A Hiring Manager’s Guide to the 2015 Fight for Talent
Starting to notice more vacancies, fewer employees, and more resignation letters? More and more people are changing jobs, and hiring managers are scrambling to keep up. It’s a fight for talent, and the best candidates will not be around for long when they hit the market (if they hit the market at all).
Seemingly overnight, it’s become a candidate’s market. With the cost of retaining talent on the rise and the number of available candidates on the decline, you need to move fast, hire well, and create the optimal experience for candidates.
Predicted in “4 Recruiting Trends in 2015 (and How to Succeed),” and clarified in our series on the modern-day war for talent, this move to candidate power has been bubbling under the radar and has caught a few in the industry off guard.
To succeed, you need to understand and act fast. Here are some ideas for how to attract and retain talent in a strong, competitive hiring environment:
1. Pick Up the Phone. Call, Call, and Call Some More
Get your hiring managers on the phone, invest in LinkedIn advertising, improve your employer brand, but do not let your hiring managers become complacent. A great candidate could be on the market for days, not months.
2. Don’t Waste Candidate’s Time
Candidates, especially those hearing multiple offers, will not be left waiting. According to ERE, when candidates have multiple options and offers, slow hiring will mean that you will lose up to 70 percent of candidates who have other offers.
We’ve heard horror stories about a six-step interview and how it affected the candidate. This isn’t 2010, you can’t drag a candidate around before they decide that your company is not worth the effort.
For more information, read one of our recent articles, “Are You Moving Too Slow for Your Candidates?”
3. Focus on the Candidate Experience Before, During, and After the Hiring Process
Candidates will not be dragged around. A bad experience will cause the candidate to leave the process, as well as tell his or her friends about it, and remember, good candidates generally hang around good people (which is why employee referrals are so vital).
Secondly, don’t burn bridges. Keep former good candidates around your pipeline.
For more information, we recommend Easing Candidate Application Pain Points and 5 Tips to Prevent Your Job Description from Putting Your Candidates to Sleep. These will help you to improve your candidate experience and cater more effectively to him or her.
4. Make the Most of ALL of Your Employees on LinkedIn
Use LinkedIn wisely! An opportunity not only to promote open positions but also your culture. Develop a coherent, cohesive, and positive brand in both your employees and company pages.
For more information on the importance and best practices in social recruiting, see the following resources:
- A Hiring Manager’s Guide to Building the Perfect LinkedIn Page
- Is There a Dark Side in Social Recruiting?
- Using Social Media in Your Recruiting Efforts
5. Always Have a Plan B
Have you heard the quote, “If you don’t have a plan B, you don’t have a plan”? Consider this to be your plan B (and maybe even C or D) wake-up call.
In our article, “Why Working with Recruiters is Common Sense,” we cover the importance of using an executive search firm, specifically due to the focus on placements, relationships, and an insanely deep pipeline of candidates who will fit perfectly into your organization.
For more information, we recommend How to Develop and Maintain an Ongoing Recruiting Process.
Following these simple steps may give you just the edge you need to win the talent war and be part of the winning team!