Hiring Companies Need to Plant The Seeds of Change Now...

The recruitment landscape is in continuous change and hiring companies will need to be agile as we move into 2023. Global talent pools in supply chain and heavy equipment are more pressed than ever before. This means there is more demand from the labour market for specialised skills sets that were not recognised or in fashion just 10 years ago. There is more demand and urgent needs than actual available qualified candidates. This talent pool dynamic has resulted in a candidate driven market which allows qualified candidates who know they are at a premium to be evermore selective about where they work. Inflated salaries are no longer necessarily in demand from this group of candidates - they are too sophisticated and look for other more complex rewards, it will take more than simply throwing money at them to secure their services.

Criteria's candidates generally use when considering a career change

Organisational culture - does the hiring company have open style in its communication, flatly structured, flexible, respectful , dynamic and technology/modern embracing?

Communication - can employees of all ages, experience & backgrounds approach management and express their views or is communication channeled in a management top down fashion?

Treatment from reporting lines - for the football fans out there the "Alex Ferguson management style" (as good as it was back in the day) is no longer valid :)

Career development and training - are employees being invested in with training and development

What does this mean for hiring companies?

Hiring companies are faced with challenges - employee performance and results are of paramount importance to create competitive products, services to achieve profits, market share and recognition in the market place. Costs and P&L need to be monitored and protected, a company is after all a place of work and business not a holiday camp. Even so, the following must be considered by hiring companies to stay relevant in identifying, attracting and retaining the right talent...

Taking a pragmatic approach to recruitment. Taking the time to consider hiring from adjacent sectors, does the candidate really need to know about product ABC? Do they have the personality but also transferable skillsets and a performance track record that could result in them being that rough diamond?

When making offers to candidates. Hiring companies may not like this idea but they no longer have the pulling power or grip on the talent pool they once had. The tables have turned and the power is in the hands of qualified candidates. So let's not low ball candidates when making an offer to join the workforce because a candidate is currently in between jobs, their last role did not work out or they were made redundant.

Keeping the workforce engaged. Important to listen to candidates career aspirations, what new skills they want to learn, work they want to experience and overall personal development. Keeping a candidate in a role that no longer engages them, or making them manage teams unofficially without the pay grade or title and expecting them to be grateful for it no longer flies.

Respecting younger generations and Gen Z's and staying away from how things were in the past. These guys are a different tribe to previous generations. My own opinion is they have so much to offer to hiring companies and are super intelligent and creative. Generally speaking their parents and Grandparents have done most of the survival work during their own working careers , so the new bread of talent (again generally speaking, this is not universal) are at work for different, more sophisticated and complex reasons.

Giving employees engagement and ownerships and avoiding top down management communication. Remember you are dealing with a new bread of candidates they wont and shouldn't be pushed around. The ROI (return on investment) is as a hiring company you get to plant the seeds in attracting and retaining tomorrow leaders needed for tomorrows workplace. Treat employees well and avoiding toxic cultures.

To summarise, it is a fine balancing act to engage tomorrow's leaders creating their desired workplace cultures while at the same time securing and achieving short term corporate goals. The new comers to the jobs market will not tolerate being treated unfairly, or bullied by more senior employees. Toxic work cultures, micro management and power plays are not on the menu of acceptance from this talent pool - they have multiple career options to choose from. Hiring companies therefore have to make themselves more competitive and appealing to their desired candidate talent pool.