Recruitment Problems & Solutions: How To Make Your Company Stand Out To Candidates

Jul 15, 2022

Only the brightest and best stand out

With the power balance shifting from employers to candidates, a change of strategy is required for companies, especially those pursuing prospects who are very much in-demand.

But what can these companies do to entice reluctant professionals to them? What would attract someone to your business when they can go to your competitor?

Why do people work for you right now?

You don’t have to start from scratch if you can replicate something but do you have something worth replicating yet?

Company culture is a big pull these days for young millennials and zoomers, who want to feel engaged. By promoting an already existing winning combination of values, vision and environment you shouldn’t fail to attract the new generation.

Competitive salaries are the bare minimum and in-demand candidates are going to expect a perk package to show they are valued. You should perhaps also reassess your perk package if you have realised it is lacklustre. Your current employees may hear about other companies offering more. Exceeding expectations mean you will be viewed positively.

Are you looking at your company from an outside point of view?

So many companies think they are giving the best impression they can to the outside world, but at some point they are faced with the ugly truth that they don’t look as good as they should and their competitors have outflanked them as they were sleeping.

Many companies have been tempted to treat their employees carelessly and they fail to remember that over 4/5 of candidates will check them out on Glassdoor or equivalent job review boards. Bad reviews on Glassdoor point to a rot within a company but also to a lack of self-awareness.

The company must be viewed through the eyes of a stranger. Looking around, do you see problems that could be fixed? Is due care and attention given to the first impressions your company will be giving to candidates? Sometimes these things are large and sometimes they are small, but they all matter.

Does your brand match up?

Are you a forward-facing, future-embracing company, yet your website is old, out-of-date, un-updated? Does it have a STAFF section of the site that features a lot of people who left ages ago? Why has it not been updated? Whose job was it to update it? This minor things speaks loudly about the company. It shows that people who work there are not prized and that, in turn, means they will not be directing people to the site to promote it. And if your own employees aren’t promoting your business, you are throwing money down the drain.

Over 3/4 of those seeking jobs check out a prospective employer’s brand before they apply for that job so this is not a minor thing we are talking about here.

Are your job specs doing you no favours?

The major failing of a job spec is that it encourages those who are not a good fit for the job, to think that they are a good fit for the job. This is not their fault, this is the fault of the company that puts out misleading job specs. Not only does it give people a bad impression of the company, it also wastes everyone’s time.

In addition to this, it can also put off those who you do want to apply. Job specs are seen as a technicality but really they are a highly-important piece of marketing. Time, effort and energy should be devoted to these early on or more time, effort and energy will be spent further down the line, but without much to show for it.

Do you need help?

It is the hardest thing in the world to admit that you need help but sometimes it needs to be done. A specialist recruitment partner know where to find the best candidates, they can be your evangelists to the candidate, seeing as they are a third-party and have more of an objective view and they can also advice of any blind spots you have in your company’s brand, job specs and the impression you make.

Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.

Recruiting: Have You Exhausted Your Network?

Jul 7, 2022

Is it really time to bang your head on the desk?

It is fair to say that over the last few years a lot of companies have hit a wall.

A lot of people working for companies have also hit a wall too. In terms of burnout, in terms of work life balance and also in terms of network exhaustion.

It is not an exaggeration that a lot of recruitment ran on the engine of existing networks of those already working within the company. That mythical number of 80% of jobs not even being advertised may not be so mythical after all.

The recent churn of employees has put pressure on existing networks leading companies that are not used to requiring recruitment partners to venture out into the job wilderness in search of help, but what can you do if you feel you have exhausted your network.

Is your network exhausted?

Firstly, you must explore whether you have actually exhausted your network.

Sometimes a change of perspective can reveal the truth.

If you are used to making minimal demands and receiving maximum rewards from it, it can feel that when you start seeing less of a return, you believe that your demands are too much. This may not necessarily be the case. If a lot of people in your industry are calling in favours at the same time, or chasing the same specialists, it can create a bit of a bottleneck in terms of talent.

If you have built solid contacts, you should not be afraid to ask a little more from them. Persistence can be key. Everyone is busy and can just simply forget about that question you asked. Keep going.

Untapped resources

How about thinking outside the box?

A lot of the time we only really look at what is in front of us. We don’t mean to, but our brains are set up to focus on what appears to be the most important task, or person.

Spider diagram, mindmap or whatever way you do it, you should start working out possible connections to other networks. When we really sit down and think about it, we always have a much larger network to draw from than we first realise. Anyone you have worked with, volunteered with, played sport with, they all may know people.

Expand your network

This may seem like a no-brainer, but being genuinely interested in people can open a lot of doors. Networking should never feel like a race. Striking up conversations in the real world at a trade show or on social media can lead to unexpected connections. The longer the conversation, the more likely there is six degrees of separation becoming apparent.

Linkedin is an obvious resource but are you using it to its full potential? What are your competitors doing? Who are they following? Have some interesting people commented on their posts? Is that something worth pursuing?

Utilise someone else’s network

At the end of the day, you can always partner up with a recruiter who has systems in place to find those hard-to-find hidden gem candidates. This does not involve simply sending out job ads to the usual networks but, instead, pinpoint targeting of those with the in-demand skillsets your business requires to propel your business into the future. Those that offer this service, offer so much more than just ‘recruitment’ but are recommending your organisation to prospects who are wanting to work for the best.

Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.