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Where is everyone? Finding Talent in a World of Scarcity

Recruiting has always been incredibly important, and considering current market conditions, finding the right talent has now become among the top priorities for most businesses. Low unemployment, modern skill shortages, diversity imperatives, hybrid work environments and digital engagement expectations contribute to the need of building firm recruiting muscles that leverage best practices at all levels. Without best-in-class recruiting capabilities, the effectiveness and cost of closing the talent gap become unsustainable. TechTorch has compiled a set of critical imperatives that must be present in the modern recruiting use case.

Getting the right inputs

Recruiting is an integral part of workforce planning, a process that bridges the gap between talent demands and talent supply. When the required talent supply is external, recruiting comes into action. Traditional recruiting inputs include specifications of the role and skills, which, although necessary, are not sufficient. Additional information such as experience, salary bands, geography, work type (in-person / hybrid / remote), and best talent sources (competitors, universities, etc.) are required to effectively perform the recruiting search.

Marketing the ‘people’ brand

In a world dominated by direct marketing, advertising jobs resembles advertising business products. The ‘People’ brand matters and must be carefully built and curated. Businesses need to create an attractive value proposition for their job offers, directing their message to the right audiences. Different demographics require not only different messages but also different media. For example, company webpages and career sites highlight critical aspects of the company culture. Events and speaking forums create opportunities for live networking interactions. Social media messages and postings engage the right audiences. Awards and recognitions from third parties (e.g., Glassdoor) enhance companies’ reputation. In summary, businesses must dedicate efforts and resources to keeping the brand aligned with the desired audiences’ expectations.

Sourcing intelligently

In a global, distributed, and diverse talent market, it is critical to define the most likely places to find the best people. Sources might include specific schools, companies, geographies, interest groups or associations. The next step would be to identify the best ways to reach the desired talent audiences. Examples include internal campaigns, third party job boards, or headhunters. Best-in-class companies tend to take hybrid approaches to define specific sourcing strategies depending on the audiences they want to reach.

‘Applicant centric’ process

While obvious, we still find companies that do not run an application process that is effective and that services the applicants’ needs. We hear constant complaints from applicants on basic recruiting steps: slow processes, lack of clear communication, difficulty in scheduling interviews, interview processes that are not well run, etc. Businesses must design and run state-of-the-art recruiting processes that cater to applicant needs. Good practice includes asking for the applicant’s feedback, so the process constantly improves. In addition, businesses should make sure to treat applicants as (or better than) customers.

Managing the recruitment funnel

Performance needs to be measured at every step of the recruiting process. At the very top of the funnel, well-run awareness, attraction, and interest steps will generate enough sources of talent (e.g., ‘# of relevant applicants’). For the application, pre-selection and interview steps, recruitment teams need to understand application process measures such as ‘drop off rate’, ‘time-to-hire’, ‘offer acceptance’ or ‘applicant NPS’ rates. Overall, businesses need to measure critical cost metrics (e.g., ‘cost per hire’) as well as impact metrics that indicate the overall success of the recruiting strategy. Those success metrics might include ‘early turnover’ (new hires that decide to leave the company within the initial months of employment) and ‘quality of hire’ (hires that rank as ‘top performers’ in their initial reviews). Regardless of the metrics, recruiting needs to be constantly managed and be an integral part of the business.

The good news is that in today’s digital world, a lot of the required capabilities can leverage available technologies that can be configured and tailored to the recruiting needs of each business. At TechTorch, we bring it all together under our unique “Recruitment use case.” Come and check it out!

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