[On-Demand] Hiring in a Candidate Driven Market: Challenge Accepted
The talent landscape is changing. Fueled by a candidate-driven job market, talent leaders across all industries are searching for skilled candidates available to fill a record number of open positions. Job seekers have the upper hand; they’re more willing to leave jobs for employers they’re unsatisfied with and expect more from companies they apply to. This includes socially responsible practices, competitive wages and quality of life considerations.
So, how can you source and attract the right high-quality talent faster in our candidate-driven market? Join PeopleScout’s Candance Lamon, vice president of global delivery and Jill Polistico, director of client delivery for our on-demand webinar Talking Talent webinar: Challenge Accepted: Tactics and Strategies for Hiring in a Candidate’s Market.
In this webinar, Candace and Jill discuss tactics and strategies for sourcing, engaging and hiring candidates as well as providing best practices for navigating a candidate-driven job market.
This webinar will cover:
The current talent market outlook for employers
Strategies for improving your employer brand and candidate experience
Tips for building a strong company culture to reduce turnover
Best practices for structuring talent programs to meet evolving changes in the workplace
There is a contract employee revolution right now. The world of work is currently experiencing a profound and lasting transformation in the labor force—one that may determine which organizations remain productive and competitive in the years to come.
At the onset of the pandemic, millions of workers worldwide exited the workforce for a variety of reasons, including illness, health concerns, family caregiving responsibilities and, unfortunately, staff reductions. But now, a new workforce exodus fueled by burnout and workers reevaluating their careers has led to the ongoing Great Resignation as millions of employees resign in record numbers. As a result, talent teams are facing record labor shortages across all industries.
Meanwhile, alongside the rise in remote and freelance work options, organizations are now rethinking where work is performed, who is doing the work, and the composition of their workforces in order to combat turnover and fill critical talent gaps. What’s more, the wide adoption and success of remote work has provided contract employees with evidence that they can now expect more in terms of workplace flexibility, thereby creating ideal conditions for building and managing a robust remote contingent workforce.
In this article, we’ll discuss the drivers that are propelling the remote contract workforce trend; how to manage remote teams of contracted employees; and the opportunities and risks that employers face when hiring non-contingent remote talent.
The Remote Contract Employee Landscape
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for skilled contingent talent was already high: In a 2019 survey by Oxford Economics and SAP, 48% of executives reported that their companies could not conduct business without contingent talent, and contingent workers made up nearly one-quarter of their human resources spend. And, although COVID-19 has upended many talent strategies and trends, it’s only increased the demand for contingent talent.
However, with many knowledgeable and skilled professionals hitting the freelance market, the dynamic between employee and employer will likely shift. That’s because many independent contractors think of themselves in more entrepreneurial terms than traditional employees. So, a contractor may view themselves as both a business entity and a worker. This makes sense when you factor in the additional responsibilities that a contract employee may have to navigate, such as tax preparation, securing benefits and other administrative tasks that permanent hires may not have to face.
Plus, with these additional considerations, time is an essential commodity for contract employees who are looking to balance project productivity and necessary business tasks. As such, employees across all classifications are increasing productivity through remote work arrangements. According to a survey by the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago, nearly one-third of respondents said they thought they were just as productive working from home as they were in the office. Another 30% of respondents told researchers that they were more productive and engaged working from home. This same research team then calculated that working remotely reduced the commuting time of the 30,000 survey respondents by 62.4 million hours per day—an aggregate time savings of more than 9 billion hours.
Clearly, the amount of time saved and the productivity boost provided by working remotely made contract employees more motivated to seek contracts that allowed for increased flexibility in terms of location. This level of flexibility can also be seen as a benefit for contractors seeking a greater work/life balance.
The Global Effect of Remote Contract Employee Work
Improvements in technology mean that it’s now easier to access talent and work efficiently from almost anywhere—making the future of contract work borderless. Because of this, many organizations have extended their workforce procurement programs internationally.
More precisely, businesses are willing to meet workers where they are and hire them from locations previously considered untenable for logistical reasons. Not only does this expand the available talent pool, but it also extends markets, bringing organizations closer to clients, suppliers and the communities they serve.
Granted, hiring remote contract employees in multiple geographies can be challenging as employers have to navigate significant regulatory complexities to ensure that workers are legally employed, culturally included and professionally supported.
