Today’s hiring market is lean, mean and very competitive to what it was just a few short years ago due to the decrease in the working age population (low birth rates), a rise in the new gig economy and the Generation Z having an affliction for more experiences than materialism and wealth creation.
So this leads to the elephant in the room of what the heck do we do to find and retain top candidates in this changed landscape?
Here are some strategies and learnings we have come up with to provide you with some competitive advantages.
Tell A Story- This involves getting creative with job ads, application processes and nurturing candidates just as you would leads from a sales perspective. This comes with some awesome bonuses due to increased engagement and understanding of the candidate like more negotiation power, reduced onboarding times and new hires that buy your vision & mission. The days of just a job are over for the next 20 years due to the demographics issues on a global scale, unless we have a chaotic rise of AI robots ``stealing our jobs” but let’s leave that for an episode of South Park!
Be Fast- Let’s call it what it is, this is the dopamine generation where we take constant hits via Instagram, TikTok and snapchat all day therefore speed is king in your hiring process. Use automated candidate pipelines to complete applications, do testing and book first interviews without even a phone call or resume screening. The new age is amazing, and using tech to your advantage can cut up to 80% of human hours. To often we see people in the market, before they meet us, lose great people because they moved at 2010 speed. “I wanna go fast” isn’t just a Ricky Bobby quote, it is the slogan of this generation. Want to find out how to “Go Fast, Cause if you’re not first you’re last '' submit a form on set2close.io, and I appreciate you dealing with this cheap plug mid-article.
Set Goals Together- Let’s face facts, the new generation is just different and have new ways of experiencing life vs traditions. It is now a requirement for retention to build goals with the candidate during the hiring process which align with the company's strategic directive and have clear KPIs. Role creep and company structure shifts are one of, if not the leading reason people start to have dissonance in a role. Have you seen the “act your wage” trend? This highlights the past behavior where we can just keep dumping work onto employees and have them deal with it, and that just isn’t today's marketplace. They will leave and this is not good for morale, therefore focus on building people, friendships and carving a clear path to role success. Yes, the new generation is higher maintenance but they also push us to be better with planning, training and compassion. Business is an emotional experience now, and not one where people are separating personal from professional, love it or hate it the new reality is management isn’t just by the numbers anymore.
In summation, tell your story and improve your culture if it sucks, as other companies really have an employee focused mentality brought on by Richard Branson's ideology of great employees building great companies. Make sure to be quick on the trigger and craft an offer with the person’s goals in collaboration with the strategic initiatives and utilize the best technology for candidate management & selection vs throwing people at the problem.
Good luck and Good hunting!
P.S- If you need help with this just reach out as we help build recruitment systems and recruit high performers for your teams.
