With the COVID restrictions easing and businesses able to re-open, the biggest concern I am hearing from my clients at the moment is the challenges they are facing to find, recruit and retain their core staff.
With many businesses re-opening at once, it is no surprise each business is competing for a smaller pool of eligible staff. Which is why, previous recruitment processes won’t cut it.
As we have had to recreate many business and customer service standards to accommodate new ways of doing business, it is imperative we recreate our recruitment process and practices as well, they must reflect the current environment.
So, how do you attract the best possible person when they have a multitude of positions to apply for?
When I ask myself this question two steps become apparent:
You must be clear on what you are recruiting and,
The position must stand out
Step One – Be Clear On What You Are Recruiting (defining your needs)
I guess my point is when we are clear on the current gaps within our business, identifying what we are actually recruiting becomes clear and opens up different pathways to find, recruit and retain staff.
For example, if you are looking to recruit a host or hostess or frontline customer service person the what, becomes all about their people skills, personality, attitude and how they fit into your team rather than particular skills, certificates and licenses that are industry based.
The same applies if you are looking to recruit a leader or manager. Leadership and management skills are in themselves a particular skillset and proven leadership experience is transferrable from industry to industry.
It’s important to separate what we are recruiting from what you can teach them. We must open up the playing field to attract the best possible person. It comes back to having Your Aces In the Right Places.
The biggest mistake people make when recruiting, is that it is all about previous experience – they think the RIGHT person MUST have previous experience.
Unfortunately, in the current environment the reality is that you’re recruiting in areas that other businesses are also struggling to find people within, which comes back to the small pool of people. If you are just relating to the best possible person as having past experience within your industry this continues to limit rather than open you up to a wider group of people from other industries.
When I am recruiting for my hospitality clients for example, I don’t care what experience they have had, as long as they love serving people and being of service, I know I can train and upskill them.
For more information on defining your what, read my previous blog 10 Major Steps to Successful Recruitment – Step One Defining Your Needs
Step Two – The Position Must Stand Out (your advertisement must stand out)
The other biggest challenge facing businesses today is the uncertain and unreliable environment that we are operating within. People want a position that is reliable and where they feel they can count on their employers to do the right thing by them, even in these uncertain times.
And even now, there’s still no guarantee that we may NOT go back into some form of lockdown or that the easing restrictions may change at any time. When recruiting we must be mindful that everyone’s on tender hooks about this new reality we live and operate our businesses within.
Because of this, there are a lot of highly skilled people looking to make changes, looking for something different and a move into a new industry and this is a fantastic opportunity that must be maximised when attracting the best possible person.
Think about the job and the kind of person you’d like to apply for it. Put yourself in their shoes. What is going to attract them to apply for this job? And where will you find them?
Keep the advertisement open, do NOT narrow your selection criteria to a skills based advertisement or a particular industry, as previously mentioned.
Keep it fun, remember that you know what the good things about this job are, but other people might not.
There might be many reasons (i.e., Selling points) for the position. You can and should use all of these selling points in the copy.
You must, however, select just one to focus on and develop the one main selling point. You could use your main selling point as your headline.
For example, how can you accommodate people’s expectations and create a post COVID working environment?
Can you BE more flexible? Depending on the position, can you create a work from home/business location balance?
Can you hand on heart contractually guarantee to what you will do for your staff if lockdown comes back into play? What conditions can you contractually put into place that will create trust and reliability?
Again, these are all incredibly engaging selling points.
Summary
In tougher times, when competing for a smaller pool of eligible staff, it is imperative:
we recreate our recruitment process and practices to have them reflect the current environment
we must open up the criteria of the person we seek outside our industry base and,
we must be able to provide or at least tap into a whole new set of expectations new recruits as well as existing staff are bringing to the table
For more information on Attracting the Best Possible Person read my previous blog 10 Major Steps to Successful Recruitment – Step Two – Attracting the Best Possible Person
If you would like to have a chat with me about about how the 10 Major Steps to Successful Recruitment can support you in Attracting the Best Possible Person contact me I look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
Craig