Often Used Excuses:
“Ugh, these millennials are so high maintenance.”
“Unemployment is just so low.”
“We can’t afford what we truly need.”
Down and Dirty Truths:
- Get used to it because that is where a lot of talent resides and probably your customer base as well.
- If your target audience are those who are jobless, you have the wrong target audience.
- Then you don’t truly need it.
As an HR and Recruiting expert, I’ve recognized that one of the biggest challenges for growing companies is finding and retaining good talent. A theory of mine is because millennials (like me) were hired by companies because we were seen as talented and valuable – but virtually had no autonomy. We weren’t being heard, we were being micro-managed, and ultimately cleaning up messes that we strongly warned against. So here began the movement and exponential increase of entrepreneurship. It has reached a point, however, that there are too many entrepreneurs and not enough talent. Additionally, we are seeing that being an employee is increasingly becoming something that is socially looked down upon by many of these entrepreneurial influencers (shamefully and wrongfully so) which has also led to the dramatic increase in free-lancing.
I’ve got news for you – the economy will naturally down shift and consumers will become more cautious of how they’re spending their money which will “expose” businesses who focus more on appearance than they do on improving their inferior product – What comes after that? Businesses will shut down and talent will be available. I call these people the “low-hanging” talent.
How do you bring talent back to the work place? The workplace needs to evolve. Employers need to market their business as a Great Place to Work just as they market their business to consumers. Employers need to speak about what it’s truly like to work for their company – what are their values? What issues do they prioritize? How is every single person included in the overall vision for the company? How is the company serving the community? How are they solving problems?
Most applicants applying for positions are only those not working or unhappy with their current workplace – not a large pool. Marketing a company’s brand as an employer will open up opportunities for those who currently work and aren’t necessarily unhappy – but looking for a company that is more aligned with their own values. This is very important in today’s candidate-driven market because if you thought millennials were difficult – GenZ is disrupting the economy with their demand to know what companies are doing and how they’re doing it.
Here are some tips to attract the attention of passive applicants:
- Use current staff to create a compilation video of work culture – post it on the careers tab or link it in job posts.
- Company leaders should be marketing for talent by participating in podcasts, conferences, and sitting on panel discussions.
- Companies should have branding pages on large-scale and niche job sites such as Indeed or Glass Door with reviews from past and current employees.
- Give back to the community – every company should be participating in community outreach programs or events. Company representatives are usually more relaxed at these events and willing to talk freely about their company culture to others.
