If you are trying to hire at the moment, then you will probably be experiencing some difficulty with finding suitable candidates for your job vacancies!
Against a backdrop of negativity about the UK’s economic growth prospects and the ongoing cost of living crisis biting into people’s pockets, it’s not surprising to see that many jobseekers are exercising an extra layer of caution when it comes to switching jobs.
Here at Plus One, we speak to many employers, across a wide variety of industry sectors around the Midlands and South East. These businesses are still trying to hire into important positions and job vacancy numbers remain high, but they are struggling to attract relevant candidates to come and work for them.
As Recruiters, we have many tools and a huge network of connections, which help us to access a wide candidate market, but we are also experiencing lower candidate numbers, fewer applications to adverts and a much more reserved approach to job hunting. Where there seemed more urgency in the market in the post-pandemic rush of 2021 – 2022, this has since been replaced by more ‘casual’ searching, and candidates not willing to move unless there is a significant reason to. Certainly, for the time being at least for most people, cash is king!
A key part of our role as Recruiters is to advise our clients about the job market and to provide data to help them make good hiring decisions. When we are asked by our clients about what can be done to drive up interest in their jobs, or increase their chances of attracting the right candidates, we are always happy to pass on our advice, based upon our own findings, and what candidates are telling us.
We therefore felt it would be helpful to share some of this advice with you. We have compiled a short list of tips below, that we feel could help you to be recruiting successfully in 2023.
Our 5 tips for successful recruitment in 2023:
1.Salary – Ensure that the salary and package advertised is at least at the market rate or better and avoid advertising a salary as ‘competitive’ – be transparent. If you advertise a salary banding for a role then be prepared to offer the higher end of that banding, if the candidate that you would like to work for you, is looking for that salary. People are much more likely to move now if there is a significant financial incentive to do so, and sometimes a small/incremental increase in salary is not enough to pull someone away from their current, comfortable position. For information about current salary levels in this area, you can download our free digital Salary Guide here.
2.Holiday and other company benefits – We appreciate that these may not always be easy to change, as they are company-wide, but most businesses now offer more than the statutory 20 days plus bank holidays. With many people looking for more breaks to refresh, a better work-life balance and more time to spend with their loved ones, additional leave can set you apart from your competition. With regards to benefits in general, again be competitive – is there something else that you could offer to set you apart from other employers in your area or industry?
3.Move quickly – we’ve mentioned this before in previous articles but responding quickly (within 24/48 hours ideally) of receiving CVs/applications and then acting to engage with candidates via a face to face or video meeting can make a huge difference to the success of your recruitment campaign. Good candidates in all job sectors are in high demand right now, so even delaying a meeting by a few days could mean that you lose them to another employer. If you have managers or decision makers away on leave, or there are other reasons why interviews cannot progress quickly then it’s good practice to inform the candidate that you would like to meet with them, and will let them know a date/time as soon as possible. This keeps people engaged with your company and therefore more likely to respond positively.
4.Go ‘analogue’ with interviews – Whilst video platforms like Teams or Zoom can be helpful to speed up the interview process, or enable people who WFH to conduct interviews, there is no substitute for a face to face, on-site meeting. Reading body language and engaging with someone in person is a sometimes underestimated part of a recruitment process for all parties involved. It’s a great opportunity for the candidate to see their potential work location, meet with their potential manager, and get a much more three-dimensional view of the opportunity. We find that this builds engagement for both parties and often can make a big difference to the candidate when making a final decision.
5.Home Working – Try to offer some commitment to enabling home working, especially if the role is able to be done remotely. We are noticing a growing trend for businesses to be reducing or even completely stopping remote working, but it’s still a key consideration for many people. Certainly if a candidate is currently working on a hybrid/WFH basis with their present employer, they are unlikely to move to a company with a 100% office-based, or much reduced hybrid policy. If you only offer WFH after a specific period of time (such as a probation period), be prepared to flex on this a little, if it means securing the best candidate for the job.
We feel that if you are doing as much of this as possible, as well as maintaining good, regular contact with your candidates (or external Recruiter), then you should experience a much smoother and more effective recruitment process.
If you are experiencing bottlenecks in your recruitment process, or candidates are not applying for your vacancies then we would be more than happy to help. Please feel free to contact us for a no obligation chat in the first instance.
We look forward to helping you to recruit well this year.
