Where Is the Opportunity?

January 5, 2023

Whether you’re a recruiter, business owner, or hiring manager, you already know that the world of work looks much different today than it did at the end of 2019.

Even as the pandemic seems to be waning, we’re still faced with new post-pandemic recruitment challenges.

The biggest challenge? Most organizations are navigating an entrenched labor shortage. Businesses want to hire qualified workers quickly, but candidates face a disjointed job market. At the same time, your top picks are rethinking what work means to them and whether your company seems like the right fit for their goals.

These new challenges have transformed the recruitment landscape, and they’re not going away anytime soon. The good news? They’re also creating new opportunities to strengthen your organization—from new workers entering the job market to employee-centered practices.

So, how can you find new recruitment opportunities in a post-pandemic job market? And how can you transform your hiring processes to fit the needs of new workers? Here’s everything you need to know about the post-pandemic job market to refresh your recruitment strategy in 2023.

 

What Does the New Hiring Landscape Look Like?

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic shook the job market like a hurricane. As the country reopened and more people got vaccinated, most economists predicted that people would return to work quickly—but the second quarter of 2021 proved differently.

According to the Where Are the Workers? study of Northeast Ohio’s talent landscape by the Fund for Our Economic Future, the pandemic shifted perspectives toward work. In Northeast Ohio, workers are leaving the workforce due to retirement, layoffs, sickness, or other reasons. And with more time to reflect on what they want from their career, they’re exercising their choices—quitting, turning to contract work, or changing careers because of dissatisfaction with their current options.

Of course, the post-pandemic recruitment landscape comes with opportunities. People aren’t just leaving the workforce—they’re returning with new perspectives. In Northeast Ohio, 36,229 workers retired recently but are considering a return. At the same time, 191,854 workers are working part-time but searching for full-time work, and 481,559 workers need more training to reach their professional goals.

What does that mean for your organization? It’s time to start thinking about talent differently. When you show candidates why you’re the best fit for their personal and professional goals, they’ll reward you with their talent, insights, and deeper dedication.

 

How to Shift Your Post-Pandemic Recruitment Strategy

Worker sentiment is changing—and you need to rethink your recruitment marketing strategy to beat the talent shortage.

Today’s employees expect their employer to offer the flexibility they need to balance work and life. They’re also searching for professional development opportunities, meaningful work, and organizational values that align with their own. Here’s how to take advantage of post-pandemic recruitment opportunities with a winning recruitment strategy.

 

1. Expand Candidate Outreach

Your candidates want flexibility—and that extends to the job search and application process. To maximize new recruitment opportunities, it’s time to expand your talent pool.

Where should you start? It’s simple: Reach out to everyone. Both active and passive candidates are fair game here. Even workers who aren’t searching might be open to a new role with better benefits, more flexibility, and an employee-centric culture. According to LinkedIn, 70 percent of candidates are passive job seekers, with the remaining 30 percent actively searching for a new job.

To reach the right candidates, tap into new channels and platforms (think: social media, programmatic advertising, and industry-specific job boards). And if you don’t already have a referral program that incentivizes current employees, it’s time to build one. According to 2021 recruitment statistics, 48 percent of businesses say their top source for hiring quality candidates is referrals from current employees.

Most importantly, make sure your outreach efforts are organized. If you don’t have enough time to connect with individual candidates, automate the process with smart recruitment tools like candidate relationship management (CRM) software. This way, you can “trigger” candidate communications to save time, eliminate errors, and maintain on-brand communication throughout the hiring process.

 

2. Personalize the Candidate Experience

What’s the best way to improve your candidate experience? Make it personal. Start by updating your company’s career website and candidate communications. For example, if you’re hiring logistics employees, create personalized messaging, build conversion-worthy landing pages, and kickstart a communications strategy for that specific segment.

To take your candidate experience to the next level, partner with marketing to start treating your candidates like customers. Just like you use customer data to fuel your marketing efforts, you can tap into candidate data to personalize interactions and gain key insights into the candidate journey.

When you personalize the candidate experience, you’ll differentiate your company from the competition and show candidates exactly why you’re the best choice for their goals. At the same time, a positive candidate experience boosts the chances of your top candidates responding and helps you create a winning employer brand.

 

3. Prioritize Work/Life Balance

The pandemic didn’t just change hiring practices—it also changed workers’ attitudes. If you’re sticking to the same cookie-cutter hiring strategy you’ve been following for years, it’s time to take a step back and rethink recruitment.

How does the new worker sentiment impact talent acquisition? While a competitive wage and generous benefits package can help you attract skilled candidates, they probably won’t be enough to convert those candidates into hires. According to current labor trends, workers’ expectations for their work lives evolved during the pandemic.

With more free time, workers have had the opportunity to rethink their priorities, values, and needs when it comes to their careers. Especially for workers who have spent the last two years out of the workforce, work/life balance is more important than ever.

To successfully recruit qualified candidates in the post-pandemic era, you need to prioritize the needs of your employees—and that means bringing empathy into your company policies. For example, during the pandemic, your workers might have become care providers for aging parents. In addition, the transition to remote learning created challenges for working parents to find reliable child care.

Now more than ever, your workers are prioritizing work/life balance—and they’re searching for employers who can help them achieve their personal and professional goals. To attract your top picks, you need to revise your workplace practices and think beyond traditional benefits.

If you’re not sure where to start, ask your current employees how you can help support their work/life balance. Try providing employee incentives that encourage work/life balance, such as online wellness classes or home workout equipment. Whenever possible, incorporate flexible workplace policies that make life easier for your employees—whether that means offering extra PTO, transportation subsidiaries, or fair attendance policies.

Upgrading your workplace policies requires time, money, and resources, but flexible policies can make all the difference in your hiring and retention rates. At the end of the day, skilled workers aren’t going to stay with employers who are behind the curve and ignoring current hiring trends, especially in today’s candidate-driven market. Become your candidate’s employer of choice.

 

Tap Into New Recruitment Opportunities

The hiring landscape is changing, and you need to rethink your strategy to win the war for talent. Thanks to the pandemic, workers’ needs are more complex. On top of that, they expect more from their employers than ever before.

Recruiters need to take a proactive approach to accommodate these shifts. Fortunately, there are multiple employee-centric strategies that can help you tap into new opportunities.

Ready to upgrade your recruitment strategy? Download our self-audit checklist and schedule a discovery call with our team to take advantage of new post-pandemic recruitment opportunities.

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