The job market is picking up and it hasn’t been a buyers market for a few months now. In fact, we are seeing candidates with multiple interviews and offers going on at any one time making it harder as an employer to secure that great talent you need. 

 I was working with Saatchi and Saatchi a long time ago back in 2010 launching the regional consulting arm of PwC. They were talking about ‘moments that matter’, a concept we are all much more familiar with now across all businesses circa 10 years later.  

They had been working with Delloite at the time who was struggling with having job offers accepted. They were confused, candidates would get through up to 4 interviews and earn an offer just to turn it down. They were seeing a high percentage of offer rejections. 

Saatchi and Saatchi conducted research by talking to a group of these candidates and tested some of the assumptions that Deloitte were making. They found that these candidates were also talking to other large professional services organisations and so often had more than one offer on the table. When asked why they did not accept the Deloitte offer, they said it was because their interviewers didn’t seem very passionate about working for Deloitte or what they did.  

Saatchi and Saatchi suggested that during every final interview the partner would stop and take a few moments to explain to each candidate why they are passionate about working for Deloitte. Overnight they saw offer acceptances shoot up and they had solved the issue.  

Delloite had made the mistake of believing that they were big enough and special enough that anyone who was offered a job with them would accept. They believed the candidate had to sell themselves and not that they had to also sell Deloitte and the role on offer. They had forgotten there was a market outside, a thriving market with some great offers and opportunities for these top candidates. And they had forgotten that their competition was reaching out to and attracting the best candidates from the same talent pool.  

We are hearing everywhere right now that there is a skills shortage across all sectors and the project management and digital transformation skills pools are no different. There may be a lot of candidates out there, but the cream of the crop is being contacted daily right now by many organisations creating very real competition and a fast-moving environment. We are seeing candidates getting to final interview and offer only to be swept up by an organisation that is moving faster. This is costly for the losing business.  

For a few months towards the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 it was a buyers market, but not anymore.  

You might have a job to offer, but making the mistake of forgetting that you must sell that job to the top candidates will be a costly one. I now always stop in an interview and explain why I love where I work and what is great about the opportunity I have to offer. And it gets results.  

It is time to work more closely with your recruitment providers as partners and not just as a service, share your strategy and empower them to find the right people to help deliver your objectives. Working closely together as partners you can solve this problem and the businesses that take this approach will win the talent.  

Don’t underestimate how your recruiter can help. They are at the crossroads of the marketing, they speak to your competition and they know what is going on and how to secure the right people for you fast. They are there to help you navigate this tricky fast-moving market. 

We are seeing a change in the way recruiters are working with their candidates as well, webinars through lockdown have built closer more authentic and trusting relationships. By strengthening relationships along with the whole supply chain results will be higher quality.  

Companies have never hired as many people per year as they do now. Hiring from within is less successful and professionals are moving between competitors more than they ever have before. So the market is still becoming harder and harder to sift through. The cost of hiring and training new joiners is going up every year and finding stability in your most strategic asset, your people, is more challenging than ever.  

We have always had a small resentment for recruitment companies, they are salespeople after all. It is time to understand them as strategic partners who can help you to build successful teams.  

At Portare Solutions, we have experience in business strategy and managing large scale change, so we know how to understand what you are working towards. We can support you with resourcing plans and strategies looking ahead to support you to achieve your business objectives by being proactive instead of reactive.  

Share with us today and we will listen, understand and help you to successfully achieve your strategic goals.