Even in today’s loose labor market and reduced hiring volumes, there are still business-critical positions to be filled. Further, the recent spike in resumes is failing to produce candidates with skill sets matching those needed, and budget cuts prevent expensive branding and sourcing initiatives. This is a common challenge that we hear from the membership today.
We also hear that member organizations are continuing attraction efforts as planned, but to a lesser degree. This sometimes means getting the brand message out via fewer or cheaper channels, spending less on job boards and other attraction vendors, and delaying a wholesale employment brand refresh.
Cost-cutting (members only) our attraction efforts is definitely necessary, but is it enough? Today’s employment brands may be too static to attract the right talent in a labor market that is more dynamic than ever. We face “spray and pray” applicants, business uncertainty among competitors and within our own organization, passive candidates who fear a move that compromises their employment stability, relocation concerns, and new Web 2.0 attraction channels (members only), to name just a few. All of these issues are changing rapidly in today’s economy.
For our employment brands to address these challenges today and tomorrow, we may need to fundamentally change our approach. Instead of striving to manage formal (expensive) employment brands that deliver flashy messages through traditional channels, we need to put in place simple, informal tactics to attract qualified talent. Can we competitively attract talent on a budget not by simply doing less of the same, but by doing something completely different?
What are your thoughts? How does this perspective relate to how you are going about attracting critical talent at your organization?
Written by: Emily Woods
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