Recent Labour Market surveys highlight that recruitment difficulties are on the rise for Australian businesses, and one of the key challenges is finding the right candidates. It makes sense that this is the state of play right now for two reasons.
Firstly, many businesses are firing up the recruitment machine after a period of low activity at the height of the pandemic, so job vacancies are on the rise. Secondly, COVID-19 changed the way many of us want to work. Today’s candidates are looking for employers who will offer a supportive culture, flexible hours and remote work, and in a candidate market, they likely won’t need to compromise.
Navigating a candidate short market is a tricky one for businesses, but there are some ways you can set yourself up for success.
#1 Maximise your candidate reach
The first step in any recruitment process is to find and target the best candidates, because if you don’t get the right applications in, your recruitment process fails from the outset. While traditional job sites certainly have their place, if you are not using social channels and sharing opportunities in your network, you’re missing out on one of the best talent pools – qualified people who aren’t actively looking.
These candidates may not even know they want another job, but then someone in their network shares a job and says, ‘Hey you’d be good at this!’ and it goes from there. These can be some of your best candidates because they are genuinely interested and believe they’re right for your role.
You can also consider Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and how you use keywords in your job ad to make sure the right people find them. Having your own dedicated careers page that is easy to navigate and helps people see all the available opportunities is also a great idea to reach more candidates.
Your technology, such as your Applicant Tracking System (ATS), should support this and help you post jobs wherever your candidates are.
#2 Increase the speed of your recruitment
The best way to lose the right candidates is to have a lengthy and sluggish recruitment process. In a candidate short market, the best candidates will likely receive other offers, so if you are interested it pays to move quickly and keep them informed and engaged throughout the process.
Streamlining your recruitment process to identify and progress suitable candidates quickly is a must. This is one area where the right tech can make all the difference.
Make sure your ATS can support you to screen and prioritise applicants quickly. Most ATS software provides you with screening question functionality for job ads to help with this process. Two additional features Turbo clients really love to assist with this process are our AI (Artificial Intelligence) matching and our newly released one-way video interviewing tool that enables candidates to record and send their responses to your questions. Just like a live interview, candidates don’t see the questions beforehand and can’t go back and review or re-record responses, so you can really get a feel for a candidate’s personality from the outset.
Then it’s all about engagement. Lack of communication is one of the key complaints candidates have about recruitment, but it’s an easy fix with the right technology. Automating your candidate communications across multiple channels is critical. With Turbo, you can automate candidate communication by email and SMS to keep candidates engaged at every step.
With the right selection, screening, and engagement tools in place, you can quickly organise to meet the candidates who meet your needs – from background and experience to cultural fit, before they choose the competition.
#3 Make them want to work for you
From the very beginning, when they first read your job ad, candidates are getting a sense of what’s on offer, specific to the role and also to the broader organisational culture. This where you can make them want to work for you, and you can do that by ensuring they have a good experience with your recruitment process.
Start by making the application as easy as possible for the candidate to give them that initial positive feeling about your organisation. Turbo’s Single Page Apply careers sites allow candidates to complete their applications using any web-connected device all on a single page (as the name suggests). No more flicking between pages to review your application as you complete it.
Something else that works really well for Turbo clients in this area is our Single Candidate Experience (SCE) platform for Compliance and Onboarding. Integrated with the Turbo ATS platform, this feature allows you to offer a simple, intuitive, online process for candidates to provide any documentation or certification, or to sign any contracts or agreements without the hassle of back-and-forth communications. The ease and experience of such a process really says a lot about your organisation. You can even embed videos and create your own messaging throughout the process to give candidates information about your organisation and its culture, ensuring a strong impression and a great overall experience.
Is your technology supporting you to find the right candidates in a tight market? Get in touch to discuss how Turbo can help you find, screen, engage and onboard the right people to drive your business forward.