One in four business leaders say their company’s growth is being held back by ineffective talent acquisition, while 34% of business leaders are unsure they’ve hired the right people, according to new research. SmartRecruiters, the leading provider of enterprise hiring software, surveyed 500 midsize companies across the UK, US and Australia and found that despite spending the majority of their time and HR budget on talent acquisition, 51% of business leaders said their strategy was not sufficient, and a third admitted this was harming their brand reputation.
Talent Acquisition: A Resource Drain on Businesses
The research found the cost of talent acquisition is a huge burden on business, with 63% of companies spending at least 40% of their overall HR budget in this area, and almost one in four (22%) spending more than 60% on talent acquisition.
Additionally, a staggering 44% of business leaders report spending more than half of their working time on talent acquisition tasks, diverting attention away from core business operations. In fact, 62% of respondents think their business would be more profitable with a better talent acquisition strategy, highlighting missed opportunities for financial growth as a result of inefficient processes.
Flawed Strategies are Hurting Business Outcomes
The consequences of ineffective talent acquisition extend beyond operational headaches, with it harming critical aspects of business success, such as growth, reputation, and profitability. The negative impacts of ineffective hiring include slower business growth (28%), damaged brand reputation (30%), reduced service quality (28%), and weaker sales performance (29%).
Complexity is Hindering Talent Acquisition
As the hiring landscape becomes more complex because of factors such as a distributed and global workforce, hybrid and flexible work models and increased competition for talent, 56% of business leaders report that talent acquisition has grown significantly more difficult in the past five years. 30% of respondents admit talent acquisition is the most complex part of their operations.
“The findings underscore the need for HR teams to modernize their talent acquisition strategies to better support business growth and profitability. Advanced technologies like AI are revolutionizing the talent acquisition process by streamlining inefficiencies and allowing businesses to make smarter, data-driven hiring decisions,” said Rebecca Carr, CEO of SmartRecruiters.
Rebecca added: “Leveraging AI-driven hiring platforms, businesses can enhance decision-making, significantly reduce costs, improve the quality of their hires, and ultimately drive better outcomes. In today’s complex hiring landscape, leveraging AI-driven platforms isn’t just an advantage — our research shows it’s a necessity for business to drive growth.”
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