How to Beat the Talent Shortage: Wisdom from our Community Experts

Talent shortages affect all businesses, regardless of industry. Right now, global talent shortages are at a 16-year high. Forbes reported that 3 in 4 employers report having difficulties filling vacancies and finding needed talent. And as these challenges are expected to grow over the next decade, talent acquisition professionals everywhere are tasked with coming up with effective strategies that will help them overcome them both today and tomorrow—no small task when one has immediate quotas to fill and positions to staff!

While there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution for every hiring problem, the good news is that recruiting best practices can successfully be applied and customized across different organizations and industries to achieve their individual goals.

This was the topic of conversation during our October 2022 community event, in which Brazen clients were brought together to share their ideas and real-life findings with other TA professionals who could benefit from their collective wisdom.

We hope you can take some of their hard-won learnings and apply them to your own talent acquisition efforts as well!

Read on to find out the top conversation topics, our collective of TA experts’ tips and learnings, and which hiring strategies are well-worth the effort.

1. What are you doing differently in light of today’s talent shortage?

• “The desperation to hire leads to rushed hiring outcomes! It’s important to slow down and make data driven decisions based on facts and information that also lead to better DEIB outcomes. That being said, if you do find a good applicant on the first day, you can’t wait on them. Grab their attention right away and give them exactly what they need to take the next step!”

• “Recruiting talent is about bringing the right candidates to the right events, and this is something that a lot of companies miss. But good candidates are definitely out there, you just need to find them.”

• “It’s all about *listening* to candidates, the right way. We are using the technology that we have access to in order to work smarter, not harder. For example, we are seeing the signals that candidates are putting out and actively mapping talent statuses on career sites such as LinkedIn, so when a change happens and people are promoted or actively looking for their next opportunity, we’re the first to know.”

• “It’s important for recruiters to cultivate a relationship with a candidate over several months (or even years!) using the tools at our disposal to remind us to follow up and maintain an authentic personal connection over different spans of time. We also make the periodic engagement events we host on Brazen distinct and interesting to encourage that continuous engagement and keep people coming back for more.”

• “There are many ways to automate the personalization of your hiring process, so don’t overlook them. Add some automated emails that go out on a regular basis and use reusable templates to keep candidates engaged without increasing your workload.”

• “There are always opportunities to recruit using your current staff. So what does that mean? That everyone recruits. When you are encouraging your staff to be ambassadors for your organization, they end up actively and passively helping you attract like-minded, hardworking individuals to your hiring process, which also leads to better retention outcomes down the line since less people want to leave.”

• “Engage potential candidates sooner: get in touch with the high school, college, or certification program directors within your industry to come in and talk to a class directly about your employer brand. Butter them up! Do anything you can to get in front of them, even if they’re in the early stages of their training and career. We offer traineeship programs that award high school and college credits, which make for very reliable workers since the students are held responsible by their teachers throughout their stay. Tuition reimbursement is a great motivator too, since it shows you’re invested in their professional development and career advancement.” 

2. What part of the recruiting funnel are you putting the biggest emphasis on right now and what strategies are you using there?

• “We are looking at the front-end of the funnel to make sure we have robust talent pipelines. That’s because, strategically, we make sure to focus on what we need for the future, not just today. Since 75-80% of the talent that’s already out there is passive, we’ve employed an RPO model in which we have sourcers specifically dedicated to that future pipeline sourcing in addition to others that focus on today’s reqs. One recruiter can’t do it all; to be successful in hiring, you’ll always have to strike a balance between your current and future needs.”

• “You can use virtual hiring and engagement platforms like Brazen in many different ways, not just for basic recruitment. Build more awareness of your opportunities and company culture at the beginning of the funnel even before asking interested prospects to apply to a specific job, and be sure to feature people from across your organization and management levels. This distributed approach not only maximizes their collective impact and allows you to customize events based on your target audience’s demographics, focus, and interests, but it also requires the least amount of any individual hiring manager’s or staff member’s time, so everyone wins!”

3. What are you doing to personalize the candidate experience and prevent candidate ghosting?

• “Every 2 weeks we have meet-and-greets between hiring managers and candidates currently in an interview process as a purely information-sharing session. This gives them a good understanding of the process, the people, and the culture. Some people don’t have questions but many will stay to listen. A lot of their unasked questions are answered during the sessions, which in turn helps them become better candidates during their own application process later on.”

• “Staying in touch with candidates is so key, especially when prospects have many weeks or even months to consider a role before starting (such as candidates abroad with long employer notice times). It’s also vital that prospective employees need to have a good relationship with the organization as a whole, not just individual sourcers and recruiters. So how do you make it a seamless connection when multiple people are involved? The answer is to build out your process in a way that your candidates have a consistently positive experience throughout, from start to finish. It’s hard work but 100% worth it.”

• “At our company, the initial point of contact is maintained with the potential employee until the time they are onboarded. That’s an excellent way to maintain a good candidate experience while keeping things simple for future employees.”

Are you a Brazen client and interested in joining us during our next virtual community event? If so, now’s the time to reach out to your account manager and ask for an invitation! We look forward to the unique insights you’ll contribute to the discussion, and all you have to contribute for the benefit of talent acquisition professionals everywhere.

To learn more about Brazen’s virtual career fair platform, sourcing, and candidate engagement technology, as well as how we can help you beat your biggest hiring challenges, contact us for a free demo today.

Like this post? Try these!

• 7 Ways to Combat Candidate Ghosting [Guide]

• 3 Types of Virtual Recruitment Events that Combat Low Application Rates
• 83% of Job Seekers Prefer Virtual Recruitment Events

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