We're living in a candidate-driven market, which means that the power is in the hands of the job seekers. It's tough finding great people to work with and help your company grow and you’re not the only one struggling to attract top talent. But don't worry, there are still tons of people out there who might be a good fit for your company—you just have to know how to find them. And if you're willing to make some adjustments in your approach, you can get more of those people through the door without lowering standards or taking chances on under qualified candidates. So what can you do? Here are our top four suggestions:
Try to be open mined to different types of applicants. For example, a job ad that says "must have 3 years experience in Python" or “must have 5 years experience in Java” may miss out on someone who is great at programming but hasn't had the opportunity yet. Or you may miss out on someone who has amazing potential, but has just finished their degree and hasn't worked yet. So, look at skills and potential over specific qualifications and experience when hiring new team members.
Retention is more important than recruitment. It's difficult to build a happy, productive and engaged team if you have vacancies. Retaining people means you need to know what motivates them, how they want to be managed and who their mentors are. It also means that you need a culture that supports their professional development – not just an HR policy or program.
Retaining people costs less than recruitment, because it saves the expensive process of advertising jobs, interviewing candidates and then training them. Instead of focusing on recruitment alone, focus on improving retention by making sure your team members feel valued and supported at work. Focus on doing what's best for them—and all of these other things are possible when employees are happy with their roles.
Recruiting is a marketing function, and the people in charge of recruitment need to understand this. They need to know how they can help find the right candidates for their roles at the right time in the hiring process so that they can attract great talent and make sure that they're getting a good return on their investment in recruiting.
The easiest way for your recruiting team to turn around your recruitment efforts? By partnering with your marketing team early on—before you even open up any job position or post it online. This means having conversations about what kinds of skills you're looking for, who might have them (and where), and how you'll attract those potential candidates in the first place.
To get the best results, you'll need to make sure that recruiters are working as a team with hiring managers. The recruiters should be on the same team as hiring managers and given access to the same data. There's no point in having your best people on board if their work isn't in sync with what's going on in your organization.
If recruiters don't have access to the same information that hiring managers do, they won't be able to see potential candidates who might be a good fit for open jobs in your company. This can lead them down rabbit holes of spending too much time trying to find people based on criteria that isn't relevant.
In the current climate, companies may have to be more flexible with the qualifications they require for a particular role. Although lowering your standards may seem like an effective way to find talent in today’s competitive job market, it is not without drawbacks. If done right however, getting creative and being open minded with your standards will allow you to attract candidates who could potentially provide great value but might otherwise be overlooked by other companies or organizations.