During our recent webinar asking “What are your biggest challenges in hiring right now?”, four themes rose to the top: volume of applications, quality of candidates, candidates using AI to apply, and difficulty filling specialist roles. In this post I’ll explore each of these in turn — what they mean in practice for today’s hiring market, and how you can respond more effectively with our applicant tracking system supporting you every step of the way.
1. Volume of applications
Many of you told us that the sheer number of applications is overwhelming your process. It’s a drain on time, slows decision-making, and can mean quality suffers. According to one UK market piece, corporate job postings “typically attract an average of 250 applications” and recruitment teams are overwhelmed with quantity, meaning “top-tier talent is being overlooked”.
Why this matters
A large volume of applicants is not in itself a bad thing – it shows strong interest. But without structure, you risk:
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Spending huge amounts of time manually sifting CVs
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Delaying candidate feedback and losing them to other employers
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Missing hidden gems because your process isn’t built to scale
How to respond
Here are some practical tactics:
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Use screening questions. Not just “yes/no” but short work-sample or scenario questions: these help you filter out misfits early.
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Automate repetitive tasks. Our applicant tracking system gives you templates, bulk email responses, drag-and-drop shortlisting and clear dashboards which make it easier to manage volume without sacrificing candidate experience.
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Define clear hiring criteria and consistent workflows. Standardising your process helps ensure you treat every application fairly and reduce bottlenecks.
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Prioritise candidate communication. Large volumes increase the risk of candidates feeling ignored, which in turn damages your brand and future applications. A structured process avoids this.
2. Quality of candidates
The second big challenge is shifting from “lots of applicants” to “lots of quality applicants”. Many teams told us they see high volume but less relevance. One article noted that high application volumes often mean “priority is speed over quality” and that top candidates may be missed in the rush.
Why this matters
Hiring the wrong candidate is more costly than waiting for the right one. Poor fit can lead to attrition, wasted onboarding time, poor team morale. So focusing on quality is essential.
How to respond
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Embed skills-based assessments or work-sample tasks early in the process. This helps you see real competence rather than relying purely on CVs.
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Use structured shortlisting criteria. Define what “must have” skills or experiences look like and apply these consistently.
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Ensure your job adverts are well-crafted and targeted: if you’re attracting the wrong audience you’ll get lots of applications that aren’t relevant.
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Use talent pooling: instead of only hiring when you have a role, build a pipeline of pre-screened candidates so when a role opens you already have quality options.
Our applicant tracking system supports all these tactics: you can build screening tools, maintain talent pools, and track time-to-hire and quality metrics.
3. Candidates using AI to apply
The third big insight is more novel but increasingly real: many candidates are now using AI tools (for example generative-AI tools) to craft CVs, cover letters or even apply en masse. Before reading on, your first stop should be to download our guide tackling this issue: When candidates use AI to apply: how employers can stay ahead.
Why this matters
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AI-assisted applications may look polished but lack authenticity or depth and can mask whether the candidate really has the skills claimed.
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It raises fairness and integrity issues: how do you judge genuine experience vs AI-generated claims?
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It increases the noise in your hiring funnel – you may still have high volume, but some of it is purely formatted text rather than genuine fit.
How to respond
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Be clear in your job adverts about what you expect from candidates - e.g. a genuine cover letter, specific examples, possibly a short task. This raises the bar.
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Use assessments or work-samples that are hard to AI-replicate: for example, ask them to solve a role-specific problem within a time limit, or respond to a scenario that requires personal insight.
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In our applicant tracking system you can embed screening questions, and flag situations where applications appear overly generic or templated.
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Rather than trying to ban AI outright (which is difficult), treat AI as a signal: if a candidate uses AI, you want to ensure you still assess their authenticity, depth of experience and whether they can talk with substance about what appears on their CV. A guide urged “be smart with our own use of AI” rather than trying to detect every AI-generated application.
4. Difficulty filling specialist roles
Finally, many of you told us that the hardest hiring challenge right now is finding talent for specialist or niche roles — whether technical, leadership, or highly-skilled disciplines. One insight article described this as a “needle-in-a-haystack” problem: hiring for niche skills or experience is significantly more complex than general roles.
Why this matters
Specialist roles often:
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Have small talent pools
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Require higher levels of experience, certification or niche skills
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May demand relocation, remote working or unusual packages
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Are fought over by many employers
How to respond
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Expand your candidate sourcing beyond the obvious: tap passive talent, use head-hunting or targeted campaigns.
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Consider flexible or hybrid models. For instance, if a full-time hire is difficult, think about contract, interim or part-time options. Contract recruitment is especially effective for niche roles.
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Re-evaluate role requirements: sometimes broadening the spec (for example prioritising key skills rather than exact years of experience) opens up more candidates. A skills-based hiring approach is rising in importance.
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Strengthen your employer value proposition (EVP), highlight career growth, interesting work, training opportunities, so you attract talent even when they aren’t actively job-hunting.
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Use your ATS to create talent pipelines specifically for specialist roles: tag candidates by niche skills, keep them warm, update them when relevant opportunities arise.
Our applicant tracking system supports these strategies! You can flag roles as “specialist”, apply different workflows, maintain discrete talent pools, and track how specialist hires are progressing versus general hires.