Shrinking Talent Pools Mean Shifting Hiring Strategies

The labor market is tighter than ever, so people in hiring capacities need to be ready to win potential workers from competitors.

According to Fast Company, companies focused on hiring recent grads should be prepared to answer questions about flexibility, collaboration, professional development, how success is measured, and opportunities for giving back. A mindset shift from the challenges the tight market creates to the opportunities it provides to attract just the right talent may just help companies make needed innovations to their hiring practices and even company culture.

With full employment, staffing agencies have to get creative as the pool of qualified talent is limited. Add in changing visa and immigration laws and the pool is even smaller. Companies seeking talent are frustrated, and staffing agencies are working harder to appeal to the remaining talent. Workforcemagazine traces one solution: investing in training programs. Helping candidates upskill can mean helping fill hard-to-fill roles with the same pool. Called a “build-your-own-talent” approach, staffing agencies report focusing training on skills proving harder to source with a promise of commitment to work for company for a set amount of time.

This all helps explain why recruiting is now a major focus for the C-suite, according to HR Dive. For HR, this means ensuring everything from a positive, proactive hiring experience to showcasing a company as an employer of choice in recruitment, and also shifting strategies toward “total talent acquisition,” which means considering full-time employees as well as flexible, contingent, and project-based workers.

Shifting hiring and recruiting strategies will be hallmarks of this tight labor market, so finding ways to win, train, or retain talent will be what makes the difference for some employers.