How to Find Better Employees During a Labor Shortage

Labor shortages can impact a wide variety of industries, making it difficult to find good people who fit your organization well. Your organization won't wait for the labor shortage to resolve itself, so you need to find strategies that can allow you to continue hiring great talent, even during the worst labor markets.

What are the best strategies to employ in this pursuit?

Make Your Organization More Competitive

First, take a step back and see if you can make your organization more competitive. If candidates see it as a better place to work, they'll be much more likely to choose your organization over one of your competitors.

These are some of the most important areas to review:

·       Pay. Obviously, there will be some limits on what your organization can afford to pay new hires. However, if you have room to increase compensation packages, you might be rewarded with more candidates who accept your employment offers.

·       Culture. For many employees, especially talented and experienced ones, culture is even more important than compensation. They want to work for an organization that genuinely values them, keeps them safe, and allows them to do their best work. Workplaces with compassion, understanding, and flexibility win out over those with stricter environments in most cases.

·       Benefits. You can also make your organization more attractive by offering a better benefits package. Health insurance and retirement options are a great place to start, but even secondary benefits like subsidized gym memberships can serve as excellent perks.

Hire for Talent Over Experience

One excellent option is to hire for talent over experience. Instead of looking for candidates with long resumes and years of experience in the field, focus on hiring candidates who have strong mentalities and personalities, but weaker experience sets.

Once you have a qualified candidate, you can easily educate and train them. For example, if you hire someone who has a steady hand and experience in workplace safety, you can train and certify them in aerial lift operation in a matter of hours. Accordingly, a lack of experience is something that's easily compensable.

The two advantages of this approach are that you can find more available candidates and afford to pay them less. If used intelligently, and if exercised with patience, this can be a massive benefit for your organization.

Consider Remote Workers

You'll get access to more candidates if you consider remote workers, assuming that's possible for the position you're scouting for. If you allow the employee to work remotely, geography is no longer a consideration, and you can instead consider candidates all over the world.

Broaden Your Search Criteria

Similarly, consider broadening your search criteria. There's nothing wrong with having strict standards, especially for essential and powerful positions within your organization. However, you might find a perfectly qualified candidate who falls outside the scope of your initial wish list. If you're struggling to fill a given position, consider casting a wider net.

Broaden Your Use of Channels

You can also broaden your use of recruitment channels, as there are many worth considering in the modern era. It's possible to find great candidates on social media, through job boards, through personal networking, through advertisements, and through a variety of other strategies as well. Use a mix to get the best of all worlds.

Streamline the Application and Interview Processes

You should also streamline your application and interview processes. If you have consistent, expedited processes in place, you'll make a better impression on job candidates, you'll get through more interviews faster, and you'll ultimately end up with qualified candidates faster.

Network More

Networking is arguably the best way to get access to more qualified candidates. The more people you know through your extended network, the more potential candidates you'll have, and the more voices you'll have to amplify your open positions and job requirements.

Focus on Retention

Instead of focusing purely on recruiting and hiring, focus on employee retention. Employee retention is often easier than hiring, and it's less expensive as well.

·       Put culture first. Culture needs to be one of your biggest priorities. Most employees will leave even handsomely rewarding jobs if they have problems with the culture in the workplace.

·       Offer rewards. Rewards and bonuses also keep people interested. Occasional raises, promotions, and bonuses can boost your retention rates significantly.

·       Get feedback. Feedback is one of your best resources for improving your organization. Make sure you talk to your employees regularly and understand what they like most and least about your organization and their place within it.

Together, these strategies should help you build and maintain a more robust workforce, even during critical labor shortages. Feel free to experiment to find which combination of strategies will work best for your organization.