The Worker Shortage and Finding Ways to Engage Candidates
Most industries are impacted by today’s worker shortage in one way or another. While industries like restaurants, retail, and hospitality have been hit hard in the past two weeks due to the rise of the Omicron variant, for much of 2021 companies struggled to find workers to fill millions of open positions. But even traditionally “white collar” industries, such as healthcare, professional and businesses services, and education, are witnessing hundreds of thousands of workers quit each month.
An inability to hire leads to discontent among existing staff and reduces a company’s ability to meet goals. The Great Resignation shows no sign of stopping any time soon, meaning businesses should reassess their hiring strategy to better attract talent. The most effective approach will require your business to determine why potential hires aren’t applying or saying “yes” to offers, and then make targeted adjustments that will suit the needs and wants of today’s workers.
Step 1: Explore Why You’re Having Difficulty Hiring
Avoid the temptation to blame larger job market trends for your company’s hiring difficulties. While most companies are facing the same type of hiring problems, most people aren’t rejecting all potential work. They’re primarily focused on finding employers who pay well, provide good benefits, and give them more job flexibility.
Spend some time researching whether you are well aligned with these needs. A few places to consider include the following:
Salary/Compensation
If the advertised jobs are hourly, are you paying at, above, or below minimum wage? Many studies and surveys suggest poor hourly wage is a major factor right now in part of the ongoing worker shortage. This is also still the case for salaried workers, where salaries have fared better compared to inflation, but only marginally so.
Benefits
All workers now want more benefits along with their position. The flexibility to work remotely is one of the most asked-for benefits right now, as are financial support for continuing education, healthcare coverage, and childcare support. Note that these are also benefits that hourly-wage workers want, as well.
Work culture
One study found that 56% of workers believe a strong and positive work culture is more important than the pay. If people don’t enjoy the work environment, they’re more likely to leave. And guess what? Job applications are heading right to websites like Glassdoor and reading the reviews left by current and former employees. If they don’t like what they see, they won’t apply or they’ll reject the job offer.
Visibility of Job Advertisements
It’s possible that your job advertisements are not attracting any applicants because you’re just not getting seen. Keep in mind: Everyone is hiring right now. Think about how much job applicants struggle to get their job applications noticed during recessions. You’re now in that same position. You’ll need to invest more in getting your open positions noticed by potential hires.
Step 2: Make Targeted Changes to Find Workers
Once you’ve identified the points of friction in your hiring process, make the necessary adjustments to increase your chances. Consider making the following changes, as needed:
- Boost wages or salaries: There’s no getting around this one. If you are paying below or even at minimum wage, you’ll likely need to increase pay. For both hourly wage and salaried workers, check beyond just the national median for that position and take into consideration the cost of living for your area or (if hiring remotely) for the area where potential hires.
- Provide better benefits: Workers are looking at your benefits. If you don’t offer any beyond just salary or wage, it’s time to start changing that. Start with the type of benefits workers most want: healthcare coverage, education/upskilling/career pathing, scheduling flexibility, and childcare.
- Improve your work culture: This may be the hardest restructuring you can do, but you won’t attract or keep workers if your work culture isn’t desirable. Forbes offers a few recommendations for improving work culture, including rewarding prosocial behavior and offering more autonomy.
- Make job advertisements more visible: People can’t apply to jobs they don’t know exist. Make sure your job advertisements exist in multiple locations and on the type of job boards or job sites that people in those roles typically use. You may even want to get creative, such as making TikTok videos to promote open positions. If needed, hire a recruiter, especially for your most critical open positions.
It may feel like workers have just…disappeared. Realistically, they’re still here. Many are simply choosing to wait until they find an employer who gives them what they need to be happy at work. Better pay, excellent benefits, scheduling flexibility, and a friendly work culture are a start. Find a way to work these aspects into job advertisements, and then make sure to follow through on those promises after you hire those new hires.
About the Author: Sean Fahey
Sean is an award-winning business leader, serial entrepreneur, and CEO of VidCruiter, one of the fastest-growing remote recruitment companies on the market. He holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Florida Atlantic University, and after years of first-hand recruitment experience, he’s passionate about sharing what he knows so others might find the same level of success he has.