2021 was a wild year for the job market, and while 2022 looks promising as things start to recover, this still doesn’t change the fact that human resources and job recruiters need to fill positions immediately. Because of this, recruiting has shifted to favor job candidates over employers—job candidates have more leverage.
Here are some things you can do to make sure you set yourself up to fill vacancies in a candidate’s market.
- Focus on passive candidates. Passive job candidates are those who are currently successfully employed and not looking currently to switch to a new job. One benefit of seeking out passive candidates is that they likely haven’t been interviewing in other places, and you can be one of the first to gauge their interest. Here are some more reasons why passive candidates can help you win 2022.
- Utilize technology. Technology, specifically an applicant tracking system, can help you better target your desired job applicant and quickly sift through applications. This can help streamline some of the mundane and time-consuming tasks at the beginning of the hiring process when you get inundated with applications.
- Minimize the stop gaps. What is keeping you from making the hire you need today? Make sure the hiring committee and your leadership team have a clear process in place before taking interviews and that you have a timeline of when you would like to extend an offer to a candidate. If the process stalls then top talent can lose interest.
- A lack of speed can kill. If you’ve seen a previous trend in the other topics, then this last point won’t come as a surprise. Previous reports say that 62% of professionals lose interest if they don’t hear back from a recruiter within two weeks of the initial interview. Make sure you approach candidates with urgency and when you are ready to make a move and make a hire. In a candidate-driven market, you need to execute quickly. Candidates have the leverage as recruiters scramble to make hires, and if you wait too long to make a decision, you can lose a top applicant to another company.
As you branch out into the world of recruitment, these are things to consider before posting that job listing on LinkedIn or job search site. Yes, you may need to hire someone immediately, but if you aren’t prepared to hire, then you could lose out on the best candidates.
