Whether you are hiring to expand the team or maintain the status quo, the challenge of attracting good talent is always there. There are many reasons why this may be a problem for your organization. Following is a list of some of the common problems you might face and how to overcome them.

1.    Size of your Company:

As you know, the size of your company plays an important role in the candidate decision-making process. There could be different motivational factors for individual applicants: some people prefer a brand name, job security and perks, which are offered by large companies, and some people like the challenge to take on the next thing.

Takeaway: You can’t change the size of the company overnight; however, you can highlight what the job has to offer in terms of the challenge and growth prospects.

2.    Structure of Your team:

Your team might be very well structured and have category leads/sourcing leads assigned by department, or you could be the other extreme where everyone does everything depending upon availability, which is very common in the service industry and in smaller teams.

There is no right or wrong structure. Given that most of the procurement teams are very lean nowadays, there is a high chance that you are the other extreme.

Takeaway: If you are not in an industry where you need specialization, then your team may certainly appeal to those candidates who want to learn different categories and the career growth they can offer.  

3.    Slow Hiring Process:

Everybody is looking to attract the best talent available. Often, a slow hiring process could lead to missing the right kind of talent. In our recent study, we found that some companies are taking as long as 5–6 months to recruit new procurement talent.

Some of you might have a very long approval chain to go through before an offer can be made. Reducing the time to hire can positively impact your ability to hire good talent and give you more time to focus on making new recruits productive in their Job.

Takeaway: Start with doing an analysis of your current hiring process and map how much time it takes for all the sub processes. Then work with your recruiting team to fix one process at a time.

4.    You Don’t Have Enough Budget:

You will always have budget constraints and sometimes good talent, even though available, might not fit the bill. So what do you do if you have a limited budget? Do you hire whatever fits the bill? Well, there are a few things you can do to attract talent even when you have a limited budget.

Takeaways:

·         Hire candidates for aptitude and attitude: If the candidate has the right skills, then he/she can be trained on how to handle different sourcing categories. Granted, this will take slightly more time, but it is worth the investment as compared to hiring someone simply because they fit your budget.

·         Sell them the position: Good candidates are always looking for the next challenge, and if you sell the position right, they might be willing to work for less given there is an opportunity for growth down the line.

5.    You Are Not Selling Enough

There is a very limited pool of good procurement talent; everyone wants to hire the best. So if you are not doing a good job on selling the position, good candidates might not even apply at first place. If you have engaged an external recruiter, then that is a different case, but if you are approaching recruiting by traditional ways, then focus on following:

• Highlight what challenges the position offers, as well as the potential growth path.
• Be specific about what is expected.
• Highlight the benefits you offer.
• More importantly, answer why they should work for your company.