Recruitment is a challenging process even for professional recruiters and HR professionals because HR acumen alone is not adequate to procure the right employees for a company. There are certain aspects of job seekers every employer needs to be aware of like their demographic, psychographic, geographic and behavioural inclinations to design an effective recruitment program. Myanmar’s recruitment landscape is full of landmines and deal breakers barricading the employers from being able to acquire the best people for their companies. Listed below are three most mentioned challenges that recruiters face throughout their hiring experience and some possible measures to derail those challenges.
Recruiting for the Long Run
Recruitment is both an operational and a strategic process that demands extensive consideration and long term planning. Many recruiters usually fail to plan for several years down the road and end up settling for the current needs at the expense of future operational considerations. An employee who proves to be suitable and sufficient right at the moment is not always an indication of his or her fit or sustainability within the company long term. Failing to recruit for the current and future needs of the company usually results in poor HR pipelines, low retention rates, and high turnover ratios all of which are not healthy to the company’s business performance as a whole.
Looking thoroughly at a candidate’s full CV, asking relevant questions during interviews, and onboarding an employee well enough to solidify his or her personal commitment to the company are all critical components that give you the best chance for a long and successful partnership. JobNet’s job portal is one great solution to keep the pipeline full as it is Myanmar’s biggest community of job seekers who can add different skills to your company; the opportunity to pick out the best of the best candidates from a massive pool of active job seekers can help you mitigate your recruitment marketing overhead while lifting your chances of scoring sustainable employees for your company.
Selection without Bias
A majority of the hiring processes for Myanmar-based companies are still done manually; many HR practitioners will go through stacks of CVs to pick out the ones they think would best fit the company and again, screen through multiple candidates to decide on the one(s) who appear somewhat better than the rest. As a matter of fact, screening and selecting candidates is a taxing and frustrating process that could really make the recruiters run out of patience and after a certain amount of time could give the recruiter a level of decision fatigue that hinders the company. The process of selecting a good employee, from the beginning to the end, is susceptible to countless bias-driven thoughts and decisions at every stay. Despite the increasing integration of automation and technology into the recruitment area in several companies in Myanmar, there is still a sizeable portion of recruiters still relying on aforesaid traditional selection methods prone to error.
Bias is not an entirely avoidable factor in recruitment and there is no one single solution to eliminate the possible risk of bias-induced decisions for recruiters. Nevertheless; data-oriented and computer-aided decision making can prove to be a pragmatic, efficient, and sustainable way to procure the best fit candidates for the company if harnessed appropriately. Microsoft Excel is a household tool for many professional employers and HR practitioners to build formulas and databases that can guide them in the process of making data-driven decisions. Recruitment outsourcing is another recommended way to score the best employees because you can receive solid HR expertise and resources from third party recruiters who are familiar with hiring for specific industries and businesses, as well as saving time for your organization if overly stretched. Additionally, JobNet's newly launched ATS (Applicant Tracking System) and CRM Database software provide an excellent set of tools for streamlining and digitizing your recruitment process.
Orchestrating a Structured Onboarding Plan
Onboarding of new hires is an oft overlooked yet crucial segment of the recruitment process. Many Myanmar employers report that they immediately assign duties and responsibilities to their new employees with little emphasis placed on providing them with many induction programs to the new setup. Onboarding is the last stage of officially integrating an employee into the organization or the business entity but it requires a structured plan to successfully onboard an employee. A common issue employers usually face with onboarding their recruits is not tailoring the process of onboarding to fit the needs of employees and the goals of the company. Since the first day the employee walks into their booth or office, they should be well aware of the mission and the vision the company has as a business unit and the role they play to reach that goal.
It should be noted that the intention of onboarding a new recruit properly should be to instill a sense of belonging into him or her and build up a supporting system that he or she can always resort to. HR professionals should also work toward the goal of familiarizing the employees with policies and protocols of the company, products and services it provides, community and culture of the organization and other operational routines of the company as well. A timeline of onboarding an employee also varies with plan and sometimes, it can even extend over a month depending on how quickly an employee can adapt to an environment and the importance of the role he or she plays within the company. One-to-one guidance or supervision, online walk-throughs, online newsletters or bulletins, and group seminars are all possible ways to onboard the employees and welcome them to the company. Other challenges hiring managers in Myanmar may typically face are dealing with job-hoppers or unprepared interviewees, inflated salary expectations compared to market rates and more. Let us know in the comments below what have been the biggest challenges for you.