You have 0 items in your cart
We are all looking to grow in 2022. Here we detail 5 actionable recruitment and staffing strategies that will actually get you there.
If there’s one thing that we’ve learned from the past two years, it’s that adaptability and speed matters because change is inevitable and the market has become even more competitive.
As we move into 2022 with continued “unknowns,” it’s important as ever to identify the areas where improvements can be made to allow for adapting when needed and to continue to enhance efficiencies, relationships, and placements.
Looking at recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor, in November 2021, job openings decreased to 10.6 million, hires didn’t change much and stood at 6.7 million, and a record 4.5 million people quit.
Looking ahead to combat these fluctuating challenges, we’ve compiled five key areas to focus on in your staffing and recruiting firms for 2022.
1. Recruitment Automation Strategy
If you’ve been waiting for a sign to invest and use automation, this is it!
From small day-to-day tasks to significantly reducing the time to hire, while also improving the quality of the hire, automation has become a must to be competitive in the market.
By the way, it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. For example, Automation by Tracker is automatically included in Tracker’s Unlimited Plan. No need for additional software, apps, or expenses. Interested in effective and integrated automation? Get a Demo of Automation by Tracker here.
Simply put, automation allows you to do more by doing less and removing the guesswork. And automation software can support your team through every step of the process in one platform. No more puzzling together different apps and systems that don’t talk or integrate together.
When speed is the name of the game, you need to be on the same page and have accurate data to make the best placement decisions. Automation should allow for the development of workflows and communication sequences, as well as automated job board sourcing and candidate matching.
2. Better Candidate Engagement Strategies
We’re in an employee-driven market and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. The key to finding the best candidates quickly will be up to your level of engagement with them (and then the follow-through).
And this engagement doesn’t end with your recruitment team, but needs to occur with your clients as well. As companies continue to balance between in-office and at-home workforces, there needs to be more awareness and emphasis around employee engagement. Especially if your office is split into both categories.
Engagement needs to begin with the hiring process and continue throughout onboarding and become a part of your company’s culture. It can’t end before onboarding or begin after if you want to build teams that will last.
Having a consistent communication schedule through automation can get you off the right path to successful engagement. Automation doesn’t end at consistency either, but adds in personalization.
Did you know that 63% of job seekers will likely reject a job offer because of a bad candidate experience, according to a G2 study?
You can’t afford to lose qualified and willing candidates over a bad experience.
3 Tips for Engaging with Candidates:
- Be consistent: Determine your schedule for interacting with them and set that up as a workflow
- Be transparent: Tell them what to expect and when. This is when many candidates move on to other opportunities because they don’t know where it’s at in the process and haven’t been told.
- Check in: Candidates want to know they are valued. Ask about their concerns, their wants, and their needs so you can help address them to ensure it is a good fit.
Video resumes and interviewing are additional ways to gain knowledge and amp up engagement with your candidates. Plus, you’ll get a better idea of their personality, mannerisms, and be able to better place them – all with convenience and no difficult scheduling.
3. Strategic Internal Recruitment and Mobility
While placing candidates in open orders and positions for our clients is very top of mind, it’s no surprise that most firms are also struggling to recruit internal talent. Whether you are hiring more recruiters, operations personnel, or marketing experts to rocket boost growth, recruiting is tough right now.
When it’s difficult to find top talent, especially for very specific positions or fields, it is often beneficial to focus on who you have and who you can move up. People who know your business and are already entangled with your firm hold high value for recruitment.
And, while it may seem obvious to move a successful recruiter up to a manager role, you also want to be mindful not to move a recruiter out of production when they are very good at producing. A split role is great.
But, also consider recruiters who have merit, but perhaps aren’t the best producers. Are they better suited for an operations role? Could you move people around to better suit their skills and goals?
Creating career paths from within is an important way to also support retention, which needs to be a focus as many people are leaving the workforce or opting to make a change. Consider looking internally for those positions you can train up for and then focus on filling their existing position with a bigger talent pool based on needs.
According to an article by Randstad Risesmart on internal mobility, “[the] ‘Career Mobility Outlook’ survey found that 87% of employers surveyed believe that at least 10% of open jobs at their organization can be filled through internal mobility in the coming months, an increase over 71% in the first quarter.”
So when looking into 2022, don’t leave out the internal candidates that have not only stuck it out, but are also willing to move up or over for new challenges, paths, and opportunities.
4. Remote Work for Staffing Firms
Well, I think we can all agree that remote work is here to stay. Especially if we want to see more growth in hiring. Between personal challenges such as childcare to hesitancy to return to crowded offices, remote work has been the solution to allowing companies to continue to grow while giving employees the security and balance they need.
And if you’re using recruitment software such as Tracker, this isn’t a challenge at all. It’s even easier with a platform that offers integrated and accessible solutions for every employee in your firm as well as every element of your business model.
Remote work also allows companies to pull from a wider talent pool, because location isn’t an issue. But that also means it’s still more competitive. What you’ll want to watch out for with remote work scenarios, as a company, will be your differentiators. Now that this is an option, it will likely come down to salaries and intrinsic benefits (like remote flexibility) for candidates to decide between one company or another.
According to data from a Glassdoor study, 20.4 percent of employers hiring locally in October 2021 are competing against remote jobs, up almost double from 10.3 percent in October 2019.
How can companies compete in the remote work environment? It seems the newest trend to emerge is location-agnostic pay. Here’s a list of companies already offering this.
5. Better Health Care, Specifically, Mental Health Care
We’ve been in a state of the unknown for almost two years now and it’s taken a toll on the state of everyone’s mental health.
From remote working to limited social interactions in and outside of the workplace, employees are feeling pressure from all sides and burnout has hit hard (remember that stat of 4.5 million people leaving in November?).
Similar to engagement, this concern affects everyone, from candidates and employees to your own teams.
Internally, we’ve seen recruitment teams struggle to keep up with the changing behaviors and needs to hire. The fast pace and constant drive is wearing on teams and individuals.
Think about how your leadership can support employees. From better technology that saves them time and empowers their efforts, to better transparency of KPIs and activities, there are many ways to achieve higher job satisfaction in your team. Tracker makes it super easy, allowing everyone to quickly and efficiently work together, from anywhere.
Additionally, work with your clients to assure they are focusing on mental health and can support the hiring process and engagement with candidates.
Here are some additional resources from experts in mental health:
- How to Manage and Support Mental Health as a Recruiter
- Mental Health in the Workplace: Tips from Experts
- 4 Key Ways to Improve Workforce Well-being
How Tracker Helps Your Recruitment Firm Grow with These Tips and Technology
If you’re ready to take on these five recruitment and staffing strategies this year (or even a couple of them), let us help you! Tracker has a one-of-a-kind platform that houses both ATS and CRM systems powered by Automation, giving you every tool and resource you could ever want easily accessible from anywhere.
