With the quantity of people laid off or downsized or furloughed since January of this year, you’d think it would be a breeze to find someone good to fill an open position. With tens of thousands of people to choose from you should be able to just stick your hand in the barrel and pull out the ripest apple; right?
There is a misconception floating around that this is a “seller’s market;” meaning that the hiring companies have all of the leverage and their pick of the best. Well, the hiring companies do have their pick, but not of necessarily the best candidates. As we have been seeing at The Agency, the truly stellar candidates are still very much employed at their current position and most likely received a hefty retention bonus when their company finished the reorg. To give you a real world example (the names have been changed to protect the innocent) we had just identified a stellar candidate for a client of ours. This person had completed the rigorous vetting process by us and by the client. The offer was being sent out and everyone was genuinely feeling pretty good about themselves.
With pen in hand to sign the offer sheet the candate’s current employer offers him a $150,000 bonus to take a new position within the reorganized company. The current company didn’t even know that the candidate was looking for a job. With a check for $150k in one hand and the pen in the other – which do you think got put down?
The moral to this story is there are tons of people out in the available candidate marketplace. Most are out there because they were at best average performers and at worst were the worst. The stellar candidates are out there but they are still working; and probably for your competition. The best action that an HR department and a company can take is to understand that this is a buyer’s market – especially for the great people. Understand that a candidate’s current company will do almost anything it can (like give $150k retention bonus) to keep someone that is making them money; wouldn’t you? Here are some tips:
- Be creative with your offers – that means cash, benefits, small perks. Cash isn’t always king, most people just want to be appreciated.
- Be overly communicative – whether using a search firm (my choice
) or utilizing an inhouse person, be sure to communicate, communicate, communicate with the candidate. Ensure that you are addressing their needs, fears, and desires. You don’t have to capitulate to all of them, just acknowledge them. - Be honest about the importance of the role. If filling the role is not that important, then the first two bullet points are irrelevant.
Where are all of the job candidates? Well, the ones you really want are still working. They are available to you, but don’t convince yourself that they will move for just anything. And if they are exceptional, plan on a fight with their current company to retain them. Those are the facts.
Disagree, please let me know: jeff@theagencyworldwide.com
Have fun.
