Achieving Recruiting Success During a Time of Talent Shortage

Unemployment is down, hiring requests are up. Your challenge is to balance the supply and demand equation with a much smaller talent pool than you may be used to.

Experts predict that labor conditions will remain tight for as long as 15 years. How is your company impacted by the talent shortage and what are you doing about it?

A Real – and Growing – Shortage

A survey of 453 global HR professionals completed earlier this year reveals some of the concerns about today’s talent market.

• Thirty-six percent of respondents said it is harder to fill positions than it was a year ago. This is up from 34 percent in 2014.
• Fifty-six percent said the difficulty level in filling job openings is about the same as it was last year.
• Most telling is the fact that this year, only 8 percent of respondents said it is easier to fill positions – compared to 28 percent a year ago.

These findings suggest the talent shortage is not only real, but also impacting business for many employers.

The Solution

As the economy continues to improve, it makes sense that the same recruiting strategies you used during the recessionary years no longer apply. Consider these action steps:

• Build your business case. Work with your CFO to prove the bottom-line impact of enhancing your sourcing, recruitment and talent retention efforts. Relatively speaking, it does not require a large percentage of a firm’s total budget to develop an industry-leading hiring function.
• Target your competitors’ talent. Thanks to LinkedIn and other social platforms, finding the names of top talent who work for your competitors is easy. Your executive recruitment firm can use its contacts and market intelligence to help you zero in on passive candidates. Because their current bosses will fight to keep them, you will need an aggressive strategy, advanced tools and a premier employer value proposition to lure them in.
• Demand that recruiting is data driven. Start by measuring your quality of hire, the dollar impact of top innovators and your most effective recruiting sources. Included in the latter category are employee referrals and your executive search specialist.
• Spread your positive brand message. Your entire workforce must get involved in improving and then spreading the word about best practices that make your company a top place to work. In a social media-driven world, ensure that you develop the right message points, and then virally disseminate them.
• Offer work/life balance. Especially among millennials, who this year became the dominant population segment in the workplace, you need to offer flexibility and remote work options. By converting your hard-to-fill positions into remote work jobs, you expand your recruiting horizon worldwide. By offering telecommuting, job sharing and similar options, you put the icing on your brand image cake.
• Hire and develop great managers. If you expect successful recruitment and retention, you need the best managers. The old adage is true: People do not quit their jobs. They quit their bosses.

Author and business management expert Tom Peters sums it up in saying, “There is a dire talent shortage – unless you are a great place to work.”

Regardless of the talent climate, you can partner with the executive recruiters at BrainWorks for the best results. Contact us today to learn how we put great people together with great companies like yours.