The headlines seen for most of the calendar year tell the story: Many companies are desperately trying to fill open positions, but they are not receiving much interest from qualified candidates. This may be the case for any number of reasons, including expectations around compensation and increased competition for the best available workers.
Indeed, recent polling suggests that the single biggest concern HR managers face in 2021 is, not surprisingly, recruiting, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. And with about half of all companies in the U.S. saying they plan to increase their payrolls this year, hiring efforts are becoming more difficult; HR managers said they saw "attracting talent" as their biggest hurdle, ahead of issues like increasing diversity and receiving significant numbers of applications.
So what can companies do to bridge this gap and continually attract and retain the best workers available, outside of boosting pay and benefits (which is self-evidently critical)? The following suggestions should help:
1) Speed up your hiring processes
First and foremost, you should strive to keep in mind that every company in your industry is likely experiencing the same difficulties you are — and qualified applicants are going to be scooped up almost as quickly as they hit the job market, according to career expert Mark Perna, writing for Forbes. As such, you should make sure your hiring processes last days, not weeks, from when people first apply to when they are hired. When you believe you have a good candidate on your hands, it's vital to act quickly so you don't lose them to another opportunity.
2) Try to source from untapped demographics
Depending on your industry, you have likely hired among roughly the same demographic groups for some time — and that won't work in today's job market, Perna advised. Take industries like manufacturing and shipping, for instance, tend to have older staffs with a large share of male employees. If you are in those industries, then, it may serve you well to target younger people and women as a means of ensuring you don't suffer a critical amount of "brain drain." The same goes for any other sectors: Diversifying may be key to your recruiting success.
3) Be better about online outreach and messaging
Often, small businesses have difficulties with recruiting because they are not on the cutting edge of what candidates are looking for online, according to TechTarget. For example, if your website doesn't have a careers page with up-to-date job listings, you may be leaving opportunity on the table. The same is true if you're not active on social media and industry-specific job sites.
Effective recruiting isn't always a straightforward process, especially these days, but it is vital to your company's long-term success. Let YES Partners help you fill the roles you need to hire for. To see some of the roles that we have already successfully placed, click here.
Finding people is easy, but finding the RIGHT people is not. YES Partners helps companies FIND the right people for all company functions, across many industries.
