The good news is that we seem to be past the worst of the Covid pandemic.
People are getting vaccinated and businesses are slowly re-opening. There’s a lot of pent up consumer demand within economies and as a result many businesses are looking to hire more talent to help them cope.
However, what we’re seeing is that when businesses go to hire they are struggling to find talent. We’re seeing this across all industries and countries. In Ireland a recent survey found that 78% of businesses are struggling to fill their roles and as a result some shops and businesses are not able to operate full hours.
In the UK, the proportion of employers struggling to fill certain skills has more than doubled in the past 2 years from 35% in 2019 to 77% in 2021. In Canada 40% of SME’s identified skills shortages as a major competitive challenge. And in the US, there are more than 9 million open roles now, with it predicted that by 2030 there will be more than 85 million unfilled jobs.
So if you are looking to hire right now, you are probably competing with other businesses for the same talent. That’s where your company reputation, and employer brand becomes key.
Below are some ways that you can improve your chances of attracting talent.
Benchmark your salaries
While money is not everything, it is important! You will struggle to attract talent if you are not paying market rates or what your competitors are paying. Payscale is a very useful site to get salary insights.
Perks and Benefits
Do you offer staff discounts? Do you have a flexible working policy? How many annual leave days do you offer? Do you offer remote work? All of these are questions that Talent will want to know the answers to, so they are opportunities to stand out from the crowd. Data pre-Covid suggested that 34% of talent would take a pay cut to work remotely. If possible you should explore giving employees flexibility around their ability to work from home.
Company Culture, Strategy, Goals and Mission
Employees want to work in a company where there is a clear goal, company mission and culture of teamwork. Check out your Glassdoor profile and you’ll very quickly see what previous employees thought of your culture! You need to work with your team to make sure that the company mission is clear, and everyone is on the same page as to how they are going to achieve that.
Showcase your Employer Brand
So you’re ticking all of the boxes on the above right? But how are you letting your potential new hires know that? Are you communicating these things on your company website, in your job specs, on your social media and in the places that you use to attract talent? If not, then you should be!
Jobbio research has shown that 78% of candidates will look into an employer’s reputation before applying to a role. You need to tell your story and showcase your employer brand. The best way to do that? Through video content from your existing staff. Viewers retain
95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
If you want to win the war for talent in 2021 then get in touch with us.
We help companies big and small bring their employer brand to life and are always happy to talk about all things Employer Branding!
