Biggest Problem with Candidates: Not Enough Qualified Ones!

We recently conducted a poll of Top Echelon Network recruiters by posting a question in the Members’ Area.

That question was as follows:

What’s your biggest problem with candidates right now?

Results:

The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters that selected each one:

• Relocation — 11.9%
• Counter-offers — 4.4%
• Fall-offs— 10.4%
• Not enough qualified ones — 66.7%
• Some other problem — 6.7%

Analysis:

Perhaps not surprisingly, the top problem that recruiters have with candidates right now is “Not enough qualified ones” at 66.7%, a full two-thirds of the Network Members who participated in this poll.

“Relocation” (11.9%) and “Fall-offs” (10.4%) were a close one-two in the final voting, but they were both WAY behind the most popular answer.  “Counter-offers,” which have historically been more problematic than they are right now, limped into fourth place at 4.4%.

Not only that, but 6.7% of recruiters also indicated that “Some other problem” was their biggest problem with candidates right now, even more urgent than the four options listed.

Conclusion:

Companies can’t find enough qualified candidates.  As a result, they enlist the services of executive recruiters to find those candidates . . . and then those recruiters can’t find enough qualified candidates.

That means there is a glaring lack of qualified candidates in the marketplace right now!

Is this partly because hiring officials are still looking for “purple squirrels,” i.e., perfect candidates that only exist in lore and folk legends?  Maybe, but by and large, there simply is not enough qualified candidates—truly qualified candidates—to meet the hiring needs of organizations in just about every industry.

That’s exactly why Preferred Member recruiters rely on their Trading Partners to help them find those candidates.  Even if they can’t fill the opening with one of their own candidates, they can still fill it with one of their Trading Partners’.

What’s been your experience?  Is your biggest problem with candidates right now finding qualified ones?  Is it one of the other options?  Or is it some other problem?

Post your comments below!