Companies are now facing a major problem – finding the right people to fill essential jobs.
The reports on employment statistics and the simple present reality for many companies is that there simply are not the people with the right skills looking for work.
The reasons for this can be put down to an ongoing fear about job security and worries about the economy. This has stopped many potential candidates from considering moving from their present job.
Employers are starting to look at two approaches to ‘fix’ their recruitment problems:
1. Many are now looking at graduates to fill vacancies where they do not have the present skills but can be trained into roles – identifying the right capabilities, attitude and personality is becoming more important.
2. At the same time there is a growing demand to look at developing existing employees to move into different divisions e.g. marketing into sales, HR into operations etc. – being able to get behind what employees are presently employed to do and seeing potential to be successful in other roles is becoming essential.
3. There is also an imperative to reduce turnover by focusing on retention and putting in place ways of engaging more fully with the needs and desires of their present workforce – this has implications for the culture of the organisation and how people are encouraged to give of their full range of talents.
4. There is now an increasing need to look at flexibility in how people work. Not just part-time and contract work but also outsourcing and collaborations with other companies. Also ‘home working’ needs to be carefully handled, again looking at the specific needs of employees
This has led many forward-looking companies to completely rethink their entire recruitment process. The emphasis has changed from looking at people in the narrow way of what they have done to a much broader approach to what they are capable of doing.
A danger that many companies are facing at present is the statement by many that it is now time to ‘go back to work’ and a reluctance to value the hard work people have done through the pandemic. Companies that ignore the fact that certain people can work easily from home may not have a problem at present because of the need for safety of employment mentioned above, may find once the fear subsides, that employees have lost trust and will decide to look for jobs elsewhere.
At Future Resume we believe our approach to uncovering the potential in people can play a major role in the revolution needed in recruitment. The move to an employee-centric approach is in our view, the way forward.
We maintain that in all four areas above that our approach can support companies looking for processes that will aid them on their journey to find and develop the right people in the right jobs.