The global pandemic has raised the demand for SaaS products in recent years. Many SaaS companies have not been able to take advantage of the growing requirements of SaaS.
The talent pool of prospects has not updated itself as per the company’s needs.
As per OpenView’s State of the SaaS talent market 2022 report, the current cutthroat competition for talent is exceptional.
Many organizations are ready to pay dollars for the right candidate they need in a way not seen previously.
Hiring in SaaS organizations is difficult for creators and leaders of the industry who are willing to build a great team of skilled and resourceful candidates.
The major issues found in SaaS Hiring Process are:
- Many industry leaders hire candidates based on their resumes and references rather than the actual work they have produced.
- Founders of the organization are not actively considering the needs and wants of the highly valuable, creative, innovative, and ardent prospects.
If you’ve done SaaS sales hiring drive, you might be knowing how challenging it can be.
Finding representatives with the right knowledge, and skill set is difficult, and holding them for the long term can be even more difficult.
The Top 5 Common SaaS Hiring Challenges are:
- Hussle in recruiting process
- Focusing more on experienced candidates
- Attention not paid to Candidate Sourcing Channels Differences
- Measuring Inadequate Metrics
- Unclear Recruitment Policy
1. Hussle in Recruiting Process
The recruitment of talent in the SaaS field is not an easy task and if anyone is doing so is not doing it right.
Before hiring someone take time to decide whether you need an additional team member and other questions like how much importance you will give to resumes and references, to the recruitment process, etc.
Creating an unnecessary rush in the recruitment process will often lead to wrong hiring decisions.
The biggest challenge with the wrong hire is that they don’t get along well with other teammates and will create a conflict in the office.
2. Concentrating more on experienced candidates
Employers often focus more on the past experiences of the candidates and in the same field such as SaaS.
In a rush to hire an experienced candidate you might miss out on someone who is extremely talented or possesses the right talent to bring your business ahead in the competitive market.
You might miss somebody who is having innovative ideas which can help in your business expansion.
3. Attention not paid towards Candidate Sourcing Channels Differences
Most founders and leaders depend on their professional network to search the qualified candidates in the initial phase of the company start-up.
As the company grows, it will move to expand its candidate sourcing channels by hiring internally from its network.
Business leaders and hiring managers often fail to figure out the difference between these sources and what is beneficial for their hiring needs.
They tend to focus on finding the best fit for the SaaS job and hire them quickly so that the new employee can start working.
Every sourcing channel doesn’t offer active job seekers. For example, if hiring managers focus to hire from social media, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, they will tentatively source passive candidates which might not suit the current openings. These can offer a pool of top candidates but might not suit the company’s hiring requirements.
On the other hand, job boards and internal employee referrals can lead to qualified talents quickly and easily entering the selection process.
If the difference between these candidate sourcing channels is ignored it can lead to futile recruitment efforts, increased time to hire, and missing out on quality prospects.
4. Measuring Inadequate Metrics
The decision about new job openings should be based on facts and then the decision regarding hiring should be taken.
Take decisions on the basis of facts and data to rely on key performance indicators.
Utilize KPIs to strategize the skill gap of prospects and to decide which teams require additional support.
Assure you’re hiring for the right job roles and positions, or you might end up creating more issues rather than solving the existing ones.
Check whether you are measuring all the necessary metrics.
Check if these KPIs match your business goals, and hiring needs to avoid dependency on misleading data.
5. UnClear Recruitment Policy
Being a SaaS organization, you tend to hand over the new technology to newly recruited employees.
Applicants from the competitor’s company may also apply for a position in your company.
The common mistake any company can make is not deciding on a hiring policy before sourcing the candidates.
An inefficient hiring policy can cause many problems ranging from confused managers to severe legal issues.
Overcome the challenges of your SaaS business
- Perform a skill gap analysis
- Create a strategic hiring plan
- Optimize your job ads
- Take decisions based on data and facts
- Ensure Recruitment Laws
- Track every step of the recruitment process
- Choosing the right technology
Perform Skill Gap Analysis
After deciding to implement a scalable recruitment drive, start by incorporating a skills gap analysis.
A skill gap analysis will help to decide which employee needs skills but doesn’t possess them yet.
The skill gap analysis help with hiring priorities, creating opportunities for training and development, or allotment of funds for new technology or partnerships with skill-providing institutes.
The importance of skill gap analysis is to compare your company goals to the skills of your present employees.
Create a Strategic Hiring Plan
The higher growth of a company demands planned recruitment that supports your organization dynamically.
Before a job request thinks about the actions that you will do manually and how technology can help you in the recruitment process.
You can able to manage one job applicant in the recruitment funnel easily but not with multiple applicants at a time.
When hiring to a large extent, you should keep things under control and take a strategized approach.
Optimize your job Ads
The first thing which a job applicant sees is your company’s job ad.
These people might be listed on job-providing sites looking for new opportunities and don’t have any idea about your company.
When they search for a role, skill, or certification your company ad is visible in that listing. Thus your organization’s job ad needs to have the power to attract to your job vacancy.
Take decisions based on facts and data
Hiring at a large scale requires dependency on facts instead of assumptions or feelings in the recruitment process.
Your recruitment actions must be backed up with data to track KPI. Check everything twice before taking any decision and use technology to strengthen your recruitment process with an analysis of candidate requirements and reports.
Ensure Recruitment Laws
As your organization grows internationally you need to bring additional recruitment policies and laws.
Think about these needs before recruiting new employees, you must conduct research about international employment legislation and decide what precautionary actions you need to take.
Track every step of the recruitment process
Create hiring KPIs and measure their usefulness.
You must track each hiring activity and find any inefficient practices in the company’s workflow.
Choose the right technology
Nowadays HR technology is an essential part of any organization and efficient hiring process.
Take into consideration what solution will work best to scale up your hiring process.
Study the market and find the systems or technology which is in demand to match your requirements and speed up your recruitment process.
