We’ve said this here before, and we’ll say it again: the current labour market is a very complex one. If you’re involved in recruiting and hiring people, you know this is the case. We’re in the market every single day, and we wanted to share some stories from our recent work that illustrate just how challenging the market for talent is right now.
In the first instance, our client was seeking a highly specialised set of skills and experience. In our consultation with the client, they warned us that there were very few people within a reasonable geographic distance – even beyond – that had the experience they were looking for. We’re not afraid of a challenge, and we’re accustomed to projects requiring highly targeted sourcing, but this project took that to a new level.
We embarked on the search, and – to make a long story somewhat shorter – we were successful in identifying several candidates who qualified for consideration. The job wasn’t done, however. Finding qualified candidates was only half the battle; we then had to secure their interest. In several cases, this simply wasn’t possible. One excellent candidate, for example, lived too far to commute and for family reasons couldn’t consider relocating. The candidate who was ultimately hired, in fact, turned us down the first time we spoke. She was very happy in her current job, and in fact was soon to be promoted. It took three separate conversations with her, nurturing and building a relationship over time, to encourage her to consider the role and agree to interview. The key was understanding that, even more than a promotion, she really wanted the kind of learning opportunities that our client offered. She’s been in her new role for a little over a month, and because of her performance to date, she’s already been approved for a course she was hoping to take.
The second situation is a study in contrast with the first. Is it possible to have too many candidates? Our client was seeking a supervisor who had a fairly common managerial skill set … with one exception. They required someone who came from a very particular kind of work environment. We can’t get much more specific without identifying the company, but suffice it to say that the candidate required proficiency with a certain kind of technology. Without it, the learning curve would simply have been too steep.
The phrase ‘needle in a haystack’ doesn’t quite cover our work on this project. Our team reviewed potential candidates numbering into the thousands, diving deep into our existing network and aggressively sourcing to find a selection of candidates who had the technical experience our client was looking for. The story has a happy ending: our client’s offer was accepted last week, and their newest employee is excited to start. Our client is thrilled too; they know just how much time we saved their team.
The final story we’ll relate here began with a recruitment assignment that was relatively straightforward. It was at the end where the story took a turn that could have left our client in a pinch. At the end of the interview process, their chosen candidate was the only one that they truly wanted to hire. You can imagine their alarm, then, when that candidate was made a very generous counter-offer by their current employer. It wasn’t too surprising; he had been with the company for nearly ten years, had accumulated a lot of highly valued corporate memory, and was a key player on several teams. Naturally, they didn’t want to lose him.
We weren’t surprised. That’s why we had spoken with him about the prospect of a counter-offer, long before it happened, just as we do with all our shortlisted candidates. We had talked through the pros and cons of accepting such an offer. Even still, the offer he received was generous enough that it caused him a moment of indecision. We revisited our earlier discussion with him, however, and we’re happy to report that within the day he signed our (very relieved!) client’s offer.
It’s a strange time to be in the trenches. Recruiting and hiring has never been easy, but we’d wager that it’s never been as difficult and complex as it is right now. We know a lot of you are facing these same kinds of challenges. Stay strong, and get in touch if we can be of help.