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Posted by Niche Recruitment
12th January 2022
THE WAR ON TALENT
What’s been Happening?
The ongoing Covid situation is unprecedented, and the War on Talent looks set to continue into 2022 with job vacancies levels being at their highest in 20 years. With businesses bouncing back last year from lockdown 2.0, the past 6 months have been tough in the world of recruitment. Great talent is in demand…More counteroffers, declined offers, candidates having several offers to choose from and some companies throwing silly salaries to secure retain or secure talent, the candidates sure are in control, spoilt for choice in most cases!
Here at Niche, we recognise these challenges and have adapted to working smarter, presenting candidates in the right way to our clients and moving at pace… without compromising on quality.
So, what can you do to get your recruitment strategies on track? Michelle & Nick have put together some top tips to ensure your business thrives rather than falters at this hurdle.
Our Top Tips:
Candidate Attraction Plan
To begin with, you need a solid candidate attraction plan to start your recruitment journey. You need to think carefully about where to advertise roles and how to do it, alongside which tools and techniques to utilise. Being up to date on how best to market-specific roles to your desired audience is key, one size definitely does not fit all.
If you’re struggling with this, at Niche we build this into our recruitment services, but if your budget can’t stretch to our full service, then speak to us about a bespoke candidate attraction campaign. We can offer access to discounted rates on sector-specific job boards and marketing channels, through our connections, to ensure your roles are reaching the right audience for your internal team to manage interest.
Rewards and Benefits
With the market flooded with live roles, you need to stand out from the crowd to attract the little fish in a big pond. Take a look at your company rewards, what sets you apart?
- Is your salary competitive?
- Do you offer home working opportunities, or a mix of work/home based?
- Shorter days on Friday?
- A solid bonus scheme?
- Unlimited holidays?
- 9-day working fortnight?
Candidates are wanting more than the standard 9-5 and a regular salary. If you’ve not reviewed your employee rewards recently, now is the time to! Nick has this to say on the subject:
“Organisations need to ensure their salaries, rewards and benefits packages are competitive and in line with industry standards.”
Video
With modern technology, and the recent wave of virtual onboarding, there has never been a larger need to invest in video technology. We don’t just mean getting rid of any webcams old enough to buy themselves a drink, there are a range of video platforms for a plethora of needs, from internal to external communication.
We pride ourselves on utilising video interviewing with every role that comes through our doors, meaning we get to showcase talent to you in a personal way instead of throwing faceless documents at you. It also means that our candidates get a more personalised and in-depth experience through their hiring process, meaning they aren’t lost in an inbox somewhere and are more likely to accept their job offer.
Speed
In the current market, you want to secure your placements quickly. Losing a candidate that would be great for you due to a pace issue can and should be avoided. We see too many cases from other companies of potentially successful hires going south due to the process becoming convoluted and taking too long to reach an outcome. With the majority of candidates applying for more than one job in this market, if you want to secure a placement, keeping the process to a tight schedule while maintaining high-quality delivery is essential. You don’t want to be left behind for an offer that comes in quicker.
Marketing Insights
Being aware of the space you occupy in an industry is paramount. If you’re not hiring us to do the dirty work for you, then you need to be constantly keeping updated with what your competitors are offering. If you’re only willing to pay £40,000 a year for a job role that the market is dictating is worth £60,000, the top candidates in that field are going to scroll past your job advert without a second glance.
This ties back into our benefits tip, if your competitors are offering shiny benefits packages, while you’re not, those are the job openings that are going to catch the eye of candidates. Michelle says “We pride ourselves on having open and honest relationships with clients, not always saying ‘yes’ but challenging salary budgets when needed. We’re not about making higher fees, but giving realistic advice and managing expectations.”
Be Open to Potential
Sometimes your perfect candidate list might be too much of a pipe dream, especially if the budget isn’t cutting it. Our ideals on paper are quite often not realised in person if they aren’t realistic to what you can offer them. With our experience and knowledge, we know what to look for to fill a role that fits your company culture, and how to identify people that you might not have thought of taking a look at.
Hesitate before disregarding someone that fits all but one or two tick boxes on your requirements list. You could end up with a new hire that has all the experience you want but ends up leaving after 6 months due to not feeling at home in your company atmosphere, being open to potential minimises this risk.
Don’t Saturate the Market
Our last point is an important one. Hopefully, you’ve got the picture by now that job boards are at the busiest they have ever been, and the last thing you want to do is make your job look undesirable by having it posted through multiple agencies and services. In laymen’s terms, it can make you seem desperate, and potential candidates may get a bad impression by seeing the same advert repeated through multiple agency voices. To avoid this, find services and agencies that you can create strong and trustworthy bonds with and work with them exclusively. The more exclusive you are with external partners, the more insider knowledge they will have of you and your company, meaning better hires for you and the candidate.
The complete Niche package of services can be split into individual pieces that fit your business needs with ease. We can help with all of these issues and more, contact us today to find out in-depth ways we can assist you.
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