Why o why we have made recruitment a looong prosess

During my working career, I have been in managerial positions in large companies for more than 15 years, recruiting many different professionals to my teams. For the last more than 5 years I have been working as a serial entrepreneur, a large part of that time working as a headhunter, recruiting hundreds and hundreds of different experts for numerous clients' companies of various sizes, from professionals to management level experts.

I follow a lot of studies and statistics related to employment. The latest interesting research data came from Eurostat, which compared the duration of people's job search and the duration of employment in different decades in European countries.

Interesting data emerged from there, such as these:

• In 1999, the job search took an average of 4 weeks.
• In 2023, the job search will take an average of 4 months.
• In 1999, most positions were filled after 1-2 interviews.
• In 2023, most positions require 4-5 interviews.
• In 1999, the average length of employment was 3.5 years.
• In 2023, the average length of employment was 3.5 years.

Companies' ways of recruiting have changed radically, even though the length of employment has remained the same. A large number of companies want a "perfect" candidate. They will interview, assess, rate and test you to death to get basically the same results they got 20+ years ago.

Stop looking for 99.9% qualified... When 75% qualified and the right motivation and enthusiasm are often a much better solution.

Our obsession with the "perfect" candidate needs to stop. Too many companies waste several MONTHS filling roles.

We would all do well to remember that 99.9% of the perfect superheroes don't exist.

• People have skills.
• People have intelligence.
• People are trainable, enthusiastic, motivated and competent.

Often, with strong motivation, enthusiasm for the work itself, and with that 75% qualification, you get a much better talent than by looking for that 99.9% of unicorns, which may never be found.

#work #recruitment #jobs #management 

Author Tomi Pyyhtiä is an experienced ex-commercial leader of large Finnish companies (Kesko, RAY, SOK), serial entrepreneur and non-fiction book author. He sold his previous company, Henrico, to the StaffPoint group. In 2022, it was Finland's largest digital and ICT headhunter office. In 2023, Tomi wrote, together with Alf Rehn and Tero Ojanperä, the information book "Vihaan Myyntiä!", which was published by Alma Talent. In the same year, it was one of the best-selling business books in Finland.