For many years now (in fact, beginning in 2010), unemployment has crept downward from a high of almost 10% to just 4.1% in December 2017. The Fed defines this unemployment level as full employment, making acquiring the best talent more challenging than ever. In other words, qualified candidates have much greater influence regarding both compensation expectations, as well as job duty definitions.
As talent pools in certain positions and geographic areas dry up, how can you land the best candidates (especially passive ones) quickly and cost-effectively?
Here are some best practices the team at VAR Staffing has seen top VARs and MSPs use to win candidates:
- Actively sell the upsides of your opportunities. At every stage of the hiring process – from initial job posting through offer acceptance – be your company’s greatest cheerleader. In tight talent markets, candidates aren’t simply looking for a job, they’re looking for a great job, and career enhancement.
- Promote the upsides of your available positions, including:
- why a candidate should leave his current position to come work for you
- the unique opportunities and culture benefits your organization offers.
- show off in-house training schedules/opportunities
- highlight any labs/config rooms you have for training and testing
- challenging work
- opportunities for learning and advancement
- convenient location
- flexible work options
- early or frequent performance/salary reviews
- tuition reimbursement
- mentoring opportunities
- corporate community involvement
- paid time off for volunteer work
- Train interviewers to handle objections. If a great candidate has reservations about your company or the job, your team must know how to ferret them out and ease the individual’s concerns, and ultimately keep top candidates interested in your opportunities.
- Accelerate your timetables. The longer your hiring process takes, the more time applicants have the freedom explore other job options. Consider combining first and second round interviews into a single event. Don’t hire recklessly, but don’t have an aimless or unstructured interview process either.
- Streamline your post-interview decision-making. Within reason, whatever you can do to shorten your time-to-hire (without sacrificing quality), will prevent fewer candidates from dropping out of your interview cycle.
Once you’ve found your top-choice candidate with the ideal skills, personality, and experience for the position, now it’s time to seal the deal. Be aware they may receive multiple offers – and you may have to fight for them. Once decided, it’s time for the offer letter. Here is our blog titled How To Write A Winning Offer Letter.
