January 2021 marked the beginning of seismic disruption in the hiring landscape, which has created a fierce market for top talent. Why? In addition to the extremely high demand for talent, typical candidate pools that organizations recruit from have drastically changed.
Today, there are two major types of candidate pools to hire from:
1. Talent that is hesitant to make any career moves.
2. Talent that is itching to make a change and is ready to leave their current organization.
That said, talent pool 1 is harder to reach and connect with than ever before. On average it can take anywhere from 5-10 contact attempts to reach these individuals, and before, it only took 2-3. And, while talent pool 2 may sound easier to connect with, the reality is that for every candidate that leaves an organization, there are 2-5 companies trying to hire them.
With such an intense hiring landscape, it is imperative that organizations have a smart hiring and retention strategy put in place. So, to better understand the best practices to find, attract and retain top talent, we’ve partnered with Shalini Duggal (Centrilogic), Chris Mulhall (Lightspeed HQ), and Netty Kim (Sales Talent Agency) for a live panel discussion.
A few of our top takeaways from the session include:
5:35 – Navigating today’s hiring landscape is especially challenging for two main reasons. First, one pool of available talent is very hesitant to make any career changes, thus making it hard for organizations to engage and connect with them. Second, for the candidates that are interested in making a move, it takes an organization twice as much effort as they have multiple opportunities vying for their attention.
47:47 – It is imperative for talent acquisition teams to understand what would motivate a candidate to work with their particular company and share proof of how their organization addresses these motivators throughout the interview process.
43:45 – Today, candidates are looking to work for organizations that have a great corporate culture, have flexibility in their work-life balance and offerings, and are honest and transparent throughout the interview process.
49:09 – Strong leadership is also highly important in today’s candidate market. This means that the hiring manager needs to be involved, engaged, and at the forefront of the interview process. In turn, this will help the candidate understand the level of support and connection they have with their potential leader.
53:33 – Human Resources, talent acquisition teams, and hiring managers need to pivot. If organizations want access to better candidate pools and talent, they need to change their processes to give the candidate a better experience.