It’s no surprise that the way companies find, recruit and hire new employees has changed. In-person job fairs are on hold, as are long in-person interviews. People aren’t lining up, resumes in hand, to apply for one job they’ll keep for their entire working lives.
As employees and job candidates shift their priorities and interests and use new tools to look for jobs, companies and hiring managers, need also to do their part to stay ahead of the curve in order to fill their open positions.
Here are a few ways you can adapt to changing trends in the talent market to bring good people onto your team.
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Don’t try to make one person do two jobs.
As older workers retire and younger workers are hard to find, recognize areas in your company in which some skills can be consolidated but also understand that not every position can take on a wide variety of responsibilities. If you have employees who are interested in expanding their job skills and want to be cross-trained to handle different responsibilities, that’s an investment you can make in your existing workforce. But trying to attract a new employee to do two previously separate jobs will not work out in your favor unless the two jobs are intertwined in some way. People can only be in one place at a time.
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Reconsider your recruiting efforts.
How online is your company? Do you regularly update your website? What’s your social media presence like as a professional organization? Younger employees aren’t looking through newspapers for job ads; they’re looking online and on every social media platform. If your website is outdated or looks stale, that’s a turnoff for a potential job candidate. If your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc., are collecting dust, you might be missing out on dozens of applicants. Even if this kind of technology isn’t part of your company, young employees want to work for a company that’s in the moment, not antiquating.
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Consider automation.
Introducing software and tools that can quickly scan through submitted applications and resumes can drastically reduce the time it takes to review the applications your company does receive for a given position; if you’re hiring for more than one job at a time, that time savings adds up quickly. It also takes out some of the unconscious bias people have when they review someone’s work history, including things like a preference for a given school or amount of work experience. Relying on technology in this way can help reduce the time it takes to interview and complete the application process, something many younger job candidates talk about with their friends (and usually not in a good way).
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Examine your wages.
If the last time your company compared pay rates for similar jobs with competitors was more than five years ago, it’s time to do some exploring. Make sure your pay and benefits packages are up to par with your competition in order to BE competitive with them for the same candidates. If you can’t match the base pay level, offer more incentives, work-life balance options, benefits, PTO, etc., something to entice workers to consider your offer. People aren’t just looking for a paycheck anymore, but they do need to be able to live off what they earn in their 40-hour workweek.
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Talk about your culture.
What’s it like to work at your company? Are efforts made to welcome and attract people from different backgrounds? Is there an expectation and requirement for respect and civility? Can people come in and learn the skills and language they need to be a successful part of your team? Are people treated with kindness? Company culture is under the microscope in this mid-pandemic world; if people have the option of working for a company where they feel supported vs. one in which the mentality is that all employees should just be grateful to have a job, people will scoff at the latter and line up for the former. Take a good, long look at your workplace culture, see if any improvements should be made, then make them and talk about the changes with pride.
Hiring managers need to be of the times and in the moment. They need to understand the world is changing and be unafraid to try new things in order to change with it.
If you’re still in need of a little assistance in finding new employees, whether for permanent or temporary positions, call Debbie’s Staffing. We’re well-suited to help you reach potential job candidates, and we have skilled workers ready to step up and step into work. Contact Debbie’s Staffing today and let’s get started!
