Why Hiring Success Depends on Both Tech and The Human Touch
Talent acquisition is far-removed today than it was even as recently as a couple of years ago. Skills shortages are intensifying, candidates’ expectations have evolved rapidly (especially since the pandemic), and retaining your best employees is tougher than it has ever been.
Simultaneously, AI is disrupting almost every job role, and hiring processes are increasingly shaped by automation. The best candidates are receiving faster job offers – poor talent acquisition strategies are a threat to the quality of your teams and your company’s future success.
According to LinkedIn’s 2024 Global Talent Trends report, the majority of hiring professionals say that talent acquisition is more complex now than in the past five years. What are the biggest challenges our clients are reporting to us? What solutions are we helping them to develop hiring strategies that mitigate these?
We unpack it all in this article.
Talent Acquisition Challenge #1: Widening Skills Gaps
According to McKinsey & Company research, nearly 87% of companies say they are already experiencing or expect to face a skills gap within the next few years. Especially in industries like healthcare, clean energy, tech, and finance, it is becoming increasingly hard to keep up with the pace of change that innovation and technological advance is promoting.
A key issue for hiring companies is that many job descriptions are still built around outdated criteria such as rigid degree requirements or arbitrary experience thresholds. The real need is for demonstrable skills.
Solutions:
- Embrace skills-based hiring and focus on what candidates can do and not where they have learned it. Do this and the talent pool available to you becomes broader and deeper.
- Invest in upskilling your existing staff to close the gap internally, especially in the rapidly evolving areas of AI, compliance, and digital operations.
- Partner with recruiters who can identify transferable skills. At Lakeshore Talent, we help you to navigate talent shortages by looking beyond resumes and uncovering potential that aligns with evolving job demands.
Talent Acquisition Challenge #2: High Turnover and Candidate ‘Ghosting’
Turnover is a huge cost to U.S. business – Gallup estimates it at $1 trillion each year. Indeed found that more than a third of job seekers ghost a potential employee during the hiring process.
Why do ghosting and early exits exist? It boils down to misalignment between expectations and outcomes, poor onboarding, and a lack of engagement from day one.
Solutions:
- Set clear expectations upfront – from job descriptions to offer letters, be honest and specific about the role, workload, and culture.
- Streamline the candidate journey, because the longer and more drawn out your hiring process is, the more turned off quality candidates become. An exceptional candidate experience says much about your employer brand.
- Strengthen your onboarding and early engagement by assigning mentors, conducting regular check-ins, and recognizing contributions.
- Make cultural fit a priority. At Lakeshore Talent, we only recommend candidates who identify with your core values with career goals to match your needs.
Talent Acquisition Challenge #3: Evolving Job Seeker Expectations
While offering a competitive salary is crucial to hiring the most talented employees, top talent wants more than a paycheck. They’re seeking purpose, flexibility, and growth. A 2024 Glassdoor survey found that 79% of job seekers consider a company’s mission and values before applying. Gartner reports that 52% of employees expect flexible work options to be permanent.
Solutions:
- Update your employer value proposition to come into line with what high-performing employees desire most.
- Share salary bands, career paths, and what flexibility really means in your workplace.
- Practice what you preach. DEI, wellness, and professional growth shouldn’t live only in the HR handbook. Integrate them into everyday practice.
- Gather and act on feedback from both candidates and current employees.
Talent Acquisition Challenge #4: Speed Vs. Quality in Hiring
Slow hiring processes will cost you your preferred candidates. How fast do you need to act? SHRM found that the top talent is often snapped up within 10 days. If your recruiting cycle takes longer than this, you’ll lose great candidates to your competitors. However, there’s a balance to be struck – rushing to hire without due diligence and proper evaluation can lead to a poor fit and high employee turnover.
In today’s market, the best candidates don’t wait around. According to SHRM, top talent is often off the market within 10 days. Yet many employers still take 30+ days to make a hire – often losing great candidates to faster-moving competitors.
On the other hand, rushing to hire without a clear evaluation process can lead to poor fit and high turnover.
Solutions:
- Reduce your hiring timeline by eliminating bottlenecks. Do you really need multiple rounds of interviews where the candidate is asked the same questions over again?
- Use pre-vetted pipelines. Here at Lakeshore Talent, we provide access to pre-qualified candidates who are ready to move.
- Set expectations with candidates, by communicating timelines and giving timely feedback at every stage of the hiring process.
Talent Acquisition Challenge #5: Overreliance On Tech Without the Human Touch
AI, automation, and applicant tracking systems (ATS) may make hiring processes more efficient, but they should be used with caution. If your settings are too rigid, it can lead to screening out ideal candidates. Machines may remove bias, but they also lack human intuition.
Solutions:
- Use tech to support recruitment, streamlining tasks such as interview scheduling and providing feedback, while keeping hiring managers and recruiters actively involved.
- Add personal touches – like quick phone calls to touch base, real-time feedback, and personalized emails to enhance the candidate experience and maintain engagement.
- Choose a recruiting partner that blends both – one that incorporates modern tools in the process while ensuring hands-on relationship building with candidates and clients.
Turn the Challenge Into Opportunity in Talent Acquisition
Yes, the job market is full of challenges in 2025, but this also presents an opportunity to accelerate past your competition in the race for talented candidates to fill crucial vacancies. To stay ahead of your competition, you must move with the market, listen to what candidates want, and balance smart technology with authentic human connection.
Our recruiters are here to help you refine your hiring strategy, with a personalized, people-first approach that leads to faster and better hires. Let’s talk about how to bring the right people to your team.