Burnout among hiring pros a growing problem, many cite stress over inefficiencies

A new report finds that burnout among HR and recruiting leaders is out of control, driven by an environment troubled by uncertainty, stress, and a tight labor market. HR leaders are increasingly frustrated by inefficient systems and the inability to land key candidates for jobs.

“The HR profession is experiencing one of the most disruptive periods in its history,” the report says. “From a rapidly changing workforce to whiplash in response to volatile economic conditions to an evolution driven by technology, HR leaders across the industry must adapt faster than ever before”.

The findings are part of the State of Hiring and Recruiting study from KarmaCheck, a company that provides data-driven background checks, and Findem, a company that uses AI to help with talent acquisition. The two firms surveyed HR leaders in Nov. 2022.

61% of HR leaders have considered quitting

The report has some dire findings outlining job burnout among HR leaders. The survey found that 61% of those surveyed have considered quitting. Most say they are consistently failing to hit their goals in recruiting and hiring. And 51% say they are missing their cost-per-hire target, which was the most-tracked metric among companies. An additional 42% are failing to get a candidate through the hiring process on time.

According to officials with the two firms, the high level of burnout is driven in part by unmet goals and inefficient processes. The survey found that 73% of respondents report experiencing recruiting and hiring burnout, and of that group, 51% deal with signs of burnout regularly — with 22% saying they experience feelings of burnout nearly daily.

“There’s a perfect storm brewing with HR leaders telling us they’re missing key hires, missing critical cost-per-hire goals and losing team members left and right to burnout,” says Findem CEO Hari Kolam. “Companies that fail to address these issues will undoubtedly suffer from a talent drain and miss their overarching organizational goals, but those that do take quick action will be well positioned for takeoff as the economy rebounds.”

Among the top factors causing burnout were: misalignment between a hiring manager and HR (50%); handling manual, repeatable tasks (43%), finding quality candidates (42%), pressure to meet hiring and recruiting goals (37%), candidate screening and background check processes (30%).

HR leaders report failure to sign key hires

The study found that 71% of recruiting and hiring leaders say they missed key candidate hires due to inefficient hiring processes. The problem was more dramatic in certain industries: 90% of leaders in the tech industry and 84% of those in financial services say inefficient recruiting and hiring processes caused them to miss out on key hires.

The most common problems in hiring included: interview scheduling issues (53%), slow screening and evaluation (42%), candidates found too late (41%), inefficient communications (34%), “takes too long” (28%), and misalignment with hiring managers (12%).

Not surprisingly, the report points to technology as a possible solution to the problems in recruiting and hiring. The survey did find that HR leaders are open to technology as a means to improve efficiencies in this area. It found that those using AI reported improvement with talent-recruiting efforts.

For example, 65% of those using AI tools say those tools made the process more efficient when sourcing candidates, 65% say AI helped expand the reach of the team without adding to it, and 62% say AI tools improved the speed of the hiring process.

Read more: Address and avoid employee burnout

“HR and staffing professionals are among the most technologically underserved in the enterprise, the labor market remains very tight, and talent competition is still fierce,” says Eric Ly, CEO of KarmaCheck. “The right technology can make a huge difference in the success and welfare of these essential team members, and it’s clear that HR departments will be looking for the right tools in 2023.”