Securing junior talent in a red-hot market
2018 has been a frenetic year at Hasson Associates – the market this Summer has been as hot as the weather – and the heatwave doesn’t look to be ending any time soon! With so much demand for qualified candidates and so much choice for those, particularly at junior – mid level, it’s incredibly challenging for employers to secure talent.
In the lead up to Brexit we are already seeing a significant slowdown in the supply of insight candidates from overseas and the drought will only become more acute in the coming months. Whilst of course there is no easy fix, employers can actually take some control – you can increase your chances of attracting and securing the best person for the job!
Here are my top tips:
Look at the person, not the institution
Do you really need your next employee to be Russell-group educated? There are people out there from different educational backgrounds who are just bright and talented – and by virtue of that might be able to bring a fresh perspective too.
Look at the aptitude not the toolkit
Does your potential new hire absolutely have to have a minimum number of focus groups to their name or have had experience in a specific programming language? Whilst you may not have the time or resources to train a rookie from scratch, many candidates with some relevant work experience, a similar skill set and the propensity to learn quickly should be worth your consideration.
Be flexible!
Whilst salary is important, people base decisions on many different factors and you needn’t necessarily pay over the odds in a candidate-short market. More and more these days, people – at all levels – are requesting more flexibility. Whilst it may not be appropriate from day 1 for very junior candidates, offering a degree of flexible working, whether it’s around core hours or working from home, will make you hugely more attractive as an employer – and this will help retain talent too.
Tweaking your hiring criteria in this way could really help you nail those hard-to-fill vacancies – and candidates hired in this way could well bring more diversity and loyalty to your team. It’s a win-win!