A labour market that reached historic levels of tightness in 2018 and 2019, per Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, shows no signs of abating as a new decade approaches. Employers continue to pull out all the stops to attract and retain talent, especially in sectors beset by a widening talent gap: manufacturing, transportation, and IT services among them.
No employer is immune from the combined gravitational pull of a tight labour market and persistent training deficiencies. But some organizations are in a better position than others. They’re making impressive strides to attract and retain highly qualified, motivated workers who add value to their organizations.
What can everyone else learn from them? These four strategies, for starters.
1. Establish Partnerships With Nearby Universities and Trade Schools
Start by upping your campus recruiting game. Nowhere else will you find, in numbers, ambitious workers willing to work long hours for relatively modest pay and benefits. Don’t limit your search only to the core degree programs that have thus far provided most of your company’s raw talent; adequate training compensates for many deficiencies.
2. Turn Your Headquarters Into Something More Than a Workplace
Make your home office a place that excites and energizes your workforce: somewhere workers actually want to be, and that they actually look forward to entering each morning. Whether that means tried-and-true methods like an open office plan or more creative ideas like this art-centric initiative from steel executive Todd Leebow is up to you.
3. Stop Looking for the “Ideal Employee”
Historically, your company has held up some version of the “ideal employee” for every role. This archetype has a certain mix of employment experience, formal credentials, personality traits, and perhaps demographics (especially age).
In a tight labour market, you don’t have the luxury of hiring your ideal employee for every available role because there aren’t enough ideal employees out there. So, think less about exactly how each hire should look and more about the value they’ll add to your organization.
4. Don’t Sleep on Boomerang Candidates
Larger organizations can tap sizable pools of “boomerang” candidates: employees who’ve left the company on good terms at some point in the past, but may now want back in. They’re easier to train up and more likely to fit into your corporate culture. How you approach and incentivize these employees depends on what they’ve been doing in the interim, but it’s safe to assume your offer will need to be more generous than the terms in force when they left.
Put Your Best Foot Forward, Every Day
Sooner or later, every one of your employees will have an “off” day. We’re all human, after all.
Your company can’t afford to have an “off” day, not ever. Not if it’s serious about drawing the best and brightest in its industry.
If you’re able to incorporate these four successful strategies into your human resources processes, you’ll have an easier time of attracting and retaining the workers you’ll need to maintain (or regain) your organization’s competitive edge. It won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight, but you’ve got to start somewhere.