Highlights
- About half of employees surveyed said that they would be very likely to quit their jobs if their employers did not offer them a hybrid work model.
- Transferrable skills can help offset labour shortages if recruiters learn how to spot them in the hiring process.
- Potential job seekers are less likely now more than ever before to be interested in your job posting, click on it, and then follow through – a direct sourcing approach is needed to attract talent.
With the Canadian vaccine rollout accelerated, the light at the end of this long pandemic tunnel is finally visible. But what happens once we reach said light is still unclear. One thing we know for sure is that the status quo won’t be enough for both employers or employees and a “new normal” is already starting to emerge in its wake. This new normal includes new measures set out by employers such as a hybrid work-from-home/office model, hiring more contingent staff than ever before, and putting an emphasis on the mental wellbeing of employees via workplace initiatives.
In theory, these changes will help employers maintain their existing workforce by helping them navigate a post-COVID workplace. In practice, it is going to be difficult to implement with low staffing numbers because of mass layoffs that occurred at the beginning of the pandemic. Some of the hardest hit industries have been in those that required moderate close contact with others such as accommodation, food services, retail, transportation and warehousing. These industries were already experiencing labour shortages prior to the onset of the pandemic and the months of provincial lockdowns have made things worse. Other industries, such as manufacturing are experiencing a skills shortage – meaning qualified workers will be more difficult to source than ever before. With the labour market spiking, the bottom line is that HR teams in almost every industry can’t do this alone. They will need help to source, screen, and onboard qualified candidates effectively.
By taking a deeper look into what is really going on in the job seeker industry, we can see how recruiters can help your HR & TA teams combat these challenges before it is too late.
What Employers Need to Know
1. Recruitment Without Borders
It is no surprise that employees who have been working remotely over the last year have adjusted well. With the ability to work anywhere with a stable Wi-Fi connection, it offers employees the flexibility to be on the go instead of being trapped in an office. What has made employers especially emboldened is that now more than ever before, the talent pool has increased significantly. Employers are now looking for the best candidate beyond postal code limitations, which means they need to rethink the way they are attracting qualified candidates to their job posting and learn how to onboard and maintain a remote workforce.
Pre-pandemic, it was easy to lose sight of what matters most due to the fast-paced world around us. The pandemic gave us the perfect opportunity to slow down and reflect on what we value most and how we can make it a priority. Autonomous work has played a huge role in shaping the remote workplace, and it’s doubtful that many employees will want to give it up once in-person working commences. In fact, according to a recent report released by Envoy entitled Return to the Workplace, about half of employees surveyed, including those in industries such as healthcare and manufacturing, said that they would be very likely to quit their jobs if their employers did not offer them a hybrid work model. This hybrid model is increasingly looking like employees would only be required to be on site for 1-4 days of the typical workweek, a stark contrast from the pre-pandemic 5 days. By giving employees the opportunity to customize their workweek to match their schedule and fit their values into their lives, efficiency and productivity will be improved. Whatever the workweek may look like, employers should be prepared to offer flexibility, lest they want a low retention rate amongst their staff.
2. Emphasize Transferrable Skills Over Credentials
Instead of looking for candidates with specific experience, employers should be analyzing the type of work that needs to be done and identifying the transferrable skills needed for the future of the role. This considers employee potential, which is a huge shift from what’s been done in the past. Employers are learning that having a degree or experience in the same role does not necessarily make a candidate qualified for the future of a position, and that “soft skills” they have developed can be easily transferred to new positions with effective onboarding.
For example, just recently, a TalentWorld client needed 100’s of long-term care workers that would be able to tend to the well being of residents at long-term care facilities. As you can imagine, the chances of finding experienced health care workers in a global pandemic are few and far between, so we needed to find another way to source candidates that were qualified.
Our recruitment experts worked with the client to understand the traits that make someone exceptional at this role. In those conversations they realized that skills such as being detail oriented, working and communicating well with others, and practicing patience are fundamental. These skills also found in the hospitality and retail sector – coincidentally an industry largely affected by the pandemic. We were able to effectively source these candidates and open their eyes to an entirely new industry, which enabled us to fill our clients open positions in no time!
3. Job Ads Are Seeing Less Interaction
Though the economy is steadily growing and demand for skilled labourers is reaching all-time highs, there just aren’t enough people interested to fill these positions. Since the start of 2021, there has been a steady decline in the amount of job seekers who are clicking and following through on job ads.
For employers, this means that they need to rethink their talent attraction strategy. Investing more money into job advertisements will not fix the issue. Because posting a job and praying that the right candidate comes to you is a shot in the dark. In most cases it leaves employers unsatisfied with the talent that they are attracting. In today’s market, most permanent placement candidates are found, not through job ads, but rather through referrals, cold calls, and head hunting directly through industry networks.
Taking a direct sourcing approach to finding talent is the most effective way as it sources and vets passive candidates. And this is where recruiters shine – they help passive candidates see their potential. And now that person who wasn’t actively looking, is open to opportunities.
TalentWorld can be your solution to the complex problems that we are facing in the job market today.
If you’re thinking, “how are we going to address these changes?” Look no further. When you partner with TalentWorld, our industry experts become an extension of your talent acquisition team and help you swiftly adapt to unexpected industry changes. Our experienced and dedicated Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) team can help with one or all of these stages of the hiring process: attract/search, screen, select, reference check, negotiate, and even onboard the perfect candidate(s) for your business (because, yes, they do exist it’s just harder to find them now). From the moment we start working with you, we become a part of your team. We dig deep to understand your business, your core values and culture. So that we can begin building meaningful relationships with candidates that will fit the fabric of your organization with our extensive network of employees from diverse backgrounds that span across the country.
When you work with TalentWorld the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly becomes very clear – it’s a business that’s ready for success, no matter what is facing them on the other side.
