Over the past year, we’ve seen many significant shifts in the talent acquisition and recruitment sector, perhaps the most impactful of which has been the significant candidate shortages. Businesses are now scrambling for talent in a candidate-scarce market. Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that job vacancies across the UK economy continue to reach record highs, reaching almost 1.3 million, while unemployment levels have declined. Consequently, the power dynamics between organisations and workers have shifted and employers can no longer expect jobseekers to behave in the way that they did pre-pandemic, after all, they have more choice now than they have had for some time. However, companies can only flourish if they are able to attract, secure and retain top talent. The success of individual firms – and the wider UK economy – rests firmly on the ability to recruit the best people. But how can this be achieved in the current climate?
Addressing the labour market paradox
In 2021, we saw the emergence of the ‘labour market paradox’, a global phenomenon where the expected availability of labour is simply no longer there. There are many theories as to why people aren’t applying for jobs, all of which have merit. With this trend expected to impact impacting HR professionals for the foreseeable future, it’s clear that hiring approaches need a refresh.
Focusing hiring efforts on job postings, without any follow up communication, is a common mistake that talent acquisition professionals are still making. While understandable given how time-short HR teams are at the moment, the issue this creates is that candidates can quickly lose interest and move on to the next job if they aren’t happy with the level of communication. To get ahead of the competition and keep up with the changing candidate mindset, communicating with applicants swiftly and easily is a must for talent acquisition professionals. This could mean spending more time per candidate, conveying more value to individuals than just the provision of job opportunities or utilising technology to automate communication.
Transparency is key
Throughout the hiring process, employers should be clear about what they’re looking for from an applicant, but also be upfront about the hiring process itself. Writing back to people you want to interview is obvious, but you should also let the candidate know when they can expect a follow-up email or call. Additionally, you should make an effort to provide an answer to all job posting respondents, even if their qualifications don’t meet your needs. This allows job seekers to avoid waiting for a response and wasting their time. Many in house hiring managers will find themselves to be extremely time short, so this new level of candidate upkeep may seem daunting. However, harnessing the right technology will do most of the job for you. The right applicant tracking system, for example, will help with the automation of administrative tasks while also organising your candidate data.
Utilising technology
We recently analysed our JobAdder data to determine the difference in time to hire when job posting natively versus using technology to assist in the hiring process. In this Global Recruitment Industry Report, we found that users of our technology were seeing big differences in time to hire when placing candidates through the JobAdder database (which is where their talent pool sits), compared to using external sources. Across the globe, the benefits of taking a more proactive, candidate centred approach bolstered by technology are clear to see.
For Australian users filling permanent roles, the average days to place using the JobAdder database was 25.9 days in 2021 Q4, while using external sources saw an average of 38.8 days. In New Zealand, users filling permanent placements took 35.80 days using external sources and 20.8 days using the JobAdder database. Here in the UK, permanent placements took 33.3 days using external sources, compared to 32.3 days via the database.
The reasons behind today’s dearth of talent may be varied but the response from employers should be the same; we need to give more to the candidate, supporting them throughout the hiring process and developing relationships that will eventually aid not only talent attraction but also employee retention. A shift in values post-pandemic is manifesting in how people evaluate jobs and employers, and simply posting ads is proving to be inadequate. As our data demonstrates, the value of harnessing the right technology to help HR teams hire quickly must not be underestimated. In a candidate-driven market, time-to-hire may just be the differentiator between securing top talent or losing them to the competition.