The “War for Talent”, it’s not the title of an action-packed movie, but an ongoing talent crunch faced by employers. With unemployment rates reducing, employers are running out of options in the market to fill their gaps. Although the improvement of employment rates is something worth celebrating, it presents new challenges for employers. This phenomenon is also known as a “Candidate-Driven Market”.
What is a Candidate-Driven Market?
A Candidate-Driven Market is when there are more job openings in the market than qualified candidate for those openings.
The phenomenon reversed the negotiating powers between candidates and employers. Candidates can now choose between multiple offers and existing employees can go for better opportunities as well. Talent chooses you. Some candidates may “ghost” on interviews or even on the first day of work. They can do that because they can afford to. With an increasing negotiation power of candidates, employers will have to redesign their recruitment and engagement strategies to attract and retain talents.
Survivor Skills to Emerge Victorious in this Talent War
#1 Build-up on your Employer Branding
Other than offering competitive monetary benefits, your organizational culture, reputation and branding plays a huge role in attracting and retaining talents in your organization. Candidates and employees want to be associated with organizations which excels in their core business as well as their human capital engagement. If you can have talents knocking on your door directly, aren’t you already victorious in this talent war? Leverage on social media platforms, such as LinkedIn or Instagram, to promote your organizations’ culture by posting videos and pictures to showcase the working environment, employee engagement programmes, training and development programmes and employee testimonials. This list is non-exhaustive, if you have more, why not?
#2 Provide the Best Candidate Experience
A typical journey of a candidate starts from being contacted, going for interview, receiving a follow-up, to offer stage and induction. Constant engagement and communication with the candidate are essential to prevent “ghosting” by the candidate at any stage of the process. Timely and fast hiring process will be greatly appreciated especially when candidates might be going through other interviews at the same time. Therefore, speed is key! Positive candidate experience relates to higher acceptance of job offer, reapplying in the future and referral of others to your company. Candidates are looking beyond monetary benefits in their job and the recruitment process will be your first touchpoint and your first shot in showcasing the culture of your organization to the candidate.
#3 Awesome Employee Engagement Programme
The talent war doesn’t stop the moment recruitment is done. Employee engagement continues as long as the talent is still in the organization. The last thing you want to see is for the talent to leave the organization after so much time and effort is put in to recruit and develop them. Ensure employees are given enough support and proper grievance management framework are put in place to uphold employee satisfaction level. It is important to have a career progression framework to spell out how employees can grow throughout their career. This is one major factor as many employees leave when they face with a roadblock in their career progression.
#4 Strong Talent Acquisition Team
It is important to have a strong talent acquisition team who will be spearheading the talent management strategy formulation and execution processes in the organization. They will be the team that will have the resources and tenacity to help your organization remain competitive in the talent war. Being up to date with the latest recruitment trends and talent management best practices will be a key differentiating factor between you and your competitors.
