How to Stand Out to Steal the Best Talent

It’s not just you — hiring in this job market is no joke, and the numbers back it up. 

In August 2021, the number of job openings increased to 10.9 million. At the same time, a record 4.3 million  workers quit their jobs. Suffice to say, people are leaving their jobs in record numbers for other opportunities. 

While there is no doubt that the candidate has the upper hand in this market, people’s willingness to leave their current roles creates opportunities for organizations that properly positioned themselves to take advantage of them. 

Opportunity Knocks.

In an environment where 2.9% of the workforce just quit their jobs and, according to a recent survey , more than a third of workers are actively looking for a new job, your organization might be in a position to hire top talent that would not have been interested talking to recruiters at all. 

Given the massive amount of change that workers have undergone since the beginning of the pandemic, it’s no surprise that people are rethinking and reprioritizing what they want to get out of work. 

The key for employers will be to connect with these candidates and start moving them through the hiring process quickly. And that means you need to focus on the quality of execution in your recruiting process. 

Is Your Recruiting Process Built for Speed and Quality?

Evaluate your current recruiting processes and ask yourself: 

• Where are your bottlenecks?
• Is it a challenge to schedule hiring manager interviews?
• Are you starving for qualified candidates?
• Do you feel like you’re getting candidates who look good on paper but don’t last on the job?
• Is your ATS helping or hurting the hiring process?
• Are you unintentionally screening out great candidates who need a little upskilling? 

Asking direct questions like this will help you identify changes and upgrades that can better position you to make great hires fast.

Don’t Ignore the Potential Impact of the Right Technology.

Although it is by no means a solution, the right talent acquisition technology investments can have a massive impact on your ability to source, attract, and hire the right people quickly. Technology adequately designed and implemented will save you time and effort while acting as an enhancement of your talent acquisition staff rather than a replacement. 

Your organization might have the most enlightened, perfect-for-your-purpose talent acquisition strategy in the known universe, and you could still wind up hamstrung by your recruiting technology. AI-powered recruitment automation tools have the potential to connect you with qualified candidates faster than ever before. 

Modernize the Hiring Experience for All Stakeholders.

Candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters are used to increasingly easy, low-friction consumer experiences (e.g., Amazon, Netflix, etc.), which naturally raises the bar for recruiting experiences. Candidates don’t want to spend two hours applying for a job they might not even get, and hiring managers don’t want to spend their time emailing back and forth about their availability for interviews.

In an environment where top talent holds all the cards, do you want to waste their time and ask them to jump through unnecessary hoops? Consider how tools like automated scheduling, standardized screening questions, realistic job previews, or personalized job recommendations can make the hiring process cleaner and less stressful for all concerned.

While some of these tools or tactics might seem insignificant — like automated scheduling, for example — they contribute to an overall streamlined process, which creates a positive candidate experience.

Shaving minutes off the process where you can increase the likelihood of submissions in a way that ensures you aren’t missing out on talent because of an antiquated, clunky application process. So, don’t overlook the small details; now is the time to dissect your processes from start to finish. People expect sleek, user-friendly interfaces and experiences, and hiring is no exception. 

Offload Administrative Tasks; Free Recruiters to Focus on More Strategic Work.

Chances are, your recruiters are spending too much time on administrative tasks that software could easily automate. This strategy is bad for your organization because machines tend to complete repeatable tasks faster and with fewer errors than humans.

It also means that your recruiters have less time to do high-value activities that technology cannot do, such as connecting with candidates on a human level, making judgment calls about who should move forward in the hiring process, or consulting with hiring managers. 

Increase Candidate Quality; Speed Up the Hiring Process.

In the right hands, AI-powered hiring technology can increase candidate quality by leaps and bounds. And, when you have a better slate of candidates to consider, you can move faster with greater confidence about who will fill your mission-critical roles. 

Of course, because of the power behind these kinds of tools, it’s essential to make sure that whomever you partner with can verify that their vetting and selection tools and processes are unbiased. 

Strike While the Iron Is Hot.

Workers are changing jobs at historical rates, and candidates are making decisions faster than ever. Technology will likely be the difference from now on, between onboarding or missing out on the best next hire.

By investing in the right tools and combining them with a modern recruiting mindset, leaders can seize the opportunity to corner the hiring market and bring in a stream of top talent even when demand is high.

If you’re short on talent or just eager to take advantage of the increased churn in talent markets, now is the time to stand out.

Pooja Maggon is Global Head of Human Resources at eTeam and High5.

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