One thing was abundantly clear from speakers and thought leaders at SHRM 2015, hiring is hard, and it’s about to get much harder!
That isn’t good news for any of us in HR and Talent Acquisition. There are two forces that are currently happening that are making hiring more difficult than it has been in over ten years:
- Solid economy and job growth.
- Baby Boomers leaving the workforce.
This isn’t earth shattering information, we all kind of new this was happening. The issue is we are now all beginning to feel this in every part of the country and in almost every job category. This means some things are going to happen, and the top HR and Talent Pros are already preparing for these:
- Wage Growth: CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson spoke at SHRM on Tuesday and had some great data showing that organizations see wage growth of around 5% in 2015, and similar in years to come. Are you budgeting 5% increases? I’m guessing not!
- Recruitment Process Challenges: How many steps does it take to apply for a job in your organization? If it’s more than two, you’ve got problems! Can someone apply for a job online with your organization without having a resume? Why not? Matt also showed data from CareerBuilder showing 40% of HR and Talent Pros have never applied for one of their own jobs to better understand the true experience!
- Technology Challenges: Do you have a way to reengage candidates in your system on a regular basis? A system that allows you to let great talent know, that you already have in your system, when you have an opening that fits them? It’s called CRM, and only about 20% of companies have technology that can do this important recruitment marketing function!
- Job Design Challenges: Too many of us are working and designing jobs like we are living in a society that was pre-internet, pre-ultra connected. We still think we need employees sitting in front of us from 8-5pm, Monday thru Friday. If they aren’t sitting in front of us, they must not be working! Indeed shared that 80% of job searches on their site include this single word: “Remote”! Are you adjusting those jobs that can be flexible?
Those organizations that believe they can recruit and get talent like they have been doing for the last couple of decades are going to fail. It’s really that simple. Talent attraction will be a powerful strategic differentiator for organizations over the next decade, like almost no other time in our history.
The good news? At no other point in our history do have access to the information on how to be successful! Twenty years ago, doing great talent acquisition was mostly trying stuff and getting lucky. In today’s world you can learn easily how the best organizations are attracting talent at conferences, on websites, in blogs, webinars, etc. There are so many sources of this information, that we now have no excuse to improve what we are doing. We just have to do it!
Great article. HR software has evolved in such a way that it can streamline everything from hiring to retiring.
Hiring the right candidate for the right job is always tough task. Thanks for posting such thought provoking article.
Great article, thank you. Recruiting is going to be a challenge in every sector in the coming years. I work in healthcare, and we are facing many challenges to recruit the talent we need to thrive in our market. Recruiting today is evolving almost daily. It requires heavy evaluation of where your team is and what it is going to need to be successful tomorrow. Concentration on core team needs and what can be outsourced or filled with temporary or traveling team members. Retention is also extremely important in today’s market, once you are able to attract the talent, the organization must be able to hold on to that talent.
Strong retention strategies are extremely important, the cost to re-hire, re-train and retain are far greater in today’s market.
Team members are not afraid to look in other sectors if they are not getting real time feedback, appropriate support, continuing education and competitive wage/benefits package. The world wide web now provides salary and benefits information in seconds, organizations must be willing to be transparent in compensation packages.
Being flexible with scheduling will also be beneficial to recruiting star players. Offering work week hours that match personal preferences will enhance an organization’s ability to attract talent. Giving team members options for hybrid work from home and going into the office also is beneficial.
Embrace work life balance principles to encourage team members to pursue personal interests.
Rewarding and acknowledging star performance is also important in retaining your talent. “Employees who feel appropriately recognized and rewarded by workplaces are much easier to retain long term, but studies also show those employees will work harder and be more productive. Unfortunately, over 80% of American employees say they don’t feel recognized or rewarded. A report by the Brandon Hall Group found companies that prioritize recognizing their employees’ multiple times per month are 41% more likely to see increased employee retention and 34% more likely to see increased employee engagement” (Crail, C. 2022).
References:
Crail, Chauncey. Effective Employee Retention Strategies 2023. Forbes. Sept. 19,2022.
Mello, Jeffery. Strategic Human Resource Management. Cengage 2019.
Great post, thanks for sharing! Hiring is indeed becoming increasingly challenging in all industries. In this blog post, we’ve written about the connection between Employee Engagement and a Strong Employer Brand: https://eletive.com/blog/employer-branding-and-employee-engagement/
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Greetings, Tim! First of all, great article. Noticing that the post date of this article is from 2015, I’d like to address your points through the lens of 2022. The world has changed significantly, at least in terms of the major driving factors since 2015. The “solid economy and job growth” you mentioned has been turned completely upside down, and while Baby Boomers are still leaving the workforce, they’re not the only ones.
The major thing no one saw coming was the COVID-19 pandemic. This really forced many organizations to address the “Job Design Challenges” you mentioned, and most of those organizations did so overnight. Little did you know, wise companies that followed your advice, and adjusted to a flexible model of work, were well prepared and probably already there. The question now remains, as we seem to be tip-toeing out of the largest impacts of the pandemic (at least in most of the US), is if companies will stay adjusted, and see and embrace these new work-styles.
The second matter, which is somewhat related to the former, is the exodus of the Baby Boomers. In many cases, pre-retirement Baby Boomers took the plunge ahead of their time in response to COVID-19 mandates and general frustrations with workplace changes, to the tune of 3 million. That, couple with the trend of younger workers quitting for somewhat inexplicable reasons, has created a recruitment nightmare, which extends far beyond how many steps it takes to apply for a job online.
Only God knows when it will change, and how it will change, but it’s been interesting looking at your post retrospectively and how the times have changed so quickly and so dramatically!
Hi,
Thanks for such an amazing post! 🙂
Hiring has already become a “talent war” and is yet to become even more difficult.. It would be really great if you could shed some light on the role of AI in HR?
These are really worrying signs and valid questions from HR’s point of view. The only solution is to use technology for creating a better recruitment process.
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Tim – thanks for all the updates from SHRM15..really like the snippets of info you have blogged about.