Part II: We Can’t Mistake Volume of Availability with Competitiveness to Hire Talent

To better understand the role of employer brand at a time of crisis, the team at Ph.Creative has commissioned a four-part article series to analyse exactly how COVID-19 has impacted the talent acquisition space.

Each article includes thought-provoking insight from a number of leading employer brand and talent acquisition influencers, as well as our own real-world experience and methodology.

Each week, you can expect a new article to be released.

Last week’s article:

●    Part 1: A Tension Between Profitability and Employee Well-Being

This week’s article:

●    Part 2: We Can’t Mistake Volume of Availability with Competitiveness to Hire Talent

The next articles:

●    Part 3: Candidate Experience Could Suffer As We Emerge From COVID-19

●    Part 4: Actionable Strategies to Protect Your Employer Brand Legacy Post-COVID-19 World

In our last article, we looked at the value of an employer brand during a time of crisis. Today, we move the agenda one step forward, with a pointed analysis of the talent acquisition market as it stands in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, talent professionals have faced innumerable challenges. In a matter of weeks, the pendulum swung from record low unemployment (candidate-driven market) to extremely high unemployment (buyer’s market).

The idea that this is now a buyer’s market, however, is fundamentally flawed.

As we emerge from the worst of the COVID-19 crisis, employers will seek to bolster their capabilities by re-hiring existing talent or finding new star candidates. In this new world, I believe the marketplace will be more competitive than ever before.

To make sense of these shifts, and to understand how the industry’s leading professionals are tackling these issues, I interviewed a number of employer branding experts, including:

●    Ted Rubin, CMO at Photofy

●    Gerry Crispin, Principal & Co-Founder at CareerXroads

●    Tim Sackett, President at HRU Technical Resources

As we’ll see, the typical ebb and flow of talent as we know it simply no longer exists.

To ensure your organization is prepared for the road ahead, this article will explain why we can’t mistake volume of availability with competitiveness to hire talent.

Making sense of our new reality

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations have been forced to furlough staff and make redundancies.

Due to sudden, universal lay-offs, masses of talent are now available at the same time. In recruitment terms, this clearly meets the criteria for a buyer’s market. But today’s situation is more complex than the numbers show. As a consequence of the existing crisis, typical supply and demand metrics and subsequent thinking, planning and actions go out the window.

In wider terms, we can all agree that when the economy organically rises and falls, we usually find ourselves in a position of economic growth or economic decline. The former typically implies a talent-driven market while the latter signals an employer-driven market.

In a talent-driven market, candidates have a greater choice of where to work, more bargaining power and an increased ability to make demands (think things like salary, benefits, etc.). In an employer-driven market, however, jobs are more scarce, so employers are able to talent pool more easily, have more choice over top-caliber talent and even dictate the terms of engagement.

It’s clear that, at present, COVID-19 has created a situation where talent is much more widely available and accessible.

So how do we make sense of this unique situation?

While the numbers have swung from record low unemployment to startlingly high unemployment, we must analyse the situation objectively to reach a much more accurate conclusion.

As the pandemic subsides, millions of people will be looking for employment. Equally, thousands of organizations will re-enter the market and be competing for that talent. All of this is happening in such a compressed time frame, that both talent and organizations alike find themselves in a very densely populated environment that is unfamiliar to all concerned. The pendulum, therefore, has not swung. In this case, it has split in both directions.

Talent professionals agree; in fact, 77% say there “currently exists a false perception of this being a buyer’s market”.

As Ted Rubin notes, “When it comes to positions such as manager and higher-level, this is clearly not a buyer’s market.”

In these unusual circumstances, we’re forced to think differently, try to anticipate new conditions and prepare for unforeseen requirements to cope or get ahead.

Never in modern history have we seen a talent market split in opposite directions at the same time on such a global scale, in such a short space of time. Today, we’re gearing up for a situation where a wealth of talent will be available, but hundreds, if not thousands, of companies will be forced to aggressively vie for talent at the same time because for some organizations, it will mean the difference between survival or not. 

So, as we emerge from COVID-19, it’s very apparent to me that we need to change our approach to brand positioning, communications and talent attraction strategy. The question is, what change is required? And how has COVID-19 impacted the way candidates think?

A reappraisal of the status quo

For a marketplace defined by employer brand and reputation, talent now make decisions based on so much more than just salary and basic perks.

However, candidates’ long-term preferences and priorities, which have been skewed by the COVID-19 crisis, means that an increased emphasis is placed on short-term security and financial stability.

New research from PathMotion supports this assertion. Before the pandemic, application process and interview content accounted for 27% of platform questions and 23% of all content views. Since the COVID-19 crisis, however, questions about the application and interview process have dropped by a whopping 10%, while questions about the company and role rose 15%.

Collectively, this trend indicates that job security and company reputation are now front of mind for candidates. Meeting long-term candidates needs, then, is more complex and challenging than ever before.

