Why Czech manufacturers lack staff: Jiří Adamus on hiring

Jiří Adamus of LEAD HR is convinced that Czechia has enough people, and that the problem for manufacturers is an outdated hiring strategy. A single ad on a job portal is no longer enough.

Unemployment is rising, and there are more than eight candidates per vacancy. Yet factories complain about staff shortages. Adamus explains the paradox simply: the people companies need are not registered at the labour office. They work for competitors and are not looking for a job, but they would not turn down a good offer. An ad on a portal simply will not find such a person. Anyone hiring the “old way” targets only active job seekers.

Where companies lose the most. According to Adamus, the main misconception is the belief that it is enough to pay for an ad and wait. One campaign brings dozens of unsuitable responses, and HR spends weeks sorting through résumés of people who will never show up for work. Another time almost nobody responds, and the company does not understand why, because it does not measure at which stage candidates disappear.

Diagnosis first, campaign second. You can tell an effective hiring drive from a burned budget only if you do not start with advertising. First you need to find out why people are not coming to the company: is it the pay, the shifts, the reputation, or a candidate waiting a week for a call? Until the cause is known, you are only treating the symptoms. “An ad is the last step,” Adamus stresses.

When to stop a campaign. Sometimes it is when it works too well. At one manufacturing plant, LEAD HR recommended winding down the campaign after just a few days: the HR department could not keep up with replies, and good candidates could have been lost for lack of resources. In the end, most of the people the company needed did start work.

What matters to a candidate. Above all, speed and honesty. A good operator today receives several offers a day. A company that calls back within an hour and speaks plainly will beat even a better-known employer that responds a week later.

What comes next. Adamus forecasts that the number of suitable domestic candidates is unlikely to grow, while the role of foreign workers will increase. The winner will not be the one with the biggest advertising budget, but the one who can find the right people, respond quickly and build an employer reputation. Those who start working on this only when the shift is already short of people will be forever playing catch-up.