There is good reason to believe that hiring demand is rising and so is employee attrition. The competition for candidates is heading back to where it was in the late 1990s. This will make it hard for companies to hire quality talent as market studies show that staffing resources are strained with flat headcount, >50% below 2000 levels, but burdened with more administrative tasks such as compliance, security, and reporting metrics. In addition, cost per hire is up from $3,998 to $4,165; time to hire is up from 70.4 days to 74.9 days; hiring manager satisfaction is down from 57.6% to 45.8%; and the overall candidate experience is diminishing with companies saying their company is a resume “black hole” with stalled interviews and offers. A gap is widening between hiring demand and the ability to fulfill the demand, on time with high quality candidates at a low cost.

So, what are your options? You can do nothing and keep moving at your current pace but risk rising pressures from dissatisfied hiring managers due to your inability to deliver quality candidates. You can select an ERP solution, but that often takes a few years to implement, means heavy involvement from IT and is not necessarily a recruiting-specific solution. You can also try a new version of the traditional way by using applicant-tracking-based applications plus job boards, advertising and headhunters. However, ATS solutions are designed for tracking applicants, not sourcing for quality talent, and the mix of advertising, job boards and agencies is costly. Or, you can try something new. With budget cuts and less than desirable results reached with these other methods, staffing and recruiting directors need a new approach.