Elliot Hawker
May 21, 20183 min
The question that I often ask business owners is “what are you finding challenging at the moment”?
The answers can be varied; “the unknown of Brexit”, “the marketplace becoming ever more
competitive”, “rising costs” all commonly feature, however something that is coming through loud, clear and ever more frequent is the overwhelming shortage of talent.
When assessing their resourcing needs, employers are increasingly finding that it takes longer to recruit and when they find someone that might just fulfil the role, the expectation of salary is far more than the employer planned for. Effectively the employer is being squeezed expecting to pay more, for less than what they wanted.
This picture has been forming for some time, but what can employers do about it? Lower
expectations? Increase the salary banding?
If you are one of those employers that has found themselves facing those challenges, why don’t we take a few moments and throw some ideas into a pot?
* Look at focusing the existing talent, it will be easier to retain your performing employees
than go through the costs of a recruitment and training payment;
* Look at raising the level of expected output, but compensate it with a self funding
performance enhancing bonus scheme;
* Start to address the problem by growing your own talent; look at the use of apprentices
which controls the costs; comes with a level of work dedication and you can really influence
the level of performance;
* Work with a trusted recruitment partner; its their market, they do this day in and day out.
Get them working for you to help you find that elusive skillset. It is important to work with
the as a team in order to get the recruit that you need;
* Benchmark your salaries; lets make sure you are competitive in the marketplace;
* Work on your employer branding; its not a quick fix, however the millennium generation are picking out the employers that they want to work with; to get the best out there you have to take pride in your employer branding;
* Take a look at how flexible you can be; what makes an employer more attractive than
another? Can you allow flexible working hours? Working from home? The positive
engagement you get as a result of applying trust in the workforce is well documented and
makes you more attractive as an employer;
* Recruit for the “will” rather than the “skill”; Nucleus HR are passionate about recruiting
teams that are individually motivated, driven, determined, committed, resilient and have a
genuine desire to succeed. Find that in an individual, and they will have the will to learn the skills that you need.
* Redirect your resource; Have you got the team members that could be manouvered into
another role? Are they desperately seeking to progress and want to prove that they can
work with you? They already know the business, try taking your blinkers off and give them
an opportunity to shine;
* Outsource; If you aren’t successful in your search, for the price that you want to pay, then
consider outsourcing. We know as an outsourced provider, there is often a cost save if your
define your needs correctly and find the right provider.
If you would like to discuss any element of the struggles associated with recruitment, or if you have struggled to find the right HR talent, please give us a call and we can talk through how we may be able to support and assist you.