COVID-19 has forced many people to reappraise the status quo.

“Am I happy with my job?”

“Do I like where my career is going?”

“Am I being rewarded for my efforts with purpose, impact and belonging?”

As Tim Sackett rightly points out, “High volume organizations are going to have to manage candidate expectations post-COVID. During COVID, if someone was considered a ‘hero’ for working on the front lines of service and manufacturing, and now they’re just a regular old worker making $15 per hour, then a change in tone will be required. I think we’ll see high volume workers jumping around looking for that good feeling of being a hero.” Organizations known for maintaining this belief and acting accordingly will have a clear advantage that could prove to extend far beyond talent attraction and retention too.

In a post-COVID world, candidates, employees and employers alike will need to reassess their priorities, particularly around issues such as normal working conditions, regular hours, flexibility, location, remote working and all existing policies and procedures.

Wider social, cultural and philosophical issues have emerged from this crisis. It seems that equality and social reform are top of mind for people everywhere, and we’ve seen new expressions of support, empathy and compassion for each other as a means of rallying through this trying time. From stories of workplace bonding to wide-scale protests and demonstrations, COVID-19 has spurred on new ways of thinking and behaving.

We’ve seen people of all races speak out against politicians and governments for not treating people fairly. We’ve seen senior executives applaud Uber drivers, shopkeepers, doctors and nurses. We’ve seen people of all sexual orientations proudly marching for gay rights.

The simple truth is this: the COVID-19 crisis has caused a realignment of the values and principles we hold most dear. As a society, we’re much more aware of what we hold dear to us, what we’re all worth as people and currently, we have a much smaller tolerance for inequality and injustice.

For an industry built around the acquisition of people, these fundamental human truths naturally spill into our space and force us to contemplate the knock on effects. When the race to hire top talent begins, being able to understand, appreciate and deliver on these changing beliefs may well prove pivotal to long-term organizational success.

Understanding changing candidate needs

The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated an existing shift of power from employers to employees, who, now backed by the social proof of some leading organizations, have a higher valuation of things such as flexibility, compassion and softer benefits centred around family and wellbeing. Collectively, this is creating an expectation of more than just a high salary and shiny new office perks.

As Gerry Crispin notes, “The candidate experience has always been in the hands of candidates. If candidates’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic has caused them to re-weigh values such as safety, security, belonging and community higher than ever before, then employers will need to recalibrate their response.”

To be successful, organizations need to understand “how their employer brand aligns with business practices,” so they can “engage candidates’ interests, contribute to their decision-making and show a willingness to crowdsource with others in their network.”

But Gerry Crispin offers a word of warning, “If candidates do not pivot from their me-first motivation to a more collective mentality, they can expect employers to remain sloppy in how they set expectations, deliver on their promises, respond to requests for transparency and keep candidates and employees informed.”

Ultimately, when it comes to choosing where we work, people are now more conscious of seeing their loved ones and making sure they feel valued and included. We want to believe in what we’re doing. We want to feel like we can make a difference.

Becoming an employer of choice is now more difficult than ever before. It’s more than saying the right things at the right time, it’s more about listening, caring and responding accordingly with authenticity and sound reasoning.

But not every complex challenge requires a complex solution.

To make a difference, be upfront with what you have to offer and learn to use your employer brand as a smart filter for your recruitment funnel. Your unique brand of reality will be appealing to some and deterring to others - and that’s OK. People are tired of being marketed to and do not appreciate being misled. It’s a waste of time and money for all concerned.

In today’s market, we can’t afford to mistake volume of availability with competitiveness to hire talent. If you don’t have a compelling proposition, chances are you will lose out on the race for top talent. But don’t mistake ‘compelling’ for ‘widely attractive’. To be truly compelling to those people who are well culturally matched, you can’t lead with a proposition that is attractive to everyone. Not if it’s going to really resonate.  

Whatever your culture or aspirations are post-COVID, it stands to reason that we will all look back in 12 months’ time and see the rise and fall of many organizations. The fight for great talent sits at the heart of everything and I believe it will prove to be the difference in many cases

With this in mind, a smart conclusion to draw at this stage is that an authentic employer brand will prove to be the most important investment any company can make in order to navigate the volatility of what’s to come - in driving impact, purpose and belonging for existing employees and in attracting top talent to your organization.

2020 is the year of employer branding. Make no mistake about it.

A look ahead at next week’s article

In next week’s article, we’ll take a closer look at what this impending rush to hire talent means for employers and talent acquisition professionals.

As we start to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, the mass availability of talent will result in recruiters being overwhelmed with unwanted applications and hiring managers having to reject a high volume of applicants.

As a consequence, the candidate experience is going to suffer and companies risk damaging their public reputation. To succeed, the best organizations will learn how to leverage their employer brand and tap into their EVP.