What’s Your Recruiting Competitive Advantage
I’ve mentioned a few times recently that the hiring market has shifted to the candidate. And we’re seeing some of the effects with increased time to fill metrics. I ran across this article recently that talks about how more than half of organizations don’t have enough internal candidates to fill their succession plan. Maybe the situation is more than just “mention” worthy.
I was on a webinar recently with our friends from HireRight and we asked participants if they had noticed a change in hiring. 70 percent said it has definitely become more challenging to find qualified candidates. 21 percent followed, saying they’ve seen a small change. That’s 91 percent. (9 percent indicated either no change or they’re not hiring.)
Now, I do realize this wasn’t a scientific poll. But it reminded me of a session I attended during this year’s Great Place to Work conference. To give you some perspective, the conference organizers shared with me that there were approximately 1200 attendees at the event representing almost 400 companies. Since there are only 100 companies on the Fortune Best Companies to Work For list that tells me organizations attend the event not only to show their support and share their story, but to find out how to become a better employer.
So I was in a session about how the Fortune list is developed and how to apply. An impromptu survey in the room showed over 50 percent of attendees were applying as a way to attract and retain talent.
It’s no longer about the shift to a candidate driven market. On some level, that’s a given. It’s about how organizations are going to create a recruiting competitive advantage. There are many ways to do it.
Businesses need to have a conversation about what their recruiting competitive advantage is going to be. Your competitive advantage is what makes you better than everyone else. In this case, it’s what makes your organization a better employer than everyone else.
If organizations want to hire the best talent and they want to keep their talent pipeline filled, they need to clearly understand their recruiting competitive advantage. And make sure everyone in the organization knows it as well.
P.S. If you want to hear more about becoming an award-winning place to work, check out this Workforce Institute podcast. With me on the conversation is Joyce Maroney, director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos and best-selling author Dan Schwabel, founder of WorkplaceTrends.com. We talk about having a transparent cultural identity, the qualities of best employers, and some ways companies can improve their workplace on a limited budget. Lots of great information for you!
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