Em­ploy­ers worried: 2022 saw a hail of re­jec­tions from ap­pli­cants

Fach­kräf­te drin­gend ge­sucht! Vie­le Job­su­chen­de sprin­gen wäh­rend des Be­wer­bungs­pro­zes­ses ab. Ar­beit­ge­ber sind in gro­ßer Sor­ge, der Fach­kräf­te­man­gel nimmt im­mer schär­fe­re Züge an.

Over 60 per­cent of com­pa­nies had to deal with re­jec­tions from ap­pli­cants last year. The ma­jo­ri­ty of HR de­cis­i­on-ma­kers fear that the shorta­ge of skil­led workers will be­co­me even more acu­te in 2023.

  • Many job see­kers drop out du­ring the ap­pli­ca­ti­on pro­cess
  • „The ba­lan­ce of power on the la­bor mar­ket has ch­an­ged – com­pa­nies no lon­ger hold the trump cards.“
  • Fu­ture trends 2023: Ac­ti­ve sourcing, re­ten­ti­on ma­nage­ment and ta­lent poo­ling more im­portant in the co­ming year

Ac­cor­ding to HR ma­na­gers in Ger­man com­pa­nies, the al­re­a­dy se­rious shorta­ge of skil­led workers in Ger­ma­ny will con­ti­nue to in­crease: Two out of th­ree HR de­cis­i­on-ma­kers ex­pect the si­tua­ti­on to wor­sen in the co­ming year (67%). The con­cern is par­ti­cu­lar­ly pro­no­un­ced in com­pa­nies with over 250 em­ployees – th­ree out of four HR ma­na­gers the­re be­lie­ve that the cri­ti­cal si­tua­ti­on on the la­bor mar­ket will be­co­me even more acu­te in 2023 (78%). Even to­day, over 60% of HR de­cis­i­on-ma­kers have ex­pe­ri­en­ced ta­lent drop­ping out du­ring the ap­pli­ca­ti­on pro­cess. For­sa sur­vey­ed 500 HR ma­na­gers in com­pa­nies with 50 or more em­ployees across Ger­ma­ny on the­se to­pics.

HR ma­na­gers from the he­alth­ca­re and so­cial ser­vices sec­tor are the least con­fi­dent about the fu­ture. In this sec­tor, 71% of re­spond­ents be­lie­ve that the shorta­ge of skil­led workers will wor­sen in the co­ming year, while a fur­ther 23% ex­pect the si­tua­ti­on to re­main as cri­ti­cal as it curr­ent­ly is. HR ma­na­gers in other sec­tors are also ra­ther gloo­my about the pro­s­pects: 65% of re­spond­ents in in­dus­try and 68% of re­spond­ents in the ser­vice sec­tor be­lie­ve that it will be­co­me more dif­fi­cult to find new em­ployees in the co­ming year. The In­sti­tu­te for Em­ploy­ment Re­se­arch curr­ent­ly ex­pects 1.82 mil­li­on va­can­ci­es (as of: IAB No­vem­ber 2022). „The ba­lan­ce of power on the la­bor mar­ket has shifted. Com­pa­nies no lon­ger hold the trump cards. To­day, com­pa­nies ap­p­ly for ta­lent, not ta­lent for jobs,“ says Frank Hass­ler, Mem­ber of the Exe­cu­ti­ve Board of NEW WORK SE, re­spon­si­ble for the Re­crui­ting and Em­ploy­er Bran­ding busi­ness are­as. „Com­pa­nies have litt­le room for er­ror here and need to take a very clo­se look at how they set up their re­crui­ting in a con­tem­po­ra­ry and stra­te­gic way,“ con­ti­nues Hass­ler.

Many job see­kers drop out du­ring the ap­pli­ca­ti­on pro­cess

The fact that al­most every HR ma­na­ger (90%) has had the ex­pe­ri­ence of be­ing tur­ned down by ap­pli­cants du­ring the ap­pli­ca­ti­on pro­cess this year shows just how ur­gen­tly a rethink is nee­ded. One in th­ree HR ma­na­gers (37%) con­firm­ed that can­di­da­tes had oc­ca­sio­nal­ly tur­ned them down in the last twel­ve months and 24% of tho­se sur­vey­ed sta­ted that this had even hap­pen­ed fre­quent­ly to very fre­quent­ly. The re­asons for re­jec­tion are va­ried and ran­ge from a bet­ter of­fer from the com­pe­ti­ti­on, a lack of fle­xi­bi­li­ty on the part of em­ploy­ers (key­word: working mo­dels, home of­fice, etc.) to pro­ce­du­ral re­asons, such as an ap­pli­ca­ti­on pro­cess that is per­cei­ved as too time-con­sum­ing. It is cer­tain­ly not an ad­van­ta­ge that HR staff have to spend a lar­ge part of their time on ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­ve tasks such as pay­roll ac­coun­ting (61%) and the or­ga­niza­ti­on and coor­di­na­ti­on of ap­pli­ca­ti­on pro­ces­ses (67%). „Many HR de­part­ments to­day are over­bur­den­ed by ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­ve time was­ters. Com­pa­nies should find in­tel­li­gent ways to re­li­e­ve the bur­den on their ma­na­gers,“ says Frank Hass­ler.

