What’s your plan for hiring in a labour shortage environment?

Recently I was working with clients who own small businesses that are experiencing fast growth of demand for their services. As they reached a point of sustained increasing demand and their business financials being supportive of adding resources, both clients enthusiastically proceeded with posting new jobs in their enterprises. In preparing them to contact interesting applicants, I helped them prepare for the interview process (ie. How to filter through the applications, How to ask open-ended questions to assess the skills and competencies most important to being successful in these positions etc…).

Soon after posting these new jobs on various platforms, they received several applications however, much to their disappointment, a considerable portion of qualified candidates they contacted for an interview either ignored their calls and worse, some applicants went through the interview process without a genuine interest in taking on the job! Although I am confident that these clients will successfully fill these positions, this situation highlights the challenges that some business owners and executives currently face in the current labour shortage environment.

Plan for it!

As with most business risks, mitigation is key. Identify the need to add or replace resources well ahead of time and develop a plan to broaden the visibility of the job opening, stimulate the interest of qualified candidates and prepare a back-up strategy to implement if the recruitment process takes far longer than expected.

Visibility:

With job vacancies in Quebec that are more than double what they were 5 years ago (see chart below), opportunities for many genuine job-seeking candidates are abundant. It goes without saying that visibility and differentiators of a job posting can help raise interest and the prospect of qualified candidate applications. Conducting a quick online review of similar or equivalent positions to the one you plan on posting will provide helpful insights in competing with other job openings in your region and industry.

There are many ways to give visibility to a job opening. I personally find that a combination of complementary approaches is an efficient way to increase visibility across a diverse set of potential candidates. Here are a few of the approaches to consider in your plan:

• Websites and social media (your business pages, community and industry forums)

• Professional recruiting agents (ex: online platforms, government, private firms)

• Business network and employees

• Relevant training schools or certification organizations (if applicable)

Keep in mind that where you advertise your job opening is just as important as what you advertise. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to communicate the benefits you offer including some of the less tangible ones such as coveted working conditions (ex. Flexible work hours, work from home), engaging/growing business environment and/or differentiators (ex. Bonus/commission, free or rebate access to company products/services, specific skills training/certifications etc..) in addition to the more common benefits (ie. health/dental insurance, paid vacations, retirement plan, savings plan etc..)

Back-up strategy:

Of course, we all like to dream that posting a job will yield a gold mine of highly qualified candidates to choose from within days and filling the job within 1-2 weeks but the reality is often not the case. In fact, it can take several weeks, several months and sometimes even longer. That’s why I recommend to my hiring clients that they prepare a back-up plan to implement temporarily or longer if necessary, in the event that the job vacancies remain unfilled for an extended period. Here are a few questions to consider in such a plan:

• What is the impact of a delay in filling the position(s), in the short and longer term?

• What tasks/responsibilities of this job need to be assigned interim to someone else?

• What tasks/responsibilities of this job can be delayed until a new hire joins the team?

• Who will be assigned what, when, how (ie. training requirements? Incentive?)

In some cases, it may be necessary to adapt the business model to deal with extensive vacancies. Examples of these seem to make the headlines regularly these days where some businesses reduce their operating hours, some delay major growth/development projects while others turn to innovative approaches in automating or modifying their services/product to meet unwavering demand.

Perhaps in an environment where labour shortage is a major concern, focusing on employee retention will prove an invaluable investment. Sounds like a great topic for a future blog!