How to hire in a talent short market

Last week, one of our clients asked us for help with an internal presentation about their hiring challenges for 2022.

We sent them some of our experiences about how we source talent in today's tough environment. We thought it might be useful to share them with you! 

Know and define what you want

We all know you need to determine the knowledge and qualifications needed for the role, but increasingly experience and soft skills are becoming more important and many are considering individuals from other sectors.

This needs to be captured in a comprehensive job brief and communicated internally, especially with those departments with which the role interfaces.

Make a plan

The process needs to be defined to include who is involved, the key stages in the process and the timing. Once this is mapped out this plan should be communicated internally to all those involved for awareness and alignment. Map out the stakeholders who need to be informed both from a seniority aspect but also those who will interface with other depts they may need to interface with.

Onboarding is often overlooked and can make a massive difference in how welcomed they feel (and stay!) and how quickly they can get up to speed.

Training & equipment - The individual will need training on specific systems they may need to use and laptops etc will need to be provisioned along with software licenses. Don't leave this until they start, meaning they could be frustratingly idle for the first few days!

Ensure you have the budget signed off

After all the effort you put in to get your ideal candidate, don’t put it all in jeopardy by not establishing a budget for the new hire. Also, ensure that not only that there is a budget but it has an owner who has agreed to the spend! (Yes - we have found both of these to happen!)

Check stakeholder involvement

Of course, it is wise to ensure that stakeholders are aware and aligned with the new role but also those that will be involved in the process have their diaries booked with ‘placeholders’ for any candidate interviews. Senior people are rarely available at the last minute and pre-scheduling will ensure a smoother, swifter process.

Reach out to source candidates

These days a multi-channel approach is needed to effectively reach out to the best candidates. With good talent being in short supply from a powerful job ad to great employer branding, you need the right tools to nail this.

If you don’t have the luxury of an in-house talent team to help you, it might make sense to partner with a specialist agency that has the skills and network to partner with you to help.

Optimise the interview process

If you have a long and rambling interview process, chances are you will lose your candidate along the way. Instead, make it efficient by ensuring it has the minimum steps, and the right people are available to interview in the same session (rather than coming back in at a later date).

Pre-book future interviews assuming they progress along and make use of video technology at the early stages.

Support the offer and resignation process

So you have a great interview process but have you planned the offer, counteroffer and resignation elements? Many hiring managers are taken by surprise when they make an offer to be informed the candidate also has an offer from another company.

You need to consider how to respond and your limits for a counteroffer. Another area you can add value is to have a resignation template letter for your candidate to use, after all, it is probably a while since they have done this and may appreciate the support!

Consider contract workers

Another route that many of our clients are adopting is the use of contract talent. Flexible, with specialist knowledge and deep domain skills, this opens up a new market of talent which is increasingly popular.