A new survey conducted by Fountain in partnership with Morning Consult, found that more than 70% of respondents use the same process for hiring both hourly and white-collar workers. This is despite the fundamental differences in these jobs and the particular challenges that persist in these roles (no shows, etc.). This mismatch can be the difference between a company filling these frontline positions, or seeing their business suffer — a dynamic made even worse in a hot job market.

Recruiters using the same process to attract hourly as white-collar workers are missing out on landing these candidates. Hourly workers represent more than half of all wage and salary workers in the U.S. and represent a distinct labor pool operating with a very different set of skills and job requirements.

“Hiring hourly workers using the same methods used to hire salaried workers – from time-intensive applications that require cover letters and resumes to drawn-out interview processes with multiple follow-ups – shows a big disconnect. To attract and retain more hourly workers, recruiters at these companies need to meet these workers where they are using a simplified approach,” said Fountain CEO Sean Behr. 

Top 10 Survey Findings: 

1. Top three biggest pain points among HR professionals: 1.) Time-to-hire; 2.) sourcing applicants; and 3.) scheduling are the top three biggest pain points among HR professionals when it comes to hiring hourly workers. 38% of HR professionals say time-to-hire is their biggest pain point. 
2. Administrative burden: HR professionals are spending a lot of time on administrative recruiting tasks like conducting background checks, scheduling, and reaching out to candidates — not to mention reviewing resumes and cover letters. 
3. No-show rate is creeping up: Over half report a less than 80% first day attendance rate.
   • 42% of the HR professionals surveyed reported a greater than 20% absence rate.
   • 53% of respondents reported a less than 80% first-day attendance rate.
4. Interviews still mostly in-person: Despite the digital transformation that followed the pandemic and the rise in virtual interviews overall, 62% of those surveyed still conduct hourly interviews in person. It’s unclear, though, that this is having an impact on the no-show rate, which remains high. And almost half of respondents say more than 20% don’t show for the interview itself.
5. Inefficiencies lead to decreased satisfaction: Two-thirds of HR professionals are not satisfied with their company’s hourly hiring process.
6. Too picky? The majority report hiring between 6–20% of applicants for their jobs. As they continue to fill their funnels, the administrative burden only balloons with such a selection rate. Only around one third of HR professionals hire more than 20% of the candidates out of the total applications they receive. This means the majority of HR professionals may be too selective (looking for the purple squirrel) — or the quality of candidates isn’t on par with what they’re looking for.
7. Yet turnover is high: For all the time spent being selective, turnover is stubbornly high. Nearly a quarter of respondents have 30%+ turnover. 60% of respondents reported turnover of more than 10%.
8. DEI: 90% of respondents agreed that DEI is important for their company’s hourly hiring.
9. Job boards are a sourcing king: Just 6% of companies primarily source candidates through social media — suggesting a major gap between the promise of these platforms and reality and barely ticking up from a 2016 SHRM study that found it was used by 5% as a primary tool. Nearly two thirds (64%) indicated that their company primarily sources hourly workforce candidates on online job boards.
10. Seasonality is stressful: Only 37% say they are very satisfied and only 43% say their teams are able to respond very well to hiring seasonally. 

Morning Consult conducted a nationwide, online survey of 402 HR Professionals on behalf of Fountain. HR professionals are defined as those who work in private industry, government, or self-employed; hold a manager role or higher; work in the human resources department; whose company contains over 500 employees, and whose company hires hourly workers. The survey took place April 14th-29th, 2023 and results have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Source: HR Div