Hiring has always remained the biggest challenge of the CEO’s, more so in today’s time than before, as the need for complex skills outpaces the availability of talent. Also, wages or salaries are playing an essential role because of the low availability of the right talent. A recent survey by Glassdoor found that about 67% of the job seekers pay attention to salary when scanning job ads.
“A study by the National Federation of Independent Business found that 53 percent of small businesses continued to find few or no qualified candidates for their available jobs. Furthermore, most small businesses cannot afford to increase their wages and remain profitable significantly.``
Below are some of the challenges in hiring today:
- The time and cost of hire.
- The fit with respect to the job profile and culture.
- The budgetary constraints of the organization.
- Extraneous processes of hiring.
The above four points when not in alignment would result in a direct loss to the organization. For example, in an IBM survey of HR Managers:
- 31% are considered regrettable hires.
- 14% of the job offers are rejected.
- 18% of the new hires leave within six months.
- As the seniority of the role increases, the time it takes to hire the candidate doubles.
These are alarming percentages. They not only represent a direct loss to an organization, but they also put to stand the process of hiring itself. Now, in the same study, you will see the reasons why the above metrics come alive. What challenges do the HR Managers face? When asked about the problems, below were their responses
- 68% think finding candidates with the required skills is a top challenge. (Read our post on how to find candidates with required skills using Vultus)
- 53% think wages and salaries are not competitive enough.
- 25% believe that they use outdated recruiting technologies.
- 21% admit to using poor hiring metrics.
- 28% admit to a lack of proper assessment to identify the best candidate.
In an upcoming blog post, we will explain in detail how adopting new technologies and using proper metrics will result in improving the hiring process, but also in retaining talent for long.
In this blog post, we will discuss how to circumvent the constraint of salary and swiftly hire the candidate.
Conduct a thorough Pay Analysis:
It is mandatory for you to conduct an analysis of how much your closest competitors are paying for the job. You will need to be confident in your standing in terms of where your budget stands. Often it defines your negotiation standing. Once such an analysis is done, it could be entwined with benefits and performance bonuses to make sure your offer holds ground and is attractive.
Leverage Hierarchy:
This is a matter of internal company policy. It could, in many cases, not be applicable. But if your organization is flexible, you could understand the current hierarchy of the candidate. You could offer a better and attractive title. It is psychological leverage. The candidate will feel advanced in his career, and he, in turn, would tie it to his social standing.
Show the Big Picture:
Inclusiveness and Participation are known to bring about monetary sacrifices. It would be best if you showed the big picture and expansion roadmap to the candidate. Tell them emphatically how you see them as an essential part of the expansion. If the candidate feels like he’s going to be part of something important, he won’t hesitate to give up. There is a reason an employee in Tesla works 15-16 hours a day, and an employee in Ford doesn’t. It’s a sense of inclusion and passionate participation.
Sell the Culture:
Every company has its own inherent culture with both advantages and disadvantages. Before you negotiate with the candidate, make a persona of his needs (A useful reference would be Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid). See how his needs could be fulfilled, fully or partially, by your company culture in the long term. Tell him about it. Tell him also about programs you have:
- Your mentorship programs.
- Your leadership programs.
- Your technical certification programs.
The candidate should feel he would be working in an environment of inclusiveness. He should also feel he would progress in skills he may not be very good at, especially in skills he might be insecure about.
Manage Reputation
This activity needs you to be proactive. It would help if you had active control over your digital assets and third-party assets, especially those with reviews and ratings. When your brand is searched in social media or search engines, ensure that results are mostly positive and complimentary. If you are negotiating with a highly-skilled candidate for a lesser or competitive salary, you don’t want people complaining about websites, about your company culture or anything for that matter.
If a few of them have complained, address the complaints proactively and genuinely. It goes a long way in online reputation management.
These are some of the necessary steps you can take to outsmart your competitors and hire the best talent in the allocated budgets. The important thing is to deliver on the promises made, both tangible and intangible, and in the long term. It will be directly related to the retention of the employee. Having a lousy retention rate is one of the most significant loss-making invisible numbers in the balance sheet. Deliver on the promises made, and you will have a competitive advantage at a cost that is within your budgets.
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