Employment – Buyer’s Market to a Seller’s Market

Are you struggling to find qualified candidates for your open positions? Do you know anyone else with the same problem? Have you noticed everywhere you look you see “Help Wanted” or “We Are Hiring” signs?

The employment world has changed from a “Buyer’s Market” to a “Seller’s Market”. Candidates can find opportunities much easier today than they could five years ago. As a recruiter that spent 20 years in an employment “buyer’s market” (our company buying talent we need from a large pool of candidates), the shift to a “seller’s market” (candidates selling their talent to the best bidder) has been a shock. I believe many organizations are finding the same thing.

I don’t see any relief on the horizon. There simply is a shortage of qualified people. Finding a person trained to do what you need them to do is growing harder and harder. If you can recruit a person away from your competition that has the talent you need, you most likely will have to pay them more than you are paying your current workforce. That creates its own set of problems.

I believe the answer is to “build your own”. Call them apprentices, interns or just employees in training, but find young people with a good work ethic and build into your future team by building into them. To do this you need two things completed before you start. First, you need a long-term training plan, probably 3 to 4 years. Second you need sources of ongoing candidates that will be there year after year. Sources that you can work with to create a win/ win experience for both of you. Depending on the base knowledge needed, this source can be High Schools, Tech Schools, Community Colleges or Universities.

To build the training plan you simply need to start with the job description of the position you are training for, determine the knowledge and skills needed to perform those duties and determine your best internal “teacher” for every part of the plan. Once that is accomplished, layout a step by step training plan.

To find the right candidate source, you must first find organizations that are focused on the same goal you are; creating opportunities for young people to succeed at whatever they are best suited to do. Stay in your local area. Understand what type of person would be happy 10 years from now doing what you do. Approach your potential source with a “how can I help you help your students find a career they will be happy in?” message. Build the relationship and come to an agreed upon plan of action before you start looking at candidates. Let your source pre-screen the candidates. After all, they already know them. Once they have been pre-screened you can start the interviewing process.

When you start them in training, immerse them in your culture. The major reasons people leave organizations is there unhappiness with the culture or management. Create a “buddy system” and ask one of your current young staff to “take them under their wing”. Make them feel like family, train them well, help them feel valued and they will more than likely want to stay with you for the long term.

I really like the “build your own” approach and have personally have had success with the concept in multiple organizations. As you reach into academia you will find talent before the rest of the world has even seen them. That will get you off the recruiting merry-go-round. In fact, happy apprentices are your best recruiters. As they tell their friends about their great experience working for you, these same students become your best marketing tool. Soon you will have more candidates than you can hire. Wouldn’t that be a nice change?