The War for Talent is over, you just know where to find them
🤔 What does this mean for HR profession?
No need for a fire horse to know that our profession is changing rapidly. One of the biggest shifts we’ve seen in the past months is actually in recruitment - or better: Talent Attraction.
If you’ve posted a job recently, you know there is no ‘War for Talent’.
Talent is out there, and it’s available. You probably received a lot of applications. The ‘application flood’ is real, and misleading. A job post can easily attract 200+ applications, but when you dig through them you might not find any strong matches. More applications ≠ better hiring. It just means more noise.
🙈 If you or your recruitment team are only reviewing inbound applications, you're falling into the AI Talent Trap.
There are lot of people out there who are looking for a better job, or simply a job (yes, unemployment is real too!), and the smart ones have discovered how easy it is to apply for roles using AI. With often limited recruitment resources on our side, we’re now back in a place where providing a great candidate experience is almost impossible.
Who is actually able to review all those applications and send decent rejections, and at the same time fill roles with quality candidates who might not be applying at all? We’re spending our scarce time the wrong way.
The solution? ‘Source and they shall find’
Roland Grootenboer gave us the answer last week during a presentation at Tellent Connect. 70% of the candidates our there are passive: people who aren't actively job hunting but would consider the right opportunity. They are happy to be approached though and will talk to you if you come with an interesting proposition. But the good ones are also the lazy ones, they aren’t targetting you - they are waiting for you to come to them.
🚀 Yes, we need to go back to old-school sourcing. We couldn’t agree more. It was always part of any good recruitment strategy. With sourcing you can diversify and strengthen your shortlist. Some of us, the smart ones 😅, don’t rely on incoming applications. We source a number of strong candidates, and maybe supplement that with a few inbound CV’s.
Spend a few hours looking for profiles which could match. Work with hiring managers to identify the right talent, and approach them. It takes a bit of time to put together a shortlist, but if only a few of these candidates agree to talk to you - you’re able to skip days of reviewing mainly unsuitable inbound applications.
Will they like us? ‘You need a strong EVP’
When you source candidates, you need to bring a compelling story to them. Because why would they change jobs? If you know that 70% of talent is passively looking, just assume there is a way to convince them. And this is where a strong Employer Value Proposition comes in handy.
You’re not building your employer brand to attract more inbound candidates, you are creating this to be attractive to the right future talent you need. Some companies stop investing in Employer Branding because they already get so many applications. WRONG. Your employer brand should be so strong, that only the very best people, the best suitable ones, apply.
How do I build a strong Employer Brand? ‘Listen to your people’
We discussed this in a room full of employer branding and recruitment experts last week. The outcome was: use your own people to define your brand, keep it authentic.
What we mean is that every company has a strong employer brand. It’s what your people say about the company. And if you are able to extract that into a story, combined with future perspective on growth, you have an EVP.
Top Tip? ‘Use your eNPS data and AI’
If you want an honest EVP, use company data. Use what is already there.
For example, if you have run an engagement survey in the past year, you have all the information about how people feel about the company. You know how they feel about salary, L&D, growth, leadership… and many more topics of you’ve done an extensive survey.
Using AI you can very easily pick up on common themes, the good ones and the lesser ones. If everyone complains about benefits, don’t brag about those externally. If everyone loves the flexibility and growth opportunities in your company, please DO brag about those.
Let’s create those irresistible organizations! One strong and authentic EVP at the time. Able to attract Top Talent - because that will solve most of your HR problems :).
