Once the pandemic has "ended", it's expected that business is going to boom for many different companies - and as business grows, so will the need for new talent. Talent shortages are usually expected, especially with today's circumstances, as many companies will be aiming for the same type of candidate. As such, it's even more important for business owner's to hire and retain great employees in an extremely competitive market. In this blog, we discuss some of the strategies that you can take in order to manage the talent shortage that the world is facing.
Despite struggling with a substantial amount of disruption throughout the pandemic, the job market is definitely bouncing back with plenty of new vacant roles appearing during 2021 until present. Subsequently, companies are starting to fall back into a similar position that they found themselves in before the pandemic had started, where the number of jobs available outnumbered the skilled workers that are available.
With a significant increase in new jobs from last year against a shrinking labour market, HR and hiring teams are preparing themselves for the inevitable and impending talent shortage. With this in mind, we have listed some top tips for you to use in order to manage the current talent shortage - whether that's making the most out of existing talent in your business, or venturing outside of the internal hiring methods.
How To Tackle The Talent Shortage:
#1 Technology to adapt to the future of work
With the accelerating effects of the pandemic, the future of work is a concept that has now arrived a lot quicker than people could have imagined. With these changes having to occur quicker than predicted, the way you evaluate candidates had to shift dramatically along side of it - with the need to assess transferable skills and cultural fits from an eclectic selection of candidates. Being able to determine potential from candidates' previous experience for brand new roles, requiring certain skills that may not have existed a year ago results in issues in the whole hiring processes.
This is where AI technology helps to discover specific things better than a human could ever be capable of. Transparent AI-powered tools can automatically assess and match candidates against 'extensive skills ontologies'. With factors such as advanced algorithms and more, you can start using the technology to build a better picture of what the most desired skills are for your business. These tools help to develop and adapt themselves over time, which will create useful data that can bring applicants to your attention that you may not have noticed initially.
Given the unprecedented times and candidates' changing expectations and demands, using technology to showcase your brand and deliver a great first impression is now essential. The role of technology can't be under estimated in the search for new talent and it's essential that it needs to be flexible enough to keep up with your own strategy and market's ever-changing demands.
#2 Adjust Your Hiring Criteria
Even when talent shortages are affecting businesses, a study has shown that 22% of hiring managers rarely hire professionals who don't meet all of the key job descriptions in a criteria. Waiting for the best-match candidates can result in vacancies remaining open for weeks, even months - this means that existing employees are working even harder to provide the necessary cover, which can potentially damage morale and increase staff attrition rates. Adjusting the hiring criteria and hiring "less qualified" candidates can often deliver a lot more benefits, whether thats boosting the diversity of the workforce and introducing fresh perspectives to problem solving. It can also help to drive innovation as different skill sets and approaches are brought together.
Recruiting from a mixture of talent pools is another great method for managing salary inflation. In a lot of cases, candidates are looking for the chance to step up and are a lot more likely to prioritise a fresh challenge over a larger pay rise - this is definitely something that should also be considered when facing a talent shortage.
#3 Seek internal talent
Filling open roles doesn't always mean recruiting talent from outside of your organisation. Your current employees often make great candidates when these brand new opportunities arise. Since they're already familiar with your company, it will allow you to cut back on onboarding hours, recognise high-performing employees and will help to improve retention. Recruiting internally also makes succession planning possible and easier - accounting for the longer term stability and success of an organisation.
To be able to achieve this, you need to use every tool at your disposal in order to find high-performing employees with interesting and diverse backgrounds that are looking for a brand new challenge. For example, an excellent communicator that's part of your sales team, may have the skills to make a great member of the marketing team.
Even when there aren't many internal candidates who make sense for an open role, your current employees still make a great resource whilst you're recruiting. Building a referral program is a great way to gain leverage as your team's personal networks may be able to help fill placements during a talent shortage.
#4 Move quickly
Moving quickly is essential. Competing with other companies for skilled workers during talent shortages means that every single minute counts during the recruitment process. Having inefficiencies within your recruiting operations, for example, poor communication or a broken interview process, can add days onto an already stressful process - in a study, 81% of candidates expect hiring decisions to be made within two weeks.
You need to analyse your existing recruitment workflow and tech stack to be able to identify opportunities for improvement. A great way to simplify your recruitment process from the start is to introduce mobile applications and text recruiting as this will allow candidates to apply for positions and stay in touch on the go.
Interview scheduling software is also something that can help to reduce one of the most time consuming aspects of recruiting, whilst also cutting down on repetitive administrative tasks. Finding these simple ways to help shorten the hiring process will allow you to be able to secure top talent before the competition.
#5 Recruitment Agencies
Working with recruitment agencies is a great way to deal with the talent shortage. If you partner with a good recruitment agency and a good recruiter, it will allow you to have access to an untapped and passive candidate market.
From specialist market insights, to process management and everything between, having a good recruiter will definitely increase your chances of hiring the 'perfect' candidate for your company - whilst making the entire process a lot more enjoyable for you simultaneously. For example, here at TRG, we strive to build a long lasting relationship with our clients and candidates, whilst using all of our core missions and values during the process.
Recruiters take the time to learn and understand your business, how you operate whilst becoming apart of your brand - this will increase your presence into the candidate market, whilst also gaining another trusted source of business marketing that drives positive and organic traffic towards your business.
While addressing the talent shortage may be your company's biggest challenge, finding workers with the skills required to be successful in your industry doesn't necessarily have to be an impossible task. Leveraging technology, engaging younger candidates who are just entering the workforce, and speeding up your hiring practices - your recruitment team can compete effectively with other employers to overcome the talent shortage.
While the tips above won't be able to prevent the labour market from shrinking, they can definitely help to position you and your organisation for talent success in the current post-pandemic world.