War for Talent

Many companies, during the pandemic, did not know what the future would bring. They acted with caution and stopped the recruitment and hiring processes all together. However, the pandemic did not affect all industries on the same level. Some industries were impacted more and some less, and others experienced even better results than the previous/non-pandemic year. And then they evaluated their business – do they need to restructure, do they have enough people, etc.? Thus, the hiring process started again and, all of sudden, these companies realized that there was a shortage of available talent.

Candidates on the other hand were also facing uncertainty during the pandemic … would they keep the job, would they be made redundant, etc.? And now when head-hunters approach them, they must calculate whether is it worth changing the job or keeping the one that helped them survive the pandemic.

How to find and attract the right people?

Many times, it is easier to hire a recruiter for the job. Firstly, if the search is confidential or the candidate works for the competitor. Secondly the recruiter has a lot of experience in finding and approaching the right candidates and usually acting as a middle man. It is easier for a candidate to open up to the external recruiter than to a future employer.

Make them interested

When the recruiter approaches the candidate with the right bait the candidate, hopefully, accepts and responds. Then the “process of wooing” starts. What is important to the candidate? An interesting position is not enough. For some candidates it is the employer branding, for others the vicinity of the company, and for others what about career development? What would be the next step in their career and would this be possible with the company? These are all the questions that recruiter needs to know the answer to. It is important to recognize the key motivator(s) and present it/them to the employer. Can the company offer them? If so, we can move forward towards closing a deal if not, let’s move to the next candidate. It is not as easy as this – the whole process is negotiations. When we reach a win-win situation that the hiring process stops.

After the contract of employment is signed

So, the company hires a new employee. Everybody is excited and they all live happily ever after? Well not really, then the process of how to keep him/her starts.

Article written by Jana Terčelj, CFR Global Executive Search Serbia