruitment process, please feel free to contact Choralis Consulting and we will be more than happy to help.