It’s no secret that 2020 was a big career turning point for many who experienced their biggest job insecurity in a long time, in addition to major shifts in the way we work like the rise of remote and flexible work. But being able to ditch the daily commute wasn’t the only change brought by Covid-19.
As a HR professional, you might have noticed the latest phenomenon affecting our job market: when the number of open jobs surpassed 1 million in August, an increasingly high number of people started leaving their jobs for reasons including – but not limited to – unsatisfactory working conditions, Covid-19 related fears and a new sense of enlightenment on the real meaning of work after going through a global pandemic.
Although the numbers vary between industries, the now commonly called Great-Resignation shows the desire for better work-life balance is here to stay, as are the new expectations job seekers have of employers.
What this means for you as a senior HR professional
While large companies might have the internal resources to cope with new trends and demands of the post-2020 job market, the already complex roles of small to one-person HR teams have become even more challenging in terms of talent acquisition and retention. If that’s the case for you, you might be facing difficulty with the following:
- Time and budget constraints. Between daily tasks and constant regulatory changes, it can be difficult to find the time and resources required for recruitment (which we know is not always straight-forward!).
- Finding someone that “ticks all the boxes”. That is, experience, industry knowledge, hard and soft skills and corporate/cultural fit. That indeed is a lot of boxes to tick! Finding a candidate that offers all of this can be a huge challenge, especially in today’s candidate driven market.
- Judging a good fit during the recruitment process. CVs, cover letters and interviews don’t always provide accurate candidate profiles. Psychometric tests can massively help screening for a good fit, and specialist HR software can help manage recruitment admin tasks. Unfortunately, these resources aren’t always present in small businesses – that’s when outsourcing to recruitment specialists can be extremely useful.
- Competing with other employers. With the current skill shortages and job market trends, recruitment has become the biggest challenge faced by HR departments, notably for SMEs competing against large companies that can offer, at least in appearance, more attractive benefits and career prospects.
How do I hire successfully in a post-Covid job market?
As a specialist HR recruitment agency, we’re very aware of the recruitment struggles many HR professionals face. Lots of our recent conversations made apparent the importance of a recruitment strategy that optimises talent acquisition and staff retention. Here’s our specialist advice:
Evaluate your needs.
What level of experience do you require? How essential is industry experience? Are there any concrete IT skills they’ll need, or essential responsibilities they’ll carry? In the case of HR recruitment: what CSR goals and D&I initiatives will they be actively supporting? These will help build an optimal candidate profile but remember to think outside the box and look for transferable skills. The more flexible you can be in your requirements the more this will help increase the pool of candidates available to you.
Don’t underestimate employer branding.
Amid this “Great Resignation”, your company culture and onboarding process can make all the difference in a candidate’s decision-making post job offer. Make sure to keep your company values and personality consistent at all stages of your recruitment process: from advertising to interviews. What’s more, a successful onboarding experience can improve employee retention by 82% – so make sure to collaborate with the relevant departments to have one in place from day one.
Pick the right channels.
Depending on your industry and corporate brand, you might be able to look beyond LinkedIn and the generic job advertising websites. Don’t be afraid to add creativity to your recruitment strategy, especially when targeting younger generations; Tiktok and Instagram Reels are quite often underrated tools to get your company’s opportunities in front of the right audience.
Get specialist help from a local HR recruitment agency.
Outsourcing your recruitment to a specialist local recruitment agency is an invaluable way of speeding up your recruitment process. Not only do they dedicate 100% of their time to recruitment, but by having access to a pool of local active and passive candidates they will be able to find candidates you might not as easily have access to.
At Sitka, we recruit qualified human resources candidates with the experience and ethos to manage people well. With first-hand experience of managing HR in-house, we know exactly what most HR professionals face daily when recruiting.
Get in touch with us today to chat about your recruitment needs!
To find out how we can work with you, please drop us a line
Sometimes in recruitment it is a case of being able to look behind the written CV and Karen was able to pull out experience that I had overlooked so that we were able to recruit the right person for us.
Sitka wanted to know about the organisation, our culture, our plans and aspirations. This meant they could be really confident talking about us and I’d like to think they were proud to be working on our behalf.
The recruitment process was a very smooth one with constant, non-intrusive updates. We benefited greatly from a personalised visit to our business, ensuring the right candidates were sourced for us. We received an excellent service.
I was recommended Sitka by a mutual contact who thought Karen and Ita would understand our requirements and our organisation. I met with them and I definitely felt they were the right agency for us. The recruitment process was seamless, they made it very easy for me.
I thoroughly enjoyed communicating with Karen and having her represent me. Karen was very hands on and made me feel very informed. Therefore I was able to relaxed and feel at ease during my interviews.
Trying to find a new role can be quite a daunting experiencing, however what I found working with Karen is that her enthusiasm is infectious. Karen listened to what I had to say and we had a long and productive conversation about what I wanted and whether the role was right for me.