Attract higher quality hires with these key adjustments to your recruitment strategy

Macroshifts in the global corporate landscape means existing recruitment strategies, where hiring is predominantly based on replacing like for like, are swiftly becoming outdated. Maintaining pace and operational effectiveness requires the skills of talent leaders able to adapt their recruitment strategy plan to better suit these seismic changes, which include a skills-forward approach to hiring and the acknowledgment that many hiring managers are themselves lagging behind in expertise. Fine-tuning recruitment strategies for a tight talent market is essential.

Focusing on skills rather than person profiles should be paramount, given the increasingly wide skills gap where learning and development struggle to keep pace with market changes. According to research by Gartner:

16% of new hires possess the skills they need for their current and future role.

40% of hiring managers say their most recent hire left their team no better off in terms of having the skills needed to meet future challenges.

Not only is there a critical lack of skills, but employee expectations are also changing, with resultant adaptations to existing Employer Value Propositions (EVPs), needed.

Key shifts required to create effective recruiting strategies

• Define talent needs by prioritising skills instead of hiring profiles

Traditionally, hiring for roles has relied on the hiring manager defining the type of person needed based on the previous employee, including career stage, seniority, qualifications etc. In today’s market a skills profile is far more effective than a person profile. A list of skills required – both hard and soft – is a far better barometer of the likelihood a recruit will help meet business objectives and improve performance.

• Uncover the total skills market rather than targeting known talent pools

Hiring managers and talent leaders often rely on the same talent pools they have maintained contact with, utilising known candidates and networks within their industry. With skills shortages increasing at speed however this is not enough to fulfil the gaps. Furthermore, many candidates (including less traditional prospects) are expanding their own skills repertoire through independent – often virtual – learning, which has proliferated over recent years and especially so during the pandemic months, with many working from home with space and time to pursue their own career agendas.

• Create responsive EVPs, not just responsive candidates

Effective recruitment strategies must also adopt more responsive Employer Value Propositions, in direct response to candidate’s expectations which are increasingly varied and demanding. It’s not enough to offer static perks and benefits (pool table in office and so on) in the hope it’ll incentivise talent to join your organisation – responsive EVPs are a result of listening to the desires of the market and then having the dynamism in the organisation to be able to put them in to practice.

Adopting responsive EVPs requires continual appraisal of:

• Existing employee feedback
• Candidate (at all stages of the attraction and selection process) feedback
• Competitor analysis
• Emerging employee needs

Develop your recruitment strategy plan with us

Our specialist consultants have a broad range of market, employer and candidate knowledge, enabling them to help you shape your recruitment strategy to meet the needs of a changing world.  We have access to and will deliver high quality talent to meet your business objectives, allowing your organisation to flourish.

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