A recent article from the Harvard Business Review highlights how the US is currently experiencing high unemployment, whilst at the same time, employers are suffering from a labour and skills shortage. Employers are facing an unprecedented challenge – how do you attract talent, to grow and scale your business when there’s a skills shortage, and we’re emerging fragile and broken from a global pandemic?
As we start to pull through from the aftershocks of the global pandemic, there’s millions without jobs and even more considering if they are in the right job. It’s no surprise that there’s so much pressure on employers to review what the world of work looks like, and that old ways of working are becoming less relevant by the day.
With equity, diversity and inclusion, social enterprise and myriad of other global social-economic movements, the old, traditional ways of recruiting someone to fulfill a job just aren’t enough. So how do you get a job done these days?
If you’re hiring, here’s 4 questions that you should ask yourself to ensure you, and the job in question is attractive, and compels the right person to apply to get the job done.
1. Does your employer brand work hard enough for you?
Your employer brand should be considered as important as your commercial brand. Knowing and understanding what drives your culture and drives the employee value proposition is an essential starting point for effective job advertising.
Look inward to find the voice and sentiment of your employer brand and amplify that through well told stories, to the talent profiles that you can also find if you look hard enough. Basically, ask your employees what they have to give, and what they get from being employed in your organisation, and that tells you who will relish an opportunity to get stuck in too.
2. Have you considered the talent you already have within?
So many things have changed in the past 12 months. For those companies that have maintained a close dialogue with employees, leadership will have seen and taken notice of resilience in action, self education and upskilling during quieter work periods.
For those who’ve been proactive in adding to their portfolio of skills, it may be time that they were given an opportunity to take on additional responsibilities or to even take on a new challenge within a new field or department. This could also ring true for those employees who are disenfranchised, or may have found it difficult to be without the norms of a typical work week. Test the water, highlight opportunities and open vacancies so everyone within can see where and what jobs are available.
As you consider the business strategy, think about internal mobility and the talent you have within that can be deployed to bolster your business, or even test the new innovations or initiatives. Those who have stayed the course need to be recognised and rewarded with more than just their ‘same old job’ or a nominal bonus.
3. Is this really an office based, 9 to 5 job?
Remote and flexible working hours are now the new normal for millions of people. Do you really need everyone to return to the pre-pandemic working week?
The Harvard article references research that shows that hourly workers and those in lower paid salaried positions are the hardest hit when it comes to travelling to get to their place of work.
By forward thinking about what the actual deliverables are, and a little bit of planning around kit, connectivity and a decent onboarding period, you can open up the jobs you have to so many more people by positioning the role as remote and with flexible hours.
“Structuring your 40-hour workweek as four shifts of ten hours each, instead of a regular five-day workweek, will reduce the time your workers spend commuting by 20 percent.” https://hbr.org/2021/06/attracting-talent-during-a-worker-shortage
The bonus for workers here is that they can fit a traditional, full-time job in and around other aspects of their life – other jobs, childcare, hobbies and self-care – all of which now matter more than ever.
4. Do you really need a permanent employee to fulfil the job requirements?
As well as remote and flexible hours, the impact, value and skills that a freelancer or gig worker can bring is becoming increasingly attractive to employers. The global gig economy has grown exponentially and is now worth over $350 billion dollars.
The popularity of freelance work is also not only limited to those who prefer the flexibility and freedom of being without corporate strings, it’s also becoming a popular option for those in permanent employment who want to add to their portfolio of skills and experience.
Speciality talent marketplaces, like LavasourceHR provide a platform for both freelancers and employers to identify each other and to exchange skills for money in a safe and effective way.
Freelancers are used to working to deadlines and to a budget, so short or long term contracts are typically delivered on time and to the quality you demand.
There’s no need for laborious corporate on-boarding process either; just outline what needs doing and our smart tech matches your needs to the skills of the freelancers registered with us. Once both parties agree on the task, milestones and deliverables, the job gets done and the freelancer is paid via the platform.
You’re also not limited to engaging single specialists either, with LavasourceHR we can help arrange for an entire team to deliver a project end to end.
The fundamental beauty of this platform is that you can engage with HR, Change Management and HR technology professionals that can help transform your people strategy, so that you can attract the best and brightest skilled people to your business across all the functions too!
Recent Comments