So, we have dealt with the hiring highs of the post-Covid Boom, and the lows of a stagnating economy for the last 18+ months or so… so what happens now?
The tech market at the moment is crushingly competitive if you are a candidate, and sometimes overwhelmingly populated if you are a hiring manager.
Candidates are seeing fewer jobs being listed and higher expectations from the company’s hiring team. All the while the cost of living keeps going up and up - so we see panic and desperation ensue!
Clients are just as stretched. Budgets are getting cut, expectations are increased, and redundancies are constantly threatened…
Only a couple of weeks ago I had a client who wanted to try and manage a hiring process directly, and within a couple of days, they had over 100 applications. They picked up the phone in a frenzy, wondering how on earth they were going to do their day job, review CVs, book interviews, manage multiple stakeholders’ diaries, manage their team, negotiate salaries, and get a decent night’s sleep to try and do it all again the next day.
“So how best to navigate this?” I hear you ask.
As a hiring manager, make sure you have a clear definition of what you are looking for. Set aside time in your week for CV reviews, interview availability from you and your team, and a clear interview process that does not take more than 3 weeks to get through from start to finish.
Once you have this in place, the fun starts.
If you are using an internal talent team/HR/external recruitment partner, be clear in your expectations with them, and feedback to them. Positive and negative. The more you provide them with the more they can fine-tune their searches and provide you with better matches.
The benefits of using an external recruitment partner during the current market cannot be overlooked. Especially if you start to look at them as a value add, rather than a cost. At Cox Purtell see through the noise, we are working our networks constantly and know who you should be speaking to. You don’t have to slug through masses of applications and spend hours of your day job, being CV sifting and conducting interviews of candidates who have not been prequalified for you and are bought into your role before you speak to them.
How do you justify this as a business cost? Don’t get me wrong, having to pay a chunk of cash looks like a big hit on your CFOs spreadsheet, but have you/they considered how much of a cost the process is taking up?
From processing all of the applications, spending hours away from your day-to-day job, to hoping that the right person applies to your job, you get them booked in for interviews and bought into you and the role, to then signed on the dotted line, all while you are also up again x number of other applications they have made… at what point does the cost-effectiveness of this get questioned?
Partner with a good recruiter. And by partner, I mean, buy into them, as much as they want to buy into you. You will see the benefits of engaging an external resource. Don’t get me wrong, you will still kiss a few frogs, but if you truly partner with a recruiter who cares about their work, your hiring success will skyrocket. They will allow for you and your team to crack on with your day job, be productive and make the business money, while also conducting a effective hiring process.
What more could you want? 😊