Remote Contingent Employment & Compliance
Worker classification has always been a top concern for organizations leveraging contingent labor. That’s because the penalties and fines associated with misclassifying talent not only affect your bottom line, but can also harm an organization’s reputation among contract workers.
Now, with so many skilled professionals opting for contingent work over traditional employment, properly classifying workers should be a renewed area of focus for employers leveraging contract employees. Even so, organizations may not realize the potential effect that changes to tax codes or new laws may have on their entire workforce—including contingent workers.
In the U.S., for example, there are six federal agencies governing who qualifies as a contracted employee: the IRS, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), National Labor Relations Board, Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), and Wage and Hour Division of DOL. Unfortunately, the lack of continuity among these agencies—as well as the conflicts that arise between state and local laws—make it difficult for employees to keep up. However, resources like the IRS’s independent contractor checklist can help employers better understand the relationship between contractor and employer.
Employers can also engage an MSP provider experienced in navigating the complex compliance and regulatory landscape surrounding contract employment. Specifically, an MSP provider can help an organization build a consistent auditing and classification process across the entire enterprise, as well as become a trusted partner and effective manager of a hybrid workforce.
Contract Employee Compliance in an Increasingly Global World
When engaging an international contract worker, organizations also need to ensure that the contract worker won’t be considered an employee according to their local laws. Each country has its own laws to determine whether someone should be considered an independent contractor. For example, in the UK, employers use the off-payroll working rules (IR35), whereas Serbian employers use the Independence Test to determine employment status.
Managing a Remote Contract Workforce
Employers must also be aware of how to meet the needs of contingent workers, as well as how to create an environment that serves both those workers and the organization’s business needs.
Notably, the leadership skills required for managing remote contractors depend on the specifics of each role, contract term and project scope. Organizations should also be on the lookout for top-performing contractors who have the potential to transition to permanent, full-time roles under the right circumstances.
Integrating a Contract Employee into Your Team
Regardless of the contract length, integrating contractors into an organization’s culture can prove to be a valuable strategy. For instance, in the short-term, ensuring that contractors have direct and seamless access to the right people will aid in your company’s ability to deliver the best project result and productivity. Alternatively, in the longer term, integrating contractors into an organization’s culture can help increase the potential of hiring high-performing workers again in the future, as well as create advocates for the organization.
As such, organizations should clearly articulate the dynamics of the institution and its culture from the beginning stages during the interview process. Then, after the contractor starts, they should reiterate those specifics again during the onboarding process. This will help both the employer and the contractor to determine whether the role is a good fit.
Managing Communication with Contingent Team Members
At the onset of working with each contract employee, make sure to align on communication. In particular, it’s crucial to set expectations on which communication channels are to be used. For example, will the contractor be joining Slack channels? Are team communications more formal or casual? How is confidential information communicated and handled by contractors?
Examples of other communication expectations to set with contract employees include:
When do you expect the team to be available?
What’s your expectation per channel? Do you avoid text altogether? Are all calls expected to be conducted via video?
If a discussion is urgent, what’s the best channel to use?
Of course, disruption and change will inevitably continue as the global economy and talent marketplace recover. Fortunately, one of the best strategies an organization can leverage in order to remain productive and create sustainable future growth is to invest in a more flexible workforce to shore up unexpected skill gaps. Essentially, to find the right balance between in-office and remote talent—as well as between payroll and contingent labor talent—employers must embrace new talent solutions, tools and strategies for the new remote hybrid workforce.
U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March, which is slightly less than economists had predicted. It marks 11 straight months with job growth above 400,000. The unemployment fell to 3.6%. Year-over-year wage growth remained high at 5.6%.
The Numbers
431,000: U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March.
3.6%: The unemployment rate fell to 3.6%.
5.6%: Wages rose 5.6% over the past year.
The Good
March’s jobs numbers show that the economy remains strong despite challenges domestically and abroad. The unemployment fell to 3.6%, nearing the pre-pandemic low of 3.5%. And while the Wall Street Journal reports that economists had anticipated a gain of 490,000, the numbers for January and February were adjusted upward, accounting for the slight miss. Additionally, the labor force participation rate hit a new pandemic high of 62.4%, and 418,000 new workers joined the labor market, according to MarketWatch. The economy has now regained about 90% of the jobs lost at the height of the pandemic.
