Have you or your company been looking to hire talent for open positions recently? Chances are you are having difficulty finding exactly the right people. Just like most companies across the Nordics at the moment.
Numbers for August 2021 from Talentech show that there was an increase of 5.500 job ads compared to the same month in 2020, but the number of applications has fallen from 850.000 in 2020 to 553.000 in 2021. The fact that the number of ads has gone up while the number of applications has gone down, is interesting enough in itself. But, when you also take a look at the fact that 4% of all applicants were hired in 2021, compared to only 2% in 2020, it essentially shows a jobmarket with increased number of positions to fill and people hired to fill those positions, but with a much smaller talent pool to choose from.
Looking at local government initiatives and data, it really confirms this picture. In Norway, the number of unemployed people has dropped from more than 110.000 in May 2021, to roughly 94.000 in August. In Sweden, the same number dropped from 591.000 in June to 454.000 and in Denmark from 128.000 in April to 108.00 unemployed people in July. The Danish government has even summoned job market stakeholders to discuss the challenges of a diminishing talent pool.
So what does this all mean for you as an employer?
Well, it means that you really have to up your game when it comes to attracting, recruiting and retaining talent. Here are 3 good things you can do to succeed in today's jobmarket:
Turn your employees into a recruitment machine
Your people knows people. A lot of companies offer cash rewards to their employees for referring the right candidates. This is a really good way of gaining access to talent to your own employees’ network. But, make sure that you have the right tools and processes in place to enable employees in sharing job opportunities with their network and for you to track referrals from start to finish.
Read more about referrals with irecommend
Make sure to create a good experience in the application process
Simplicity and efficiency are key components when designing your application processes. There is nothing worse than an application process where you have to enter duplicate information. You know this if you have ever filled out an online CV and still had to attach it in a PDF version. The smoother you make the application process the more likely you are to get applications from a larger number of relevant candidates.
Read more about our recruitment tools
Measure your employees happiness
With all the challenges of finding the right people for the job, you also have to focus on keeping the people you already have. Get a pulse check on your employees weekly to measure if they are happy in their jobs and be ready to proactively engage if you see any downturn in the metrics important to them.
Read more about job satisfaction with Weekli
These are just a few things you can focus on to solve a current challenge. Of course, there are other elements, such as employer branding and promoting a healthy company culture to attract the right people. But you have to have the right setup and processes to support your people, every step of the way!
