Scaling up in a talent drought? Here’s how

Recruiting quality candidates–or any candidates at all–is now the no.1 challenge facing employers. Companies are investing unheard-of proportions of their budgets in recruitment to fight the talent drought.

While some companies are focusing on employer branding or hiring overseas, almost every company now employs a recruiting agency full-time to fill some or all of their jobs. At the same time, everyone from senior executives to junior employees is becoming more and more minded towards growth.

So what are the requirements for recruiters in this new landscape?

?      Good sales skills and the ability to close a deal.

?      Excellent employer branding skills to make your company look great on social media.

?      Ability to build meaningful personal relationships with candidates.

?      Multitasking skills to manage 20+ open roles with multiple candidates for each.

?      Highly motivated

?      Analytical and good with data

?      Good at understanding people and identifying their challenges and strengths.

And while sourcing candidates is of course vital, the whole hiring process and its “conversion rates” matter too. It’s about ensuring your company creates the best possible impression on candidates and makes them into advocates for your brand. The price of a bad hire is now higher than ever. But there are solutions.

Re-thinking recruiting and candidate experience

Statistically, candidates looking for jobs go through very short cycles, as little as a week and a half from their first contact with an employer to signing a contract. This leaves no room for error. To win at recruiting in the current market, you’ll need a systematic rethink of your hiring practices on an organisational level, including consultation with experts.

Some questions to ask include:

How can we improve our current recruiting efforts?

Should we improve our marketing? 

Should we do more on a personal level?

How can we understand the candidates better?

How can we get clearer on the concept of a “match”?

What is our process for drawing conclusions?

How do we deal with rejection?

What data are we analysing to keep ourselves informed?

All these question marks are there for a reason. The current recruitment market demands deep questioning, introspection, and constant improvement. In a constantly changing market, we need to be constantly changing too.