In this article, I look at 5 best practices for recruiting in an employee job market.
Over the past 15 years, we have seen significant changes in the job market. The crash of 2008 led to a spike in unemployment and fewer open vacancies. Gradually over the recovery that has changed with us now being in an extended period of ‘full employment’.
Following Brexit and the pandemic, the UK now has the highest number of vacancies ever recorded.
If you’re struggling to attract and recruit quality employees, here are five best practices to adopt to attract potential recruits, even in an employee’s job market like we’re in right now:
Practice 1: Make the job attractive
Most good people are looking for more than just a job.
Create an environment where good team members feel they can develop, grow, and contribute to something worthwhile.
If you put some effort into creating a great environment and opportunity for your ideal candidate, they will be excited about the prospect of working for you and with you.
As of today, there are 134 vacant jobs in Southwest England for software developers listed on Indeed.
If you needed to recruit a software developer and you posted an ad like everyone else does, “Software Developer Wanted,” you’d be competing with 134 other postings just like it.
One of my clients has a thriving software business in the south-west of England.
Their job posting sells potential employees the benefits of moving to the Southwest, giving them several reasons to consider relocating, including things like housing affordability, outdoor activities and way of life.
Boring doesn’t work for marketing, and it doesn’t work for recruitment, either.
You need a Unique Selling Proposition not just for your marketing but also for your recruiting.
Practice 2: Make sure you attract enough candidates
Most businesses don’t do enough to attract people.
In a market like this, when potential employees can have their pick of multiple job offers, you need to do even more.
These days, we have to look at recruiting like marketing. The recruitment and selection process aims to cast the net wide by deploying multiple recruitment strategies to market for employees in unusual ways.
We have a list of around 15 candidate lead-generation strategies.
For example, promoting opportunities with your customers, suppliers, and networking contacts, calling back past team members and candidates; creating referral schemes for existing team members, etc.
Most businesses use one or two strategies at most.
Practice 3: Always be recruiting
The software client that I mentioned earlier recruits year-round.
They have a permanent careers page on their website.
They’re always thinking ahead. They even target students before they graduate.
You need a system for recruitment and selection, and someone in your business needs to be responsible for overseeing it.
Implementing an ongoing recruitment program should be a priority for any business that wants to grow.
Practice 4: Use pre-screening techniques
One of the reasons that many owners often do not cast the big net is that they don’t want to interview too many people.
They know that they’ll have to interview people, but they say I’m just going to choose from two or three applicants because I don’t want to waste time.
But that’s a very deceiving downward spiral because what’s going to happen is that the business owner will get two or three people.
A virtual interview process cuts down on interviewing dramatically and acts as an automated filtering mechanism.
This could be a voicemail interview or one of many other pre-screening techniques.
Practice 5: Use a systematised approach to selecting the best candidate
Don’t trust in your innate abilities to choose the right candidate, as this usually only works if you are an expert recruiter, and it can be very easy to get it wrong.
Recruitment is almost like a courtship: everyone is putting on their best behaviour and face, and once the honeymoon is over, we get to work with the ‘real’ personality.
Instead, create a system of key activities and questions that will test your candidate’s knowledge and abilities.
Systematize this process so you can deliver it consistently and accurately. That way, you can actually compare candidates in an “apples to apples” comparison.