The Bad
Wage growth remained high in March, which can be seen as a positive by workers, but as the New York Times reports, it remains a worrying sign for inflation. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates in March, and officials have suggested rates may go up half a percentage point in May. The leisure and hospitality sector has seen the highest wage growth, with an 11.8% increase over the past year.
The Unknown
As CNBC reports, March’s jobs reports comes at a “critical juncture” in the pandemic recovery. There are currently five million more job openings than there are available workers. Inflation is at the highest rate since the mid-1980s. The war in Ukraine has created supply chain issues. Rising rates could dampen the housing market. Economists will continue to watch how all of these factors contribute to the country’s broader economic health in the coming months.
U.S. employers added an impressive 678,000 jobs in February, in the strongest jobs report since last summer. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%. Year-over-year wage growth remained high at 5.1%.
The Numbers
678,000: Employers added 678,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in February.
3.8%: The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%.
5.1%: Wages rose 5.1% over the past year.
The Good
The headline number of 678,000 new jobs in February beat analyst expectations. Nearly a quarter of those jobs were in the leisure and hospitality sector, which includes the industries most impacted by coronavirus surges. Restaurants alone accounted for 124,000 new jobs, and no industries reported a decline in employment.
Additionally, labor force participation increased to 62.3%, though the number is still far below pre-pandemic numbers. However, the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, only slightly higher than the 3.5% unemployment rate of February 2020. Though wage growth remains high, the Wall Street Journal reports that it has slowed enough to indicate that the nationwide labor shortage may be easing.
The Bad
There is very little bad news in February’s jobs report, though some challenges caused by the pandemic still remain. As the New York Times reports, the economy still has about 2 million fewer jobs it did before the pandemic, and the labor force is still about 3 million workers smaller.
The Unknown
February’s jobs numbers were collected before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so they do not reflect any impact of the conflict. MarketWatch reports that the invasion is likely to worsen inflation. According to the New York Times, the U.S. will likely see less financial impact than Europe, but there will be repercussions that can be difficult to predict. Though experts do say that Americans are likely to see higher oil prices, which could curb household spending.
U.S. employers added 467,000 jobs in January, beating analyst expectations despite the surge in COVID-19 cases. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4%. Year-over-year wage growth remained high at 5.7%.
The Numbers
467,000: Employers added 467,000 jobs in January.
4%: The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4%.
5.7%: Wages rose 5.7% over the past year.
The Good
Despite record numbers of COVID-19 cases across the country, employers beat analyst expectations to add 467,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in the first month of 2022. Additionally, the jobs numbers for November and December were revised up 700,000 over what was initially reported. According to MarketWatch, some experts had predicted an increase of only 150,000, while others had even expected a decrease in employment. Even the slight increase in the unemployment rate is good news, as it indicates more workers sidelined during the pandemic have reentered the labor market.
The Bad
There weren’t many downsides to January’s report. However, there may have been some impact due to the Omicron variant. The Wall Street Journal reports that nearly 2 million workers were prevented from looking for a job in January because of the pandemic. Additionally, 7.8 million said they missed some work because of Omicron.
The Unknown
Looking ahead to the rest of 2022, economists will be watching some factors still holding back the economy, according to the New York Times. Supply chain bottlenecks, labor shortages and high inflation have left Americans frustrated despite the fact that the unemployment rate has fallen faster than many experts predicted. Additionally, the strong recovery makes it likely that the Federal Reserve will raise interests rates in March, with traders predicting a half-point increase. Finally, employers and workers will be closely watching wages. Over the past year, wages have increased an average of 5.7%. While increasing wages are drawing more workers back into the labor market, they pose a challenge for employers.
Getting inclusivity and diversity right for talent acquisition teams means properly sourcing, interviewing and hiring candidates from underrepresented groups. What’s more, talent teams must understand not only where different candidates search for jobs, but also the factors important to those candidates.
To that end, a PeopleScout survey of job candidates focuses on inclusion and diversity, found important differences in how diverse groups find, research and apply for jobs, and employers can use these insights to make their recruitment process more equitable and inclusive. The survey focused on job candidates throughout the U.S. from a wide variety of backgrounds. However, due to the relatively small sample size, these survey results should be taken as purely directional. Below, we share the most important insights.
