Good news for workers can sometimes mean bad news for businesses. With the unemployment rate down to 5.3 percent, many U.S. companies say they’re having hard time attracting qualified employees.
A survey of human resource professionals conducted by PI Worldwide, a consulting firm, showed widespread concerns among businesses of all sizes over finding quality applicants to fill open positions.
HR officials at small companies were the most pessimistic, with 65 percent saying their company was struggling to find good enough workers. Forty-five percent of those surveyed from mid-sized companies and 40 percent of those surveyed from large employers expressed similar concerns.
It’s not just that positions are being left unfilled. Businesses are also reporting frustration regarding bad hires. The most frequently cited problem for small businesses was misrepresentation by job applicants. Another common issues leading to new hires not working out was “behavior or inadequate skills,” cited by 47 percent of respondents as a primary hiring problem.
The researchers suggest that businesses need to explore new ways of hiring that more accurately assess a candidate’s personality and abilities.
“Today, most employers continue to rely on unstructured interviews and previous experience as the predominant method to determine fit,” said PI CEO Mike Zani. “While these are important, insights from behavioral and cognitive assessments can be significantly more accurate in predicting how well a candidate will perform within a specific role, culture and ultimately how well they will support strategic initiatives.”
Another big problem is that poor hires often drive good employees away. In fact, 75 percent of companies surveyed said they have lost a top performer due to a bad hire. However, compensation is still the number one reason that companies say they lose their best employees.