Despite cautious prediction and anticipation, recruiters sometimes find themselves in hard hiring situations. Be it we are hiring for very niche or specialized talent, or we are being asked to hire a vast group of talents, these situations can always arise and it’s sometimes traumatic. 

Considering the current business scenario, where the ground-breaking technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), IoT etc. are continuing to make inroads into every industry sector, several new job roles are growing in popularity. On the other hand, regular research/studies also advise us about the high automation apocalypse that will affect million jobs worldwide. In reality, jobs will not be lost; rather it may be redefined. But the only issue is employees will likely lack new skillsets required for all the emerging roles; and in turn bridging this skill gap should be a continuous effort for most organizations aiming for innovation and growth. On top of that, recruiters also face numerous challenges on employee engagement and retention. Irrespective of the situation, it’s easy to switch to ‘reckless and breakneck’ hiring methodology (like just find a candidate, onboard them and move on). They might not be your best quality hire ever; the person needs to be able to add value in the organization. Especially, when it’s a small and growing company, it’s crucial to hire meaningfully and bring in resources that can deliver the right value for the company, rather than just filling in open positions.

Today, we can see a competitive candidate market and hiring is truly ramping up across every industrial sector. Besides, technology is intensely shifting the skills your future hires will want, and relatively with these new skills required to keep pace with the rapidly changing technological advances, it’s no surprise that recruiting is truly getting competitive. It’s evident that organizations are scrambling to find the best talents and workforce with constantly updated knowledge and skills to fill positions. 

Today’s talent acquisition market is candidate-driven; the talent you seek is contacted by various recruiters and receives a myriad of job offers in hand and at the same time they change the employers when they no longer find a challenging and fulfilling work environment. It’s essential to add an additional dose of horsepower into your recruiting and hiring process. 

Staying ahead of the curve 

Learn to Hire Proactively—Key to Successful Recruitment: Oftentimes it’s easy for organizations to inherit the custom of hiring reactively—which means hiring only when the need arises. Regardless of how large or renowned your company is, a clear assessment of critical skills, trends in work volume and labor mark, and complete evaluation of skill gap will help organizations edge out the competition in a crowded market. This systematic way of identifying talent and skill gaps early will empower organizations to build a pipeline to be proactive instead of being reactive as your company evolves. 

Know Your Target Audience: It’s always crucial to identify who your target audience is and understand your organization's unique selling points as well. It’s also wise to note that your ultimate goal is not to conduct a recruitment campaign, but to find the person who fits what your organization needs. Rather, you need to do an ongoing assessment of what works and what isn’t for your target audience. The clearer you can be about defining the requirements of your target audience, the more intensive and effective your recruiting efforts can be.

Smart Hiring—Take A People-focused Approach: Focus on hiring smart by taking a people-focused approach, which in turn is integral to creating sustainable recruitment processes within your organization. Go beyond incredible employee benefits, foster a positive work environment and a workplace that thrives on trust and respect for all employees, and show your employees enough support and appreciation. This way of employee-centric approach will make them refer to like-minded and talented people, who will contribute to an organization’s productivity and growth.