Back to all articles Talent acquisition in a tight labour market, with limited candidates for popular roles, can be challenging, so you’ll need some innovative solutions to secure the right person. Here are some ideas that will help you to gain an advantage over your competitors and secure the best possible candidates for your role.
Your ideal candidate may well be in that pile of CVs that are already on your desk, but with a limited number of active applicants, you’ll also want to look at ways of encouraging other contenders, such as…
Previous employees – people who’ve moved on from your organisation and developed new skills which you now need can be easily re-integrated into your organisation and become productive quickly
Previous candidates – don’t bin those old CVs and candidate records, you might find the ideal candidate from previous applications
Treat recruitment as an ongoing process, through active talent spotting and flexible roles to onboard new skills
With roles in popular, specialist or developing areas – where a limited talent pool exists – a scarcity of candidates is inevitable, so it’s essential that your business and the role that you’re recruiting for stand out from the crowd.
Astute applicants will carry out as much research about you as you do about them, so it’s important that your corporate brand is well articulated across all available media. You need to make sure that potential candidates can understand your principles and culture and see you as the place they want to be – so it’s important that your brand values are prominent and consistent. Your existing employees make great brand ambassadors if they truly embrace your culture, so it’s critical that these values are embedded throughout your organisation.
Job descriptions need to catch the eye too. They should be compelling and memorable, with clear and honest summaries of expectations, opportunities and benefits. Good candidates will be just as interested in your organisation as they are in the role, so make sure you include persuasive reasons why they should choose you.
Imaginative marketing of the role will help draw in a wider range of candidates. For example, there are few things more compelling in today’s world of powerful social media than a viral video. So, a professionally produced, captivating ‘trailer’ outlining the highlights of the role could set the marketplace alight. Plus it might be exactly what’s required to attract potential candidates who were not actively looking for a career change, but feel drawn to the role via captivating marketing.
Understanding your candidates’ expectations is key in a tight labour market, so it’s vital that you can articulate your understanding of the industry and its marketplace.
Quantifiable benefits such as salaries, bonuses, pensions and healthcare are, of course, a primary incentive for candidates, so it’s critical that you understand the current expected market rates and benefits packages.
The best candidates will be looking way beyond the lowest levels of the hierarchy of needs and will seek reassurance that the role will allow them the type of job satisfaction and opportunities that will sustain them at the top of the pyramid. This will also include giving them confidence that the company has the permanence and potential to provide them with long term stability.
Where the availability of skill sets is limited, existing employees will want to hold onto their most talented employees so may well make tempting counter offers. It’s important that you prepare for this in advance with a selection of even more attractive ‘carrots’ that can be presented immediately to neutralise this threat.
Technology can be a key element in identifying potential candidates but can be equally important in delivering a slick recruitment process. In a tight labour market, improving talent acquisition processes can differentiate you from competitors and encourage more and better quality applications.
Recognised recruitment engines and social media sites are important ways to deploy and show the value of technology and can provide great outcomes. The breadth and complexity of these tools means that getting the best from these requires specialist skills.
Once you’ve established the best targeting strategies, software such as Mayseven’s you&me talent acquisition platform can really make a difference by facilitating the identification of the very best candidates. By analysing multiple attributes around experience, skillset and behaviours, supporting competency assessments, benchmarking and objective evaluations, you’ll be able to identify the right candidates for the role, reducing recruitment time and cost and ensuring that you place the right individual.
Where multiple interviews may be required for each candidate, technology in the form of video conferencing for initial interviews can make the process easier for both parties. Video can also be deployed as part of the initial application process by encouraging (or requiring) the submission of an introductory video, which can offer more of an insight into a person’s behaviours than the simple submission of a CV.
Managing the mechanics of the recruitment process can also be supported by technology, using dedicated systems which can track candidate applications, facilitate interviews, manage ongoing communications, expedite reference requests and accelerate the offer process. Offering a slick recruitment process to candidates can guarantee their ongoing engagement and ensure a successful outcome to the talent acquisition process – especially in a tight labour market.