The 5 causes of recruiter burnout … (and how not to)

We’ve seen the role of the recruiter change drastically over the years. While many recruiters get into the industry to help top talent find their dream roles and help companies build their dream teams, many end up living in the nightmare of recruiter burnout.

As it turns out, HR has the fifth-highest turnover as a job function according to this LinkedIn research. On top of that, it’s reported that there’s a 90% recruiter turnover within the first year.

The recruiter burnout is real, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

According to a study by Jobvite, 45% of recruiters believe that AI and automation will make their jobs better, leaving them to focus on more strategic work. Yet many recruiters aren’t leveraging the right automation tools to drive real results.

Instead, many teams are adding a suite of tech products that only adds to the endless list of tasks on their plate — and takes away from time that could be spent nurturing candidates or becoming a more strategic partner to hiring managers.

At WayUp, we see common pain points from many of our clients and partners. From lack of awareness in employer branding to the struggle of hiring diverse talent and a lack of efficiency in the hiring process to an elongated recruitment process.

Before working with us, many of our clients also struggle with analyzing their recruitment funnel to find where the drop-off is — which prevents them from being able to make strategic decisions to help increase their ROI.

If you’re a recruiter who feels like you’re inundated with copious tasks and wasting time in your hiring funnel without seeing results, there are answers to your woes. And if you’re on the edge of burnout, don’t let it escalate. In this article, we’ll tackle the most common challenges we see in the industry and how to solve them.

Minimal resources

Let’s attack one of the biggest culprits of recruiter burnout: lack of resources. Chances are, you’re inundated with applicants and referrals and don’t have time to respond to each one. The key is finding a streamlined way to review applications and surface top talent. Start by reevaluating your “knockout” questions to help you weed out unqualified applicants.

Avoid the applicant black hole problem by employing a combination of digital and phone screening to review every candidate’s application. There are vendors who will not only handle that for you, but who will help you analyze bias in your screening, and more.

And for candidates that don’t pass, create a template to send them within 24 hours. Some studies show that as little as 2% percent of candidates hear back after interviews, and that can lead to a severe loss of faith in a company and negatively affect revenue. Make the most of your resources while still providing a positive candidate experience.

Recruitment takes too long

Did you know that companies lose as many as 89% of potential candidates due to a prolonged screening process? Don’t lose your sanity by losing top talent to your competitors. On average, recruiters spend 78,352 minutes on the phone per year. That’s a lot of time that could be spent focusing on more strategic work.

The answer here is not to let your funnel build up. Set up a system that allows passed candidates to schedule interviews right away (even if they’re far in advance).

Another solution is to avoid seasonal recruiting and implement an always-on approach. This always-on recruiting mentality will especially be helpful in a 3% unemployment world and help you allocate your resources more efficiently.

Brand awareness

How do you drive diverse top talent through your funnel when no one knows who you are? If you want to attract diverse candidates to your open roles, you need to create meaningful content that speaks to your values, benefits and culture — and share it in recognizable and relatable formats. 67% of both active and passive job seekers say that when they’re evaluating companies and job offers, it is important that the company has a diverse workforce. Yet, if a diverse candidate can’t see themselves culturally or physically represented in your messaging, then these candidates likely won’t even make it to your jobs page.

Assess your employer branding and the story your brand is trying to tell. You can do this through video, articles and so much more. It’ll save you time and money in the long run by attracting the very best candidates, year-round.

Preserve the human touch

Make automation work for you, not against you. It’s critical to have the right balance of high-tech and high-touch in your recruiting process. Useful automation includes things like tech-enabled interview scheduling through calendar applications and automatic responses to unqualified applicants.

Tasks that shouldn’t be automated? Interviews. For example, we never recommend putting a one-way recorded interview in place of a human one. Over 85% of candidates self-report that they “hate” pre-recorded one-way interviews and companies often see drop-off between 30-70% from requiring it.  After all, recruiting is a people business, and I think we should keep it that way.

Analysis paralysis

Having the right data can dramatically help you make smart decisions for your business. The problem is that your data can live in so many places, and it takes time to analyze it for actionable insights. First thing’s first: break down your funnel. Track down the demographics of your candidates and how many are passing through your screening. What criteria are your applicants not meeting?

Adjust your messaging to reflect those findings and unify your data so you can measure the points that matter over time. Tracking these numbers will help educate you on how you market open roles to prospective candidates. If you follow this strategy, you’ll have a clear view of candidate drop-off patterns and make data-driven strategies that positively affect your ROI.

In the war on talent, burnout is not the answer. It’s time that recruiters took their jobs back and stopped feeling like order takers and started feeling like strategic partners.