Why a specialist role will not fill: a diagnostic sequence

Before adding another channel, go through the brief

The diagnosis is worth doing in order. First the brief, because an error there devalues any channel. Then your own constraints, which an advertisement cannot change. Only then the process and the offer. The reverse order — add channels first, ask questions afterwards — is the usual approach and also the more expensive one.

Assemble the material without which a discussion of causes is only speculation: the text of the advertisement, the internal role description, the list of candidates who went through the process with a note on the stage at which each dropped out and why, and the dates of each step. Most of the answers are in those four documents, not in the labour market.

Is the profile internally contradictory?

The usual contradiction is between the level of competence required and the conditions offered: the profile describes an experienced, self-directed person with valid certificates, while the conditions match an entry-level role. Such an advertisement attracts neither group — experienced people skip it, and beginners do not apply because of the requirements. The role then hangs without anything being wrong in the market at all.

Contradictions also occur inside the profile: narrow specialisation together with broad scope, full shift rotation together with supplier meetings during office hours, responsibility for a team without the authority to decide. A simple test: read the profile as someone who does that work today, and ask what would interest them and what would put them off.

Do not estimate a salary range, and do not copy one from other companies’ advertisements. Publicly available data on earnings by occupation, qualification and region is published by the Czech average-earnings information system. This page states no amounts.

Is it a requirement, or an inherited wish list?

Requirements in advertisements are inherited. The text was written during the last recruitment, a previous manager added their preferences, and nobody has since compared it with the actual work. It is worth sorting every point into three groups, and knowing for each group what can be done with it.

A check that usually exposes the difference between a condition and a wish: would the person currently doing that job for you meet today’s advertisement? If not, the brief is stricter than the real need. Formal completion of a qualification is also possible through the national system of professional qualifications, whose standards are maintained in the Czech national qualifications register; the usual requirements of an occupation are described in the national occupations register.

The three groups:

• Conditions set by regulation or by a certificate — the work cannot be performed without them, and they cannot be waived.
• Skills set by the operation — they can be added by training within a reasonable time, provided there is someone to do the training.
• Wishes — they narrow the pool of candidates, but they do not determine whether the person can do the work.

What is the real constraint: location, shifts or a certificate?

For specialist roles there is usually a single constraint that cannot be worked around, and it is worth knowing which. Most often it is location, the shift pattern, or a certificate — each has a different remedy, a different cost, and a different effect on the size of the candidate pool.

If the constraint is a certificate, ask one further question: must the candidate hold it on their start date, or are you willing to fund it and wait? That single answer changes the size of the pool more than most other adjustments to the brief.

The constraints, and what can be done about each:

• Location — addressed by the commute, by shuttle transport for employees, by accommodation, or by part of the work being done away from the site where the role allows it.
• The shift pattern — it narrows the pool more sharply than expected; consider whether full shift rotation is really necessary for this role.
• A certificate or authorisation — either it is a condition of performing the work or it can be added later; the difference has to be clear before the search starts.
• Medical fitness — assessed by the occupational health services provider, and for some work a limit in its own right.

Are you losing candidates inside your own process?

Some unfilled roles do not have too few candidates — they have them and lose them. The loss usually takes the form of delay: days pass between an interview and feedback, the technical assessment is scheduled for whenever the specialist is free, and the offer arrives once the person has already decided otherwise. Delays can be measured, unlike the impression that there are no candidates.

For specialist roles the decision is slower even after an offer is accepted, because the candidate has to end their current employment and observe the notice period, whose minimum length and running are set by the Czech Labour Code. An employer who does not allow for that time will judge the recruitment a failure before it could have finished.

What to measure:

• How many days passed between each step for the most recent candidates.
• How many rounds the process has, and what each of them adds to the decision.
• Who decides on hiring, and whether they were present where they were supposed to be.
• When conditions are first discussed — late information about pay or shifts wastes the time of both sides.
• Whether a candidate gets an answer even when they were unsuccessful.

What your offer is compared against

Employers compare their offer with other advertisements. A specialist candidate compares it with the job they have and know in detail: a manager they understand, equipment they have set up, a commute they have tested, and the certainty that they have already succeeded there. Being slightly different is not enough against that comparison.

In practice this means naming what is better in your offer than what the person has today, and not concealing what is worse. Accurate information given early saves both sides more than a carefully written advertisement followed by disappointment during the probationary period.

Current labour-market data is published by the Czech Statistical Office, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Czech Labour Office. No figures are stated here.

The whole diagnosis, in order:

1. Go through the profile against the reality of the work and remove the contradictions.
2. Sort the requirements into conditions, skills that can be added, and wishes.
3. Name the single real constraint and decide whether it can be released.
4. Measure the delays in your own selection process and shorten them.
5. Verify the salary range against data rather than by estimate.
6. Only then change channels, and consider approaching candidates directly.