How to Avoid Recruiter Burnout During The Great Resignation

The ongoing great resignation has left many businesses with few employees, thus struggling to stay afloat. As an HR professional, you need to be committed to finding ways to retain talent so that you can keep the business running while seeking other candidates to fill open positions. Unfortunately, handling multiple tasks during this great resignation can be challenging. As a result, you may experience recruiter burnout, which ends up causing more harm to your business. So, what is recruiter burnout, and why does it occur? Plus, how can a recruiter avoid burnout and create a better working environment for their team? Keep reading to find out.

What is Recruiter Burnout

Recruiter burnout refers to the state of recruiters and hiring professionals being emotionally and physically exhausted. Exhaustion can arise from various challenges in the workplace, especially when all efforts are becoming unattainable. Besides the great resignation, recruiter burnout is another ongoing challenge in the job market that needs to be handled quickly to avoid stress levels in the workplace.  

Keep in mind that recruiter burnout is a result of the ongoing great resignation. With this burnout, recruiters will fail to effectively perform their duties, leading to wrong hires. As a result, it can cause employee burnout and turnover. Note that managing recruiter burnout starts with you understanding the symptoms, including headaches, fatigue, trouble sleeping, low energy, and mood swings. You should also identify the reasons for such stress and find ways to mitigate them. 

Reasons for Recruiter Burnout

Employees are leaving their current workplaces because they feel overwhelmed with tasks and are looking for companies with ethical practices. This has left HR professionals with huge tasks in ensuring they create positive work environments that will attract other quality talents to fill the open positions. Also, recruiters feel the pressure to ensure they effectively prepare to handle recruitment processes in the best possible way and hire suitable candidates. 

Note that recruiter burnout isn’t just a result of a heavy workload. There are more elements that cause recruiter burnout, most of which are usually overlooked. Fortunately, we will discuss them below so that you can identify ways to avoid them and reduce employee turnover.

1. Limited Hiring Resources

Employers should ensure that recruiters are supplied with the necessary resources to effectively handle the hiring process. However, with the ongoing great resignation, employers are more focused on finding ways to retain the existing employees rather than also meeting their hiring needs. This has left recruiters and hiring professionals lacking enough hiring resources. As a result, fulfilling their duties has become challenging, thus causing recruiter burnout.

2. Lack of Excellent Recruitment Practices

Recruiters or hiring professionals need to have a solid plan and strategy before beginning the hiring process. However, most of them dive into the activity without a plan, leaving them with broker recruitment practices. With failed practices, it is challenging to source and hire quality talent. As a result, recruiters feel overwhelmed since the pressure is on, and employers seek answers on why they haven’t been able to deliver the best. 

3. Handling Multiple Duties

As mentioned earlier, heavy workload is a major contributing factor to recruiter burnout. You cannot handle multiple tasks simultaneously, especially in the HR department, as this will lead to more confusion and poor results. Moreover, managing multiple tasks is overwhelming and strains your available resources. As a result, recruiters will be stressed out about why they haven’t been able to achieve specific goals. 

4. Analysis Paralysis

Recruiters need to evaluate different data points when hiring candidates. This is especially during the screening procedure, where various variables need to be considered. Unfortunately, recruiters and talent sourcing professionals find it challenging to find data from multiple sources. This means that the analysis procedure can be tiring and time-consuming, thus leading to wrong decisions and mental burnout.  

How to Avoid The Great Resignation

One way to avoid the great resignation is dealing with challenges in your HR department and ensuring your recruiters are comfortable in their quest to find new talent. Note that job seekers are looking for jobs in companies that have ethical practices and allow flexibility. Hiring such talent can only be possible if your hiring team is physically, mentally, and emotionally stable to avoid recruiter burnout. That being said, here are the top strategies to combat the great resignation.

1. Set Clear Goals

You need to set achievable and measurable goals to avoid recruiter burnout during the great resignation. This means communicating with your hiring team on the best practices and setting obtainable goals based on your hiring needs and budget. All in all, the goals you set should be based on time-sensitive objectives with measurable results.

2. Prepare All The Hiring Resources

You need to ensure you have all the necessary resources to handle a successful recruitment process. This can be data for analysis or understanding your business culture to source candidates that fit it. Moreover, consider using recruitment software to streamline the hiring process. Additionally, create a conducive environment free from noise and circulated with enough air to avoid mental burnout like headaches and fatigue.

3. Encourage Work-Life Balance

The best recruiting practices should encourage work-life balance, and employers must communicate this to their recruiters and employees. While work is important, recruiters should know that they need time for relaxation and family. When recruiters have a work-life balance, they will communicate this to the candidates they source, making it easier for the job applicants to feel comfortable and want to work in your organization. 

4. Support Remote Work

While job seekers are looking for flexibility in the workplace, recruiters also wish to have the same, and employers must be open. Having recruiters work remotely encourages trust in the workplace, and it will be easier for them to happily recruit candidates using online tools or software. Plus, remote work opportunities are one way to curb the great resignation and attract quality talent. 

5. Take Care of Your Mental and Physical Health

We understand that recruitment tasks can be overwhelming since employers have high expectations from you. You may end up spending most of your day handling this task, thus affecting your physical and mental health. In this regard, start with taking care of yourself by eating a healthy diet and getting a good night’s sleep. This is so that every day becomes motivating since you will be in the best mental capacity to handle the recruitment tasks.

Conclusion

The great resignation is already stressing out many employers globally, and the last thing you want during this period is to experience recruiter burnout. Therefore, you need to create a conducive work environment and encourage the best practices to curb stress in the workplace. Remember, without a solid recruitment team, it will be challenging for you to source the best talent. Additionally, you will likely experience more employee turnover since workers will be looking for reputable companies and those with ethical practices. That being said, avoid burnout in the workplace by following the above strategies.