The jobs market and its aberrations…

Paul O’Loughlin

What is the one thing that affects talent seekers…? It is the talent shortage! Across the globe organisations are screaming out for people and the demand is increasing. Why is it therefore that the hiring intentions of companies and institutions are stigmatised by paralysing slow response to the hiring of good talent? The world it seems, is intoxicated by an inability to make hiring decisions!

This is evident across all industries from healthcare, through aviation, construction, it, communications, engineering, mining, and heavy industry. The old axiom that “good people are in high demand” has never been more evident, but also “perfect” candidates do not exist! Great candidates do, so when in fact they meet the job requirements, hiring organisations need to seize the moment and hire the individual. Otherwise, both the candidate as well as their current employer have an ever-increasing opportunity to fall back in love with one another.

What I have seen on the rise is the “counter-offer”. That is, when a candidate who is under offer is persuaded to stay with their current organisation. If you give candidates time to luxuriate with an ego enhancing offer, as time ticks by the likelihood of them getting cold feet increases. Likewise, organisations that have a long and convoluted hiring process run the gauntlet of losing candidates. The current jobs market does not offer the luxury of time!

My advice to any organisation sourcing human capital is to move quickly. Seize the talent with well thought out offers, but move swiftly, otherwise your competition will.

Another valuable piece of advice for those utilising the expertise of recruitment agencies and search firms, stay close, communicate often, provide meaningful feedback after conducting interviews and create a relationship with your talent scout. All too often hiring leads do not invest the effort nor time and then wonder why they receive a sub-standard result. Investing in the process always provides a much more fruitful result. Keeping recruiters and sourcing specialists at arm’s length is a furphy which only leads to dissatisfaction with the result. Interestingly, the person responsible always blames the recruiter. Go figure!

Ubidy | Global Talent on Demand