This year we may be forced into a different reality whether we like it or not. From the staffing perspective this will be the year of the wake up call for many people in HR/Staffing roles. The economy is in the midst of a full swing change and what you did in the past to attract, hire and retain your talent will simply not cut it anymore.
Every indication in the last two fiscal quarters suggests that hiring is on the rise. It doesn´t take much of an effort to see that a good number of these jobs are of the meaty variety, which simply means that people who will be looking have more selection and more meaningful jobs with real opportunity within their grasp. The idea of taking a job just to stay employed (and in many cases underemployed) just won´t cut it anymore. There is a real sense of pent up frustration amongst many of the employed who were forced to make some tough decisions in the last few years.
If you lived through the last ´War for Talent" back in the late 90´s you´ll have some idea of what I´m talking about: MBA´s asking for 6 figure salaries straight out of college or companies giving out one-year leases to high end sports cars as signing bonuses. These are just some examples of the kind of insanity that was prevalent in some markets where they were desperate for talent. Are we poised for more of the same? Well, the talent crunch will happen. Hopefully we´ve all come to our senses and won´t resort to the same insanity to attract talent. Think more along the lines of better work environment and more flexibility in job structure as a way to attract talent.
If you haven´t checked the pulse of your own company recently you might be surprised to find out the mix of engaged, quasi-engaged and completely disengaged employees you have on staff. If the only way to verify this statistic involves checking your turnover rates on a weekly/monthly basis - you´re in deeper trouble than you think - when turnover begins and a few success stories start to trickle in from the outside:
" Jim left last week and he had three offers to choose from. He landed a real cool job as a supervisor and now he has his own team. Guess what? He says they´re hiring four other people just like him in the next six weeks! Let´s go apply there!!"
"Purdita went over to ABC company and they hired her on as a Manager. She always wanted to get back in to management and now she´s getting her chance. I heard she will hire her own team now. If she calls I´d work for her any day."
If your team is really engaged and everyone is happy and no one is underemployed then you have no worries, do you? Can you honestly look up and down your rosters and make that claim? Very few companies can. So what can you do? Well perhaps a change of perspective is in line. Are you offering what you can to keep people engaged and challenged? How effective is your internal mobility and succession planning program? Are you losing people to the competition who had the skills you needed to fill other positions and you just didn´t know it?
If you haven´t given serious consideration to how you´re going to improve your employment brand you´re probably going to start to notice less candidate traffic soon. Candidates aren´t just looking for their next paycheck anymore. Candidates are looking for more fulfilling challenges. In case you haven´t noticed they´re also that much more educated and aware of what´s being offered in the marketplace. They´ll be asking more and more questions and demanding answers. They´ll be expecting you to have competitive offerings from every angle. They´ll want to make sure they have a firm and clear understanding of exactly what they can expect if they accept an employment offer with your company. If you aren´t prepared to answer their questions and leave an impression with your answers then your interview to hire ratio may skyrocket over night.
If you haven´t assessed the level of engagement of your overall workforce turnover will become your biggest headache. Taking the reactive approach and simply back filling these newly open positions with run of the mill candidates is accepting a reality that won´t exist for much longer - along with your current personal employment status.
