How to Acquire Talent During Uncertain Times

These are strange days for recruiters and hiring managers. Companies are hiring like crazy. And firing at will. Who hasn't noticed the daily round-up of corporate layoffs on LinkedIn, even as businesses in industries such as travel, quick service dining, and retail struggle to keep employees?

As human resource consultant Josh Bersin wrote,

We have entered one of the most confusing job markets in decades. While the unemployment rate continues to drop (3.5% here, 2.4% in Japan), companies are also worried about the slowdown. So they're "hiring" and "laying off" simultaneously. What a confusing time.

Indeed, a recent PWC survey of CEOs reveals the seemingly contradictory forces at play:

What's going on? A number of factors:

• A rebalancing of talent since Covid-19 hit continues. Industries such as travel that shed employees in 2020 are scrambling to hire them back. Industries such as financial services that hired aggressively amid the recent stock market boom and surge in mergers/acquisitions are scaling back amid the financial markets downturn of 2022.
• The Great Reshuffle continues as the high quit rate demonstrates. People are jumping from one industry to another depending on how coveted their skills are as businesses reinvent themselves. Amazon, for instance, continues to expand beyond its core retail business into industries such as cloud computing, healthcare, and advertising, which creates a ripe opportunity for people in those industries to leave their chosen fields and join a business such as Amazon and its competitors who are also expanding.
• Recessionary conditions have made companies cautious and quick to shed talent. Tesla, for instance, began shedding jobs after CEO Elon Musk said he had a "super bad feeling about the economy." Fear, uncertainty, and the need to manage investor expectations all play a role.

Amid the topsy turvy job market, some other important trends that took hold in recent years continue:

• Job seekers in today's market want more than just fulfilling careers, impressive benefits, and proper compensation-they want more autonomy. They want flexibility in where they work and how they work. A culture that aligns with their personal values. An employer who treats them like human beings, not "assets." As noted in Fortune recently, "Job seekers are looking for companies that share their values- 'Places,' [Indeed CEO Chris] Hyams says, 'where an employer is going to look out for them as a whole human being, that is going to care about their physical health [and] their mental health.'
• Job seekers are also searching for careers differently than previous generations did. More than 70% of job searches begin on Google, according to Recruiter.com. In addition, approximately 79% of job applications use social media as part of their job-seeking journey. Perhaps it's not surprising that LinkedIn found that 70% percent of talent professionals believe that virtual recruiting will be the standard moving forward.

Based on these and other converging factors, we suggest that recruiters and hiring managers:

• Articulate a compelling employee value proposition that resonates with the values of your ideal hire. Why should anyone work for your company? The answer needs to go beyond benefits. How does your company treat employees and whole human beings?

• Be mindful of today's economic uncertainty. Now is a good time to stress attribute such as stability and growth on your Careers section. Publicly traded firms should assume job seekers have the same mindset as investors: evaluating companies based on how well they will weather economic uncertainty. How well are your investor relations and recruitment messaging aligned?
• Take a digital-first approach to recruiting. This means a lot more than posting jobs online. It means designing a true digital campaign aligned with every phase of the job seeker's journey, from awareness to conversion - just like businesses do with customers. Like customers, candidates go through several steps and digital touchpoints (ranging from Google to TikTok depending on their profile) before they decide to apply for your job opening. Understanding your candidate journey can help you improve the overall candidate experience, allowing you to quickly find and hire qualified talent. Aligning your employer brand with every phase of the journey requires a strong, thoughtful investment in performance marketing tools such as paid search, social advertising, search engine optimization, and lead nurturing.

Bottom line: At Investis Digital, we believe the way to win in this new environment is to respond to the candidate's journey with a Connected Content approach to recruitment marketing. This means creating a compelling employee value proposition that permeates every aspect of your recruitment efforts, starting with your website and continuing throughout every stage of the candidate's journey-all with a focus on digital.

Our recently published The Guide to Successful Talent Acquisition provides a blueprint for recruiters and hiring managers to succeed in today's - and tomorrow's - job market. This is the only guide a recruiter or hiring manager will need to attract talent in a digital-first world. Our guide will teach you how to create a "ready now" pipeline of the right talent for your company. Takeaways include:

• How to find and maintain a highly qualified talent pool in a digital-first world
• How to develop an employee value proposition
• How to create a snapshot of your ideal candidate and their journey
• Why your website needs to be a talent magnet
• How to develop a strong lead nurture strategy for your most qualified candidates

And much more. The guide includes case studies based on Investis Digital's extensive experience with HR and talent acquisition. For example, we helped Rolls-Royce adapt its talent acquisition approach to build a stronger employee brand with coveted talent. Download the guide and contact Investis Digital to learn how we can help you.

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