Today’s job market is on fire if you are a job seeker, not so much if you are a hiring manager.
While it is often referred to as the great resignation, it is really just a reshuffle as people are simply swapping jobs. Those plush with money are offering crazy salaries, those without much money are in grave danger as their economics will not allow them to increase wages to retain workers. When the highest payers pull people from the moderate paying, the moderate paying will pull from the low paying, but at the end of the day, the number of new jobs isn’t the driving force. It’s a messy game of dominoes.
The hardest thing right now is attracting candidates. Once attracted, it is now up to how fast we can hire. While we haven’t changed our overall process we have adjusted a few things to speed up the process and attract more qualified candidates.
The first change was to our job postings.
We made multiple modifications but the two big ones were to 1) Display pay ranges on all jobs, not just the two states that required it. 2) Remove any degree requirements where not absolutely necessary. Since these changes, we have seen a significant increase in qualified applicants. This second change has the benefit of attracting more candidates and driving a more diverse applicant pool.
The second change is the speed at which we are moving.
The target is five days from the application to offer if qualified. Obviously, part of this is driven by the candidate’s availability but we are pushing to interview as quickly as possible. Hiring is time-consuming and we have made hiring the number one priority as we enter 2022. Our phenomenal growth has created a ton of new jobs and the last thing we want to do is lower our amazing service levels.
However, with that all said, what we have not changed is our process itself, which I wrote about back in 2020 and still remains today. What is important is that we are still hiring based on our values and fully qualified individuals. Our process is time-consuming and while I read on LinkedIn about how making a candidate do multiple rounds of interviews is terrible, we aren’t caving this aspect of our process. Hiring is already a bit of speed dating and in today’s market, the last thing we want to do is get desperate.
The other thing is our continued push for referrals from our employees. People who you have worked with in the past and are a great addition to our culture are super strong. While we don’t alter our process, we do recognize that it is less of speed dating as their skills are well known. Of those that have started in 2022, one-third are direct referrals.
This job market is unlikely to change much in the near term, we all just have to ensure we have the best processes in place to retain, attract and hire.
If you or someone you know might be a good fit for Searchspring, check out our Careers at Searchspring section to see our current openings.
