How to conquer the talent shortage in the new year
January is often seen as the time to get the cogs slowly turning again after the Christmas period; easing back into the motions and refamiliarising yourself with the working world. But this slow approach can cost crucial opportunities to find the talented tech people that will help your business grow. The New Year is renowned for people looking for change, new opportunities and challenges. Be proactive and get a headstart on your competition and you will conquer the talent shortage.
05/01
Here are 4 simple solutions that will leave the talent shortage in 2022
Hire on attitude
In the last couple of years we have experienced the highest volume of candidate applications we’ve ever seen. By a long way. So there certainly isn’t a shortage in the talent market, the data shows there are plenty of people out there.
Adapting your attitude towards hiring is key to attracting the candidates you require to grow.
The perfect candidate who excels at every single criteria doesn’t exist. Never has, never will.
Hiring candidates on their attitude rather than level of conformity to the job specification is a sure way to overcome this perceived talent shortage. A candidate who hits the majority of the skill criteria (50-60%), but has the correct attitude and is willing to learn is an indispensable asset – and they actually exist.
Being open to investing time and money in your employees to upskill them will save you vast amounts of both in the long term. And it’ll mould them to your business’ unique way of working which is always an added bonus.
Build your agile workforce
Let’s be realistic. You’re running a start-up business, it’s not going to be smooth sailing all the time. Sometimes it’ll be rocky and you’re going to need an interim solution to steady the ship. Incorporating an agile workforce into your hiring strategy is invaluable.
A couple of situations you’ll probably find yourself in at some point:
Situation 1: You’ve found your ideal candidate(s). You love them, they love you. But they’re on one of those lengthy three month notice periods and can’t join your team until that’s completed. A whole quarter delay. It’s a realistic problem – and it’s becoming a lot more common.
Solution 1: Hire an agile workforce of contractors to cover the notice period. It’s that simple.
Not only does it prevent downtime while you’re waiting for your permanent staff to onboard, contractors provide unrivalled expertise and will push your business to progress. They are highly skilled and have experience of working in various environments, helping you circumnavigate that talent shortage problem. Which leads us nicely on to…
Situation 2: You have important projects in the pipeline that are imperative for business growth, but you feel there’s an absence of specific knowhow in your existing team that could impede success.
Solution 2: Onboard contractors on a project-length basis with no long-term commitment.
The best contractors succeed because they’ve got a specialist set of sought after skills. Projects that require unique expertise are ideal for them. They’ve also got a broad range of experience in different environments, enabling them to bring fresh perspectives to a project that your permanent staff may not necessarily be able to.
Logistically they’re quick and painless to onboard too. We’ve got a ready-to-deploy bench of specialist contractors waiting in the wings for your word. Just say the word and they’re yours. What talent shortage?
Mythbusted: Some people think contractors are more expensive than permanent staff. In reality, due to the surge in salary increases they've become cost neutral. As they're experts in their fields, they also tend to deliver faster and better too!
Improve your hiring process
It’s not the 80s anymore. Some outdated things you want to avoid when attracting candidates:
- 2-page job specifications
- Expecting 3/4-page CVs in return
- 5-stage interviews
Whether you like it or not candidates have the power. They choose to work for you, so you need to accommodate them as best as possible. These multi-stage interviews with two tech tests and no placement guarantee are time-consuming for the candidate. Why would they choose that over a shorter, modern method that takes half the time?
Outdated, lengthy hiring processes increase candidate dropout rates. Improving your hiring process will attract candidates and beat that talent shortage. You want to be hititng that long-enough-for-an-accurate-assessment, but short-enough-to-keep-candidates-engaged sweet spot. Here's how you can hit that spot.
Video role profiles
One of the ways we’ve improved our client’s hiring process for them is by introducing video role profiles. Instead of us just passing on details to the candidate over a phone call, we bring your company to life with an informal video of you to send to the candidate. It spices the process up, provides a visual personality, and no one else is doing it so it sets you apart from the competition.
Some things we like to include in the video role profiles:
- What problem does your company solve?
- Why is your company the place to work?
- What kind of person would make a great match with your business?
- What are the benefits of working at your company?
For a candidate to meet the leadership team at the very first stage is priceless. It’s different, it’s fresh and it keeps them engaged. No talent shortage seen here.
We also like to make video role profiles of candidates too, so you can get a better picture of their personality and decide if they’ll fit into your team.
Dedicated microsites
We host these video role profiles on a dedicated microsite that we build for you. We include key business information, job roles, videos and photos of your team. It's a sleek, modern platform that collates all your info into one convenient space. Make the process as easy as possible for the candidate and dropout rates will decrease significantly.
“The presentation of the candidate, by bringing them to life in a short video as well as the system you use, has been fantastic.” - Human Resource DIrector, Energy Consultancy.
We would love to show you some microsites we’ve built for clients - just get in touch.
Diversity and Inclusion
An incredibly important topic. This should sit at the heart of your talent strategy regardless of whether you’re concerned about a talent shortage or not. Better products and services are built for the benefit of more people if diversity and inclusion are included at the build stage. And the only way to do that is by incorporating it into your talent strategy.
We provide accurate Diversity and Inclusion reporting of your hiring processes as standard, helping you identify where you can improve – something that just isn’t possible when you operate on Preferred Supplier Lists (PSLs). If you operate on PSLs you do not care about Diversity and Inclusion in the hiring process - you can only care about CVs and keeping your costs down. Only by working exclusively with a talent sourcing business can you accommodate a a truly diverse workforce.
Diversity and Inclusion reporting encourages you to cast your net wider, including people who don’t have the same opportunities as others. If that’s not the best way you can conquer the talent shortage then we don’t know what it is.
What talent shortage?
With the talent competition going through the roof, it’s a tough hiring world out there. Amsource has unique insights into tech start-up/scale-ups and the challenges your competition are facing. Building bespoke strategies to attract top calibre talent and help you overcome that competition is what we do.