There have been many and varied challenges for in-house recruiters in the past few years. They were compounded by the circumstances 2020 brought and the talent shortage we have seen in the digital marketing and creative sectors since 2021. We are also anticipating that more companies will bring work in-house in 2023, due to market conditions and tightening budgets. Here is some helpful advice from our Managing Director, Julie Ollerton.
- Targeting passive candidates and expanding candidate reach has been paramount for companies, and in areas of the economy with talent shortages can be key to corporate success.
- Creating a strong Employer Brand is important for any company and is key in attracting talent for hard to fill roles. It can be tough in times of pressure on marketing budgets to gain internal agreement on how best to do this.
- Managing a hybrid workforce. HR teams have seen a huge uplift in their workload, dealing with hybrid and remote working teams, and we are expecting to see flexible working requests continue to rise with the new regulations.
- On-boarding new employees. Clients have reported an uptick in candidates accepting roles with them, then changing their minds, sometimes very close to start date, because they have carried on interviewing.
Passive candidates
This recent study by LinkedIn shows that 70% of the global workforce is made up of passive talent who aren’t actively job seeking. Finding time to build a strong pool of passive talent can be difficult for busy HR and Talent Professionals. Not doing so means you are only attracting candidates who are actively looking at the time you advertise your vacancy. Yet research from LinkedIn shows that 90% of passive candidates are interested in hearing about job opportunities. We have over 13,000 candidates across the full spectrum of marketing, creative and digital role, both passive and active.
Employer Brand
There are many different elements to creating a strong Employer Brand and we’ll explore these in more detail in our next blog. An issue that regularly crosses our desks is the impression a company gives to potential employees and their network through the recruitment process. From the way initial applications are dealt with to what feedback is given. Constructive feedback, or the lack of it, can have a huge impact on candidate experience and what they might feel about your company. According to LinkedIn, talent is 4 times more likely to consider a company for future opportunities if they were given constructive feedback, there is no doubt it applies to whether or not they will recommend your company to their network. This can help or hinder your attempts to build a well thought of employer brand and strong passive talent pool. The not rights of today can become the ideal candidates of tomorrow. This is an area we can definitely help with, we’ll professionally deal with candidates throughout the whole recruitment process. From ‘selling’ your company to candidates through to dealing with their disappointment when they are rejected. That does mean we’ll nag for feedback!
Managing a Post Lockdown Workforce
What will have changed your employees’ thoughts about working for you through their experience of post-lockdown working practices.
During lockdowns many people navigated WFH, often with children to home-school, whilst maintaining or even increasing productivity. Some firms have expected staff to revert to pre-Covid work patterns and return to working in the office every day, with little or no flexibility. This has caused a great deal of frustration and resentment, and often a decision to find a new job. Many people missed working in their offices, so whilst fully remote working is a choice for some, most people want to be able to work flexibly on a permanent basis.
These are challenging times for HR professionals to try get the balance right between the needs and wants of their employees and those of a business with half empty offices. There is a marked advantage in attracting and retaining talent for companies who are making hybrid working, work for them.
Onboarding New Talent
Getting signed paperwork back shouldn’t be seen as the end of the process of hiring a new recruit. In the current market there is a real chance that your hires might be bought back by their current employer or take an offer they receive after already accepting yours.
Most companies with a HR team have good onboarding process, but what about pre-boarding? That time between accepting an offer and getting ready to start a new job can seem like a chasm. The language used in contracts is necessarily formal but if sending back your signed paperwork is the last contact your hires have until a few days before they start, they may lose focus of why they wanted to join you in the first place.
We now have a HR and L&D professional working with us as Talent Development Partner. Lisa has worked in HR, Recruitment, Talent and Learning and Development roles for over 12 years. She is helping us to develop our own team and also to work with clients to help them improve their recruitment and retention employee strategies and processes. If you would like to receive a copy of her onboarding tips or discuss any challenges you are facing, contact her initially via lisa@creativeresource.co.uk
Helpful Resources for In-house Recruiters
inhouserecruitment.co.uk who claim to be the largest community for in-house recruiters in the UK, have 70 events a year and thousands of videos and whitepapers, membership is free.
If you haven’t yet discovered LinkedIn’s Resources, they are definitely worth searching. One downside can be that they very much look at global trends.
About Creative Resource
We recruit for agencies and in-house teams. Our Directors and senior consultants are Thomas International talent assessment qualified and we can carry out a range of psychometric and aptitude assessments on behalf of our clients, either as part of the recruitment process or as stand alone projects, as part of either recruitment or retention programmes.
We are heavily invested in the future of the industry we recruit for. We regularly work to bring local universities and employers together to provide students with work-ready skills, through our range of initiatives. We helped to set up and now sponsor School of Thought – a 12-week part-time course for creatives. We also run an amazing annual event called Two+Two for creative and marketing graduates.