Tag: Hiring

Hiring

A Strange December for Hiring and Recruitment

Usually, the flow of candidates slows down considerably in December, as you will know if you’ve ever tried to hire anyone around this time of year.

Not this year. We have seen such large numbers of candidates for some of the roles we are working on at the moment that we had to pause the ads to have enough time to respond to all the candidates.

I thought it might just be these particular jobs, but I was talking with our Indeed account manager just yesterday, and he says it’s been happening across the board. He thinks it may be because of all the uncertainty and tough financial situations, and this is encouraging more candidates to apply at this time than usual.

There is no sign of the rush slowing down.

So, if you are thinking of hiring anyone, now is a much better time to start than you would have thought. But you must make sure you get back to candidates quickly. We know you may well be very busy at the moment, but a delayed response is a great way to lose good candidates.

We have even had some really excellent candidates for remote Machine Learning Engineer positions (these are pretty hard to find). Our client then needed to change the requirements at the last minute and locate people on-site. This meant our candidates no longer met the key location requirement. So let me know if you are looking for any Machine Learning candidates or know someone who is.

Just get in touch if you have any questions or would like a quick chat.

Hiring

Why hiring is more difficult at the moment and 3 things you can do

If you’ve tried hiring anyone recently, you may have noticed that it’s more difficult than usual.  

There are all kinds of reasons for this. First, there are fewer people looking for jobs (quite a lot of people decided they really didn’t want to carry on working after being in lockdown). Second, there are more jobs in some sectors. In addition, there aren’t enough people with some of the key qualifications required. The list goes on. 

This means that it’s very much a candidates’ market at the moment and probably will be for some time. 

We have seen fewer applicants overall for most roles, and also, fewer applicants are a good match applying for roles. 

So, what can you do about it? 

Here are some key things you can do:

  • Make sure you are offering the right package – not just pay but also added benefits. If you are a small company, you can often be much more flexible than a large corporation. Offering a few extra days off or some flexibility has huge value for many candidates and can be a very low cost to your company. We have seen clients lose very good candidates because they were not prepared to offer a little flexibility. One client was not happy to offer any time off in the first year. The top candidate’s mother had a heart attack, and the candidate wanted to have a couple of days to visit her as she was some distance away. The client would not include this. To me, this seemed a very short-sighted (and heartless) response. The candidate turned the offer down.
  • Respond very quickly to candidates. Many companies take weeks to respond – seriously! In that time, a lot of candidates, particularly the good ones, get other jobs. When I say quickly, I mean within a day. This means you need to have a good system in place for getting back to them, even if it’s just a short call or email to thank them for sending in their resume. (My own daughter applied for a lot of waitressing jobs when she left university. One company got in touch three months after she had applied and asked if she was still available; they seemed surprised when she wasn’t!)
  • Make sure you are ready and prepared with your offer, don’t start working it out after you have finally decided to hire the candidate.

I know these things sound really basic, but you’d be amazed at how many people get these things wrong. These key tips can give you an advantage over other employers. 

Just get in touch if you need some help; we’ll be happy to talk.