Common Hiring Bottlenecks (With Solutions)

In a perfect world, your hiring process would never experience a bottleneck. But as with anything where humans run the show, disruptions and obstacles are bound to get in the way of your goals. Luckily, there are tools and solutions to help with these common hiring bottlenecks.

Whenever a committee is formed, differences of opinion will follow. Hiring committees are often made up of human resources professionals, managers or colleagues in the department. No matter the size of your group, overcoming challenges is the only way to effectively recruit and hire new workers for your company. Below, we cover four common roadblocks with potential solutions.

Bottleneck #1: Managing Schedules

The members of the hiring committee are busy professionals with responsibilities and deadlines. Though HR is ultimately responsible for the hiring, all members of the team want to contribute to the hiring process. This can be made even more challenging if some or all of your workers are remote, and you add time zones and technology barriers to the equation.

Solution: Establish an in-house priority system for hiring conversations, meetings, and interviews. Unless someone is working with an absolute deadline, find ways to push and adjust so hiring actions take priority. If the team is too large to manage, take a hard look at the process and trim those involved to the essentials.

Bottleneck #2: Miscommunication

Managing the communication between the hiring team and the candidates can be a complicated task. The first line of communication starts with establishing the need for hiring. That department makes it clear what the job responsibilities entail. From there, someone writes a job description and seeks feedback for clarity and accuracy. The next step is posting on job boards and sending information to recruiters. Then the resumes come in, and need screening and responses. Once the pool is narrowed, you need to arrange interviews, job offers, and onboarding and training.

At each step of this process, you run the risk of a group email being missed, members of the team misunderstanding their roles, or someone thinking another person is handling it.

Solution: Use an applicant tracking system to centralize every aspect of the process. The ATS is a clear and visible record of each completed step, helping all members of the team to see the same thing at the same time. It allows for automated responses so applicants don’t feel like they’ve sent their resume into the void. Sending personalized messages within the system also eliminates confusion on the hiring side. The hiring committee can access the job description, where it’s been posted, and the metrics around each step. Using this data, you can analyze their efficiency and make changes where necessary.

Bottleneck #3: Screening Flaws

Screening can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of the hiring process, especially if you’re getting a high volume of not-quite-right candidates. It can feel overwhelming to have to sort through all the resumes and send responses, even if they’re automated.

This can bring out different personalities among the hiring committee:

• ​The slasher who shows no mercy and cuts anyone who doesn’t strike them perfectly right
• ​The ponderer who sits with each resume looking for it to reveal something hidden.

Each extreme can cause a bottleneck, because the slasher means you need more applicants and the ponderer can get stuck.

Solution: For jobs where you expect to receive a lot of applications, consider using tools like AI to sort based on important keywords. And for more specialized jobs where the applicants will likely be similarly qualified, reduce the pondering over the resume and use phone, video call, or in-person interviews earlier to round out the resumes and get a better feel for the individual behind the paper.

Bottleneck #4: Reference Checks

Waiting for responses from references can cause a bottleneck that affects both the hiring team and the potential hire. Short delays can turn into long ones because it’s easy to get distracted while you’re waiting for a response. For the candidate, delays can cause anxiety and possibly encourage them to take another job.

Solution: HR professional Tiffany Servatius suggests “giving references multiple ways to contact you with their response. Inform them that it is okay to email you or leave a voicemail if you are not available. In addition, ask the candidate to follow up with any references you have not heard back from within 24 hours.”

Utilize the Right Tools

The hiring process includes a lot of people, opinions, schedules, and analysis, and finding the right person for your company can be a challenge. If you find yourself stuck on one of the bottlenecks above, consider how you can use tools and critical decisions to make sure your hiring process goes smoothly. With ApplicantStack, you can streamline some of the challenges that slow down this process. Find, hire, and onboard top talent quickly and efficiently with the right solution in place.