While unemployment numbers remain high, many employers still anticipate difficulty in filling certain roles in 2013. Plenty of job seekers might be available, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have the right skills, which is why the recruiting struggle continues, says Erin Peterson, senior vice president of talent acquisitions solutions for Aon Hewitt, a human resources consulting and outsourcing firm in Chicago.
When skills gaps are involved, there is not always one easy solution, Peterson says; however, recruiters can work around this issue. Of course, recruiters must first identify those with the right skills. Once recruiters find those job candidates, they should catalogue those potential employees and begin building relationships with them. These skilled job candidates are in high demand, and it takes more than just the promise of a job opportunity to entice them. Recruiters need to create a personal connection with these job candidates.
"People are attracted to opportunities, but they buy relationships," Peterson says. "If you want someone in short supply to buy what you're selling, which is a job, you have to build a relationship with them."
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Many recruiters are increasingly turning to social media these days, Peterson says, which has made it easier to identify potential candidates and develop relationships. Skills gaps might be a problem, but social media sites have made it much easier to initially sort through potential job candidates.
In Peterson's experience, creating a talent community through social media platforms is helpful. Skilled job candidates are invited on social media to join the talent community. If they accept, they are put into a customer relationship database to continue the relationship. These job candidates can also choose which social mediums they prefer to use for communication.
"They're receiving messages on their own terms, and we can carry on a proactive conversation with them regarding their industry and hopefully build a positive impression, so when they're ready to consider a career opportunity, they already know about our clients and will hopefully think about them first and apply," Peterson says. "This can be done for very little investment through social media."
Part of building a good relationship includes moving the recruiting process quickly and efficiently, which takes careful planning and execution, Peterson says. Recruiters often have a tendency to rely on a reactionary recruitment process where they wait on decisions from hiring managers, but that can result in unnecessary delays. Instead, recruiters should have a detailed timeline ready to keep recruitment on track.
"Frankly, there are a lot of organizations out there that have not cracked the code on how to run an efficient recruiting process," Peterson says. "If you as a recruiter have figured that out and do it well, it'll differentiate you from your competition."
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