In 2021, companies are facing the perfect storm of hiring debt. Having held off hiring for over a year many have discovered that the dynamics of hiring have changed and the market for talent has altered considerably. With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to share some of our thoughts on the current talent marketplace and some of the ways in which our clients are overcoming the challenges associated with hiring talent.
While unemployment has risen considerably, along with millions more on furlough until September, our clients are finding particular challenges in hiring specialist and experienced staff who are still in work. We are also seeing a huge drop in candidate numbers applying to roles and when they do, taking far more time to make decisions, they are following the maxim of ‘better the devil you know’ and the risk factor in moving jobs when you are not able to meet face to face or visit the office seems to be a significant obstacle.
This has led to some interesting solutions from many of our clients, some of whom have been using solutions like Vidyard, YouTube and Linkedin Videos and stories to raise awareness and give candidates insight into what it is like to work for them, virtual tours of the office and meet the team using recorded zoom sessions to discuss what it is like to work there.
How to raise your profile above competitors.
One of the biggest challenges for the new remote world is how to raise your profile in an environment where you are competing with every company, not just locally but globally. Just looking at the metrics around adverts quickly shows that viewing and application numbers for certain roles are down significantly. Being on the first couple of search page results for the local area is no longer enough. It has become so much more important to ensure your Ad copy is well written, it is easily discovered by those searching and catchy enough to attract the right attention.
Hiring debt is a term that has arisen in many clients, both in terms of the numbers of people they need to hire to catch up on decisions put off from last year, but also now forward hiring plans, couple this with the reduced size of many TA teams and HR professionals who are having to deal with many other issues and suddenly hiring velocity finds its way onto the board agenda. Using Flexible solutions is certainly one way to overcome this.
One key piece of feedback we have been getting from clients is the amount of time that they are having to put into ensuring vision and culture and people are engaged, evidenced by the length of new hires staying, which seems to be falling. Equally, candidates are much more interested in how they will be managed and what else companies are doing to bring teams together. We are seeing big investments in all-hands meetings, escape rooms, constantly on Zoom however sometimes this can be a little too intrusive. A careful balance needs to be placed between being part of the team and needing space!!
The changing face of hiring
With the impact of metoo, BLM and the rise in needing to engage new talent communities where talent is scarce, we are seeing a rise in companies wanting to implement new diverse and inclusive recruitment practices, the use of anonymous CV screens, answer based selection and other strategies is becoming more commonplace.
If you would like to chat about the latest strategies, need support to help you overcome hiring debt or have specific talent challenges, then please reach out to one of the team and we would be happy to chat – contact us
