As an employer in the Block Management industry, you’re likely to be very aware of the shortage of skilled, qualified candidates. This is backed up by the ever-increasing time it takes for you to fill your vacancies, the low number of credible CVs you receive and possibly even your retention rates not being as strong as you’d like, because your competitors are targeting your staff to fill the growing gaps in their businesses due to the candidate shortage too.
Did you know that only 27% of candidates sit in the active market?
This means when you’re recruiting in a reactive state (a gap has been identified, usually by someone giving notice), and you’re having to react quickly, you’re only gaining access to a very small part of the candidate market.
Ultimately, you’re hiring the best that’s available at the time, not the best possible person for your vacancy.
You can also be pushed into hiring as the pressure to recruit quickly grows which can lead to making the wrong hire.
73% of candidates are in the passive market.
It takes longer to engage these candidates because they’re not actively looking for a new job. By being proactive and identifying your needs early on, you’re opening up your talent pool, and increasing your chances of securing top talent. You should also be looking into building your own candidate pipeline to enable you to react quickly without compromising the calibre of candidate you hire.
If you have plans to grow this year, even if it’s only increasing your headcount by one or two people, you should be recruiting proactively.
This means speaking to every candidate that shows interest in working for you, even if it’s just a 10 minute phone call. Not only are you building your own candidate pipeline for when you have a gap in your business, you’re also strengthening your employer brand. Be seen as a business that takes an interest in people, and gives them the time of day after they’ve expressed interest in wanting to be a part of the team. We all know what the power of word of mouth does too.
If you haven’t got time to speak to them, ask a colleague. This also gives your team the chance to develop their interviewing skills and offers natural progression if a team leader role forms part of their career path.
Do you want to improve your time to hire, build a strong candidate pipeline, strengthen your employer brand and be able to react quickly to the needs of your growing business, or do you want the sleepless nights over unmanaged portfolios because you’re unable to hire quick enough resulting in pressure to deliver for your clients, stretching your existing workforce thin and ultimately increasing their chances of becoming burnout and handing in their notice?
Be proactive.