A considerable amount has changed in the UK since the pandemic. We’ve gone through several Chancellors, political leadership contests and the war in Ukraine has impacted global supply chains and the energy market. However, despite feeling like a lifetime ago for many, one of the lasting legacies the Covid-19 outbreak has had on business is its impact on the recruitment and wider employment markets, leaving the sector with a considerable amount to think about.
Post-Covid talent management
Post-pandemic, candidates now seek out prospective employers in an entirely different way to how they used to and have a much clearer sense of what their ‘deal-breakers’ are. Talent managers probably feel like they understand the market – and they do likely have an excellent grasp of what was required pre-March 2020 – however in reality, very few firms have truly adapted to the major shift experienced in the hiring industry.
Skills shortages, which were problematic before Covid, have been exacerbated by the Great Resignation, but there are a number of new factors in play. The significant change is the growth of flexible and hybrid working. Obviously no two candidates are the same and some may be attracted by the idea of working from home, while others crave an office environment. This means factoring this flexibility into job offers and clarifying what your potential employees really want is of critical importance. Employers have had plenty of time to adapt to this shift, however many are still missing out on candidates due to a lack of understanding of their motivations and needs in a role.
Global talent
Equally, organisations are having to adapt to a changing post-pandemic world where their workforce is often geographically dispersed. Pre-pandemic you would bring talent to work, now you can take work to talent. This has meant the potential applicant pool is far larger than ever before, meaning recruitment teams are working harder than ever to source skills, with considerable amounts being wasted through inefficiencies in the search and hiring process.
Technological demands
On a related note, the bar has also been significantly raised when it comes to candidate demands over operational and recruitment technology. Pre-Covid, few employees were overly concerned about the strength of their employers’ communications network or the quality of the home-working products they had on offer, but now they’re being scrutinised on an entirely new level. This is often a significant investment for employers, but one that needs to be made in a world where employees are dispersed in different locations.
The same applies with health and wellbeing. Professionals are now far more aware of their rightful access to different options to improve their physical and mental health and can now set the agenda, meaning it’s up to organisations to keep up with the market, rather than setting trends as they have done in the past.
The list goes on; and we could add in shifts in organisational culture, the power dynamic between employer and employee and much more. What’s noticeable here is that it’s very easy – in the rush to keep up with the market – to spend a significant amount of money, and not get the required returns. In other fields, companies regularly assess and benchmark their activities in all areas of their work, however it’s historically been less common in recruitment, which is strange considering people are generally seen as a business’ most valuable asset.
This is where our Resourcing Effectiveness Assessment (REA) can help employers. The REA is our proven methodology and framework that audits an organisation’s end-to-end resourcing function and benchmarks results against best in class practice. It is derived from our extensive research and our partnership with the CIPD and their annual Talent and Resourcing Survey. The REA acts as the ultimate health check for an organisation’s resourcing strategy and drives the development of improvement plans, aligning resourcing practice to business success.
As we’ve seen, transforming your resourcing strategy, process or culture can be challenging, particularly when the world of work has changed so dramatically. Knowing where to start or what is important to your business now and in the future is essential and not all changes and improvements can be made at once if you want them to last. By defining the symptoms and activities associated with each element, organisations can understand their resourcing effectiveness. Not only that, but you can also identify and prioritise the actions required to improve key elements of resourcing, building a roadmap that will see your resourcing maturity progress over time. The REA will audit where you are now, assess against your own and other industries and then inform, so you can take the necessary action to develop a strategy that will help you attract and retain the talent you need now and in the future.
If you’re interested in using the REA to enable your organisation to understand how effective its talent management strategies are and then effectively plan for attraction and retention in 2023, regardless of what challenges it may bring, get in contact here.