Talking Talent On-Demand Webinar
Data and Diversity: Using Technology to Achieve Your DE&I Goals
Inclusivity and Diversity: Candidates From Underrepresented Groups Find & Research Jobs Differently
Racial and ethnic minority candidates are more likely to hear about a job opportunity through word of mouth than white candidates. More precisely, nearly half of Black or African American candidates report learning about their most recent job through word of mouth, while only 35% of white candidates found their most recent job in the same way.
Black or African American candidates are also the most likely group to research an employer or job opportunity by talking to people in their communities—at more than double the rate of white candidates.
Inclusivity and Diversity: What This Means for Talent Acquisition
Your current employees from underrepresented backgrounds are important partners in sourcing and recruiting diverse talent; they understand your culture and values and can share both job openings and their experience at your organization with other candidates.
Women Rely on a Larger Range of Sources When Researching Employers
Notably, women in the workplace are more likely than men to research an employer through third-party channels, whereas men are more likely to rely on your careers site. For instance, while half of men report researching an employer through the employer’s careers site, only one-third of women do the same. Women are also twice as likely as men to use employer review sites, like Glassdoor.
What This Means for Talent Acquisition
Many candidates rely on your careers site for research. As such, your careers site should showcase your employer brand, but it cannot be your sole focus. Instead, also invest in improving your employer brand through employer review sites, like Glassdoor. Additionally, encourage your employees to share their positive experiences of working at your organization on social media sites, like LinkedIn.
The way you showcase diversity efforts also makes a difference to candidates, with the biggest gap between white and Black or African American candidates. For instance, when asked about the factors that candidates consider when applying to a job, Black or African American candidates were five times as likely as white candidates to consider your diversity efforts. Black or African American candidates were also more than four times as likely to consider whether your careers site features “people who look like me.”
What This Means for Talent Acquisition
Your diversity efforts are important to your candidates; they want to hear about what your organization is doing to improve diversity, equity and inclusion at your organization. And, in a competitive talent market, it’s important to feature those commitments, as they could be the deciding factor for candidates.
U.S. employers added 199,000 jobs in December, missing analyst expectations and providing mixed signals about the state of the economy. The unemployment rate fell to 3.9%. Year-over-year wage growth remained high at 4.7%.
The Numbers
199,000: The U.S. economy added 199,000 jobs in December.
3.9%: The unemployment rate fell to 3.9%.
4.7%: Wages rose 4.7% over the past year.
The Good
While the headline of 199,000 jobs added in December is disappointing, other numbers in December’s jobs report point to good news. The unemployment rate fell to 3.9% faster than the Federal Reserve had predicted. Additionally, the New York Times reports that the labor participation rate rose to 61.9% in November and December, the highest rate since the pandemic started.
Additionally, the U.S. economy added 6.4 million jobs in 2021, the highest yearly increase on record.
The Bad
As MarketWatch reports, December’s increase in employment was less than half of what analysts had projected. Experts say the lower numbers were caused, in part, by the tight job market. To compete for workers, employers have raised wages significantly over the past year, with year-over-year wage growth hitting 4.7% overall, though some sectors, like leisure and hospitality, have seen even larger increases. Because December’s numbers are based off the first two weeks of the month, before the latest COVID-19 surge began, the Omicron variant likely only had a small role in the month’s numbers.
The Unknown
Looking ahead to 2022, the Wall Street Journal reports that workers continue to quit their jobs at record rates, and experts predict a potential disruption caused by the surging Omicron cases followed by a strong year of job creation. Economists say that while businesses have gotten better at responding to waves of COVID-19 cases, Omicron has caused millions of sick workers to quarantine. The resulting labor shortage has already led to canceled flights and temporarily closed restaurants. However, as demonstrated by a rapid drop-off in cases in South Africa, Omicron is expected to cause only a short-term disruption.
Now more than ever, an organization’s hiring strategy should be adaptable. Throughout the last two years, many employers have had to reimagine their recruitment processes. Due to the pandemic, organizations rapidly moved recruiting processes to virtual models, shifting in-person interviews to digital and transitioning traditional office roles to remote.
