The smart hiring strategy differentiates the company from its competitors. The different recruitment approach promotes the creativity of the organization in the job market. To gain a significant competitive advantage, one needs to use strategies superior and different from the competitors.
The “act differently” principle for recruiting means to successfully attract industry top talent, one must separate from the competitors by offering innovative but effective recruiting strategies.
Shifting to a skills-focused approach is a viable solution to an evolving workforce dilemma. Evaluating employees and new hires based on their skill sets instead of their work history can help level the playing field and help companies realize the talent they already have.
It also makes talent pools more diverse and often makes hiring more effective. But job openings have also been rising in recent months, meaning that competition for top talent remains keen and in uncertain times, bringing on the right people is more important than ever. The three trends that are rendering traditional recruitment tactics obsolete.
First, the skills needed in many roles have an increasingly short shelf life, owing in part to more frequent and disruptive technological breakthroughs. Out of hired manpower, only 29% of new hires have all the skills required for their current roles, let alone for future ones.
The key functions such as finance, IT, and sales, positions filled today will require up to 10 new skills within 18 months. It also documents rising uncertainty about what skills will be needed in current and future jobs as the surge in hybrid/ remote working sparks the redesign or automation of many tasks.
Second, the talent pools the recruiters have routinely tapped are becoming outmoded. Highly gifted candidates are now found outside traditional talent clusters, such as Educational Institutions, universities, and technical colleges. More and more people are acquiring critical skills informally on the job.
The need for new skills and upskilling has driven a boom in virtual learning, giving workers new autonomy in developing skills outside their day jobs.
Finally, candidates are increasingly selective about whom they work for, so firms need a compelling “employee value proposition,” which might involve anything from competitive compensation and benefits to career-development opportunities and a reputation for stellar management. Talented candidates, particularly at high levels, are weighing opportunities differently. Factors such as meaningful work and proximity to the family have taken on added importance during the pandemic.
The freedom (often the imperative) to work remotely and to manage one’s own schedule has increased employees’ expectations that they can exert considerable control over the design of their jobs. Organizations continuously working toward offering employee experiences that candidates truly value.
With the global economy experiencing massive change, upskilling and reskilling have taken on a renewed sense of urgency. Success through these transitions requires major shifts in thinking about how hiring and employee development are done.
To get ahead of it, HR needs to start weaving learning into their company cultures. Organizations slow on the uptake will be left behind and forced to deal with unsatisfied and unmotivated employees and significantly less innovation overall. At a time when talent is the number-one commodity in business, companies can’t afford to remain stuck in old mindsets.
To adjust these trends and build the workforce they need, organizations are focusing on these three key courses of action.
Shift to A Skills-Based Approach When Hiring
HR shall focus now on hiring candidates for future potential, not for their past history. But it’ll be a long road. Our traditional recruiting processes still place an emphasis on certain types of education, experience, or personal referrals that can lead to a homogenous workforce.
Evaluating employees and new hires based on their skill sets instead of their work history can help level the playing field and help companies realize the talent they already have. It also makes talent pools more diverse and often makes hiring more effective.
Hire For Potential, Not Experience
The first step in adjusting to the new landscape is to stop thinking about hiring as a matter of replacing specific employees. When looking to fill a vacancy, too often managers simply put together a profile mirroring that of the person who has left, perhaps tacking on a few new requirements, the equivalent of saying, “I want Shyam plus these three other qualifications,”. At best, this yields candidates who are prepared for yesterday’s challenges but probably not ready for tomorrow.
The hiring managers require to look beyond the immediate needs of their business or the functions and consider what skills the organization must acquire to succeed in the future. HR is positioned to drive this conversation because they should understand long-term talent gaps at the organizational level.
While the organization has the AI to scan through the resumes identifying the indicators such as success in a variety of roles and transportable rather than industry-specific experience. It’s no longer a question of ‘Is this person holding credentialed’?
Building & Upholding a Strong Employee Value Proposition
It’s critical that companies understand how candidates view them and build a strong Employee Value Proposition e.g. Employee centricity, empathy and we care for our employees. Prospective hires are scrutinizing organizations’ responses to the pandemic and looking to see how companies have helped or failed to help their employees find a comfortable work/life balance.
In designing the Employee Value Proposition, organizations must understand candidate expectations and craft positions accordingly, in the same manner in which they tailor their products to customers. HR requires to hold focus groups to assess job seekers’ expectations, benchmark their offerings against those of competitors, scour social media, and leverage job-review sites such as Glassdoor to understand how they are viewed by current, past, and potential employees.
The pandemic is challenging companies to rethink traditional ways of doing business—thus providing an opportunity to reform outdated recruiting practices. The world was already transforming, but now the changes are much easier to see.
