5 Steps to Solving Your Hiring Challenges

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, employers are challenged to hire a qualified workforce. While an ample supply of candidates exist in some areas, others have major gaps. Desperate to fill these gaps, employers hire people who do not meet necessary requirements, resulting in lower performance, lost productivity, increased training cost, and higher turnover.

These 5 steps may help:

1. Know the facts. Understanding the facts about your industry is critical to developing an effective recruiting strategy.
   At a macro level, workforce gaps exist due to changing manpower requirements. Unfortunately, our legacy workforce cannot adapt nearly fast enough, and we are dependent on a U.S. political system not structured for rapid change, a challenged K-12 educational system, and an aging workforce. Understanding these trends is not enough; you need to also understand the specifics about your unique situation.
2. Set a strategy. An effective hiring strategy needs to start with a commitment by upper management. Here’s some tips to consider:
   1. Gain primary stakeholder ownership by including them in the development process.
   2. Pull applicants in through creative programs, rather than pushing direct campaigns. Be sure to align your online presence (website, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.) with traditional marketing elements. However, no approach takes the place of making a case for why your organization is “the” place to work.
   3. Present the strategy in an easy to understand summary format, so internal advocates can sell it throughout the organization.
   4. You will likely compete for limited resources; be sure to include what’s in it for primary stakeholders, as well as the ROI.
3. Go beyond normal borders. Stretch beyond normal borders to gain access to new candidate pools. The real battle for talent is playing out globally, opening up your organization to a global workforce expands opportunities and creates an advantage over competitors stuck in old hiring routines.
4. Partnering. Expanding your approach may require new competencies not core to your organization, such as online marketing, on-boarding, or international recruiting. Utilizing vendor partners will allow you to quickly gain needed competencies, while reducing costs and time to implement.
5. Ensure proper onboarding. Finding and hiring qualified candidates requires a big investment; a good onboarding program can help to minimize employee turnover, thereby reducing these costs. Organizations are well served to implement an on-boarding program that quickly integrates employees into the company and the community.