Written by Andrea Frith

As we enter 2022, candidate attraction is likely to be one of the biggest challenges facing most organisations. Recruitment teams will need to plan candidate attraction with a difference and look at ways of improving the recruiting process.

Things to consider and address could include:

• Streamlining the recruitment process, resolving any issues, and ensuring that the process is smooth, efficient and effective. It is also vitally important that all stakeholders are engaged in the process and onboard with the timelines set.
• Revisit the language used in job descriptions and advertisements to ensure it reaches a true diversity of applicants.
• Spend some time to consider what a `qualified` candidate looks like and if there is any flexibility on the core skills required to allow access to a larger pool of talent.
• Look at where the advertisement is placed and how the sourcing of talent is happening. Is there a better way to find the passive pool?

In 2021, recruitment strategies have had to adapt to deal with remote working and skills shortages, for the first time in many years there are more available jobs than candidates and therefore candidates have more choice and greater bargaining power.

THIS WILL CREATE NEW RECRUITMENT TRENDS…….

Selective Applicants
Applicants will be more selective and the volume of applications for each role will be much smaller.  Organisations will need to focus on employer branding and an enhanced candidate experience. Employers need to put their best foot forward by promoting what makes their workplace desirable

Remote working and remote recruitment processes
This will allow hiring managers to cast a wider net to find the talent in short supply. Remote interviews and onboarding are huge time-saving exercises and give additional cost-saving benefits.

Longer notice Periods
It is expected that long notice periods are a given for senior hires however for the more specialist roles it is becoming more usual for employees to start with three months` notice. Whilst this gives some protection against losing talent overnight there come be a knock-on effect in increasing the time to hire and running the danger of losing the candidates interest in the 3 months gap between offer and start date. Employers will need to focus on keeping the candidate warm and engaged in the time between handing in their notice and start date.

Reaching Passive candidates

Competing for the same candidates and skillsets will mean there will be a continued and where necessary an increased drive to reach out to the passive candidate market. Passive candidates can be very successful hires, bringing candidates into a role they are genuinely excited about and not taking the role because they didn’t like their last employer.

For further information on how Pertemps can assist with any of the above, please contact andrea.frith@pertemps.co.uk