New hi­ring as a fu­ture trend: re­ten­ti­on ma­nage­ment, ac­ti­ve sourcing and ta­lent poo­ling will be­co­me more im­portant in 2023

With an in­cre­asing shorta­ge of ta­lent on the la­bor mar­ket, me­a­su­res to re­tain exis­ting em­ployees are be­co­ming ever more im­portant. Two out of th­ree HR ma­na­gers in Ger­ma­ny are the­r­e­fo­re of the opi­ni­on that em­ployee re­ten­ti­on me­a­su­res will be­co­me more im­portant in the co­ming year (65%). At 53%, re­ten­ti­on ma­nage­ment is also at the top of the list of ac­ti­vi­ties for which they would like to have more time. Iden­ti­fy­ing and proac­tively ap­proa­ching po­ten­ti­al ap­pli­cants at an ear­ly stage will also be­co­me more re­le­vant in 2023: Two thirds of HR ma­na­gers be­lie­ve that ac­ti­ve sourcing will be­co­me more im­portant (64%). This ap­pli­es in par­ti­cu­lar to HR ma­na­gers in com­pa­nies with 250 em­ployees or more (74%). They also see a re­crui­ting op­por­tu­ni­ty in so-cal­led ta­lent poo­ling, i.e. iden­ti­fy­ing po­ten­ti­al can­di­da­tes at an ear­ly stage in or­der to ap­proach them la­ter when nee­ded (60%). Ho­we­ver, tra­di­tio­nal HR me­a­su­res such as coa­ching and fur­ther trai­ning for em­ployees (63%) and ma­na­gers (54%) will also be­co­me more im­portant in the co­ming year, as will em­ploy­er bran­ding me­a­su­res (49%). New re­crui­ting chan­nels could also be gi­ven a chan­ce in the co­ming year: 56% of HR ma­na­gers are in­te­res­ted in sim­pli­fy­ing and spee­ding up the ap­pli­ca­ti­on pro­cess – for ex­am­p­le by sen­ding ap­pli­ca­ti­ons via Whats­App or other so­cial me­dia chan­nels. In com­pa­nies with 250 em­ployees or more, al­most th­ree quar­ters of re­spond­ents are in­te­res­ted in this (72%). And a third of re­spond­ents say that „data ana­ly­tics and re­port­ing“ will con­ti­nue to gain in im­portance in the HR world in the co­ming year. „HR tech is one of the key trend to­pics in com­pa­nies. In times of skills shorta­ges, the use of in­tel­li­gent tech­no­lo­gies is es­sen­ti­al in or­der to have a chan­ce on the re­cruit­ment mar­ket,“ says Frank Hass­ler. Un­fort­u­na­te­ly, every se­cond HR ma­na­ger also esti­ma­tes that the ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­on and coor­di­na­ti­on of ap­pli­ca­ti­on pro­ces­ses will be­co­me an in­cre­asing­ly im­portant task in 2023 (50%).

Cor­po­ra­te cul­tu­re makes the dif­fe­rence

When as­ked what mo­ti­va­tes em­ployees in their com­pa­ny to stay for the long term, HR ma­na­gers say that it is so-cal­led soft fac­tors: In ad­di­ti­on to the working at­mo­sphe­re and cor­po­ra­te cul­tu­re, job sa­tis­fac­tion (80%) and work-life ba­lan­ce (71%) are seen as the most im­portant fac­tors.

HR ma­na­gers need to have the time and re­sour­ces to fo­cus even more on to­pics that are clo­se to people’s he­arts in­s­tead of main­ly tal­king about mo­ney.

Only 54% see the sala­ry le­vel as one of the main re­asons for stay­ing. De­spi­te this, it is usual­ly dis­cus­sed in HR mee­tings: at 75%, sala­ry is the top to­pic, fol­lo­wed by dis­cus­sions about work tasks and care­er pro­s­pects (73%) and job sa­tis­fac­tion (70%). „HR ma­na­gers must have the time and re­sour­ces to fo­cus even more on to­pics that are clo­se to people’s he­arts in­s­tead of main­ly tal­king about mo­ney. This is the only way to crea­te ge­nui­ne em­ployee loyal­ty that mo­ti­va­tes em­ployees to stay,“ says Frank Hass­ler. Source: Xing