The US Commerce Department reported that the economy grew at an annual rate of 4.1% in the second quarter of 2018. Many European and Asian markets are also experiencing a strong period of economic growth. This is putting pressure on the job market in ways unseen over the past years. Many companies struggle to attract the right number of applicants and are hurt by the lack of available talent on the market.
Is there a candidate shortage and can we address it? In this blog post I would like to outline some key strategies to deal with the current market situation.
In a time where top talent can be off the market in a few weeks, it is time to act faster. Gone are the days when you are waiting to fill a candidate pipeline before you start selecting. It is not about relative fit (better than the other candidates), but absolute fit (just a great candidate). Letting go of the comparison element and just knowing when someone is a great fit, will give you lots of headway over your competitors
Let go of seniority, embrace ambition
If you try hiring for experience only, you will miss out on candidates that may lack the years, but actually have the drive and personality to get the job done better than you can imagine. We have had some great experience in our company to hire master students on a part-time basis whilst still in college. Many of those actually stay on after their studies in a full-time capacity once they have experienced the team, product and culture.
Hire differently
Most job requisitions start with a job description in which we try to encapsulate the details of the role. Reality is that the job description is often incomplete and the candidate will have many more skills. If you just define the goal of the role, suddenly you will open up a new range of possibilities to hire people with a different background or maybe even hire two people for the role. Open your scope and discover new talent!
Hire better
If you don’t have that many candidates in the first place, making sure that you hire colleagues that will stay is even more important. Having a structured interview process that focusses on personality and culture is key to lower churn. It also creates a fair process if candidates get asked the same questions and are compared equally. Especially in a market where it is hard to find a candidate at all, there is a risk to compromise on the one candidate available. In my experience, better to look longer, than to go for a quick fix.
I am deliberately not listing employer branding. For me this is something that you do or don’t do, but not something that you can switch off or on whenever you feel like it. Unfortunately, that is the case with many employers. Employer branding can help tremendously in the current market, but only if you are authentic and stick with it in both good and bad times. If you’re thinking of starting now, you will be too late since the effects will only be there in the long term.
You will need to ensure that your process is as fast as possible with the latets HR Tech in auto-scheduling and online interviews for example. That’s where Cammio comes in. But please start with thinking out-of-the-box in recruitment and you will experience that your candidate pool is not as dry as the picture of this Aral Sea in Uzbek. There are plenty of people out there that will fit your team. Be smart and start engaging in a different way.
HAPPY HIRING!