Today, as businesses bounce back and job openings are at record highs, employers need to hire top talent—and fast. And, just as a hybrid approach to in-person and remote work for employees has become the norm, so, too, will the need for a blended recruiting strategy that will optimize the candidate experience advantages of in-person, while also continuing to leverage the benefits of virtual.
So, in this article, we’ll walk through what a hybrid hiring strategy is, discuss the benefits of in-person versus virtual techniques and provide tips for how to create a hybrid hiring strategy that works for your organization.
What is a Hybrid Hiring Strategy?
Hybrid hiring—or hybrid recruiting—is a strategy that allows organizations to maximize the benefits of both in-person and virtual hiring techniques. Specifically, a hybrid approach allows employers to leverage the advantages of virtual recruiting where it makes sense, while simultaneously using strategic, in-person methods to add value to the candidate experience along the way.
Granted, hybrid hiring isn’t new; many organizations employed a mix of virtual and in-person techniques prior to 2020. However, COVID-19 rapidly accelerated the need for safe, efficient hiring models, thereby leading to greater adoption of virtual strategies. Now, because employers have seen the advantages of virtual recruiting, the benefits of a hybrid model have become clear. Depending on the type of role you’re hiring for, having a strong hybrid hiring model in place makes it easy to recruit staff 100% virtually if and when it’s needed, or with a blended approach.
Leveraging a hybrid hiring strategy means you get the best of both worlds. But, what does that entail? Here are some of the biggest benefits of both virtual and in-person hiring techniques—and how they’ll play out post-pandemic.
Benefits of Virtual Hiring Techniques
Reduced Cost & Greater Efficiency
When you remove the physical component of recruiting, you see a greatly improved speed-to-hire and an overall reduction in costs. For example, PeopleScout helped this retail client reduce time-to-hire by more than 20% by implementing a mobile-first, shortened application process. Plus, expenses that would normally be spent on hosting recruiting events—such as travel costs, venue fees and printed materials—suddenly drop to zero. Additionally, your employees save time by hosting events remotely and also reap the benefit of having more candidates in attendance.
Expanded Reach & Reduced Bias
With travel out of the equation and with remote job options in place, employers can then expand the geographies from which they source talent. This offers greater opportunities for candidates and also opens up the candidate pool to top talent who may not have been on your radar previously.
Virtual hiring also reduces the amount of hiring bias experienced during in-person interviews. As humans, we judge people on many things (unconsciously or not), including how a candidate may look. But, with virtual interviews, recruiters are able to focus less on a candidate’s appearance and more on what they have to say.
According to the American Psychological Association, when it comes to height, every inch counts—in fact, in the workplace, each inch above average may be worth $789 more per year. This is the kind of bias that can be eliminated with virtual interviewing techniques.
Overall Convenience
Virtual interviews and other virtual recruiting tactics are convenient for both candidates and recruiters alike. For example, candidates can schedule on-demand interviews at a time that is most convenient for them, and recruiters can watch those recordings at their own convenience. What’s more, through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, candidates can also self-schedule follow-up interviews, ask questions and receive real-time responses that would have previously taken much longer without the technology that has come from the rise of virtual.
Benefits of In-Person Hiring Techniques
Showcase Your Company Culture
One challenge of virtual recruiting is the ability to effectively showcase your company’s culture. While there are certainly ways to do so, nothing quite compares to experiencing how individuals in an organization interact with one another in-person. Especially for roles that are required to work in an in-person or office setting, providing a time to come in for an in-person interview or assessment can be a great way to show your candidate what it would really be like to work for your company on a day-to-day basis.
Human Touch
While AI and automated tools help with efficiency, improve candidate experience, and speed up the overall time-to-hire, today’s talent pool can also find benefits from a blended model. In fact, candidates today are feeling more confident, in general, and more comfortable negotiating their salary when meeting face-to-face. A phone call and video interview can get the candidate in the door, but an in-person conversation can seal the deal—especially when it comes to hiring senior talent who would really appreciate being brought in for the final stages of the interview process.
Furthermore, utilizing in-person techniques can also add value to the candidate experience overall. From office tours to final interviews, it’s difficult to recreate human touch and company culture completely virtually. To that end, where it makes sense, in-person meetings can help sell a candidate on why they should work for your organization, as opposed to the competition.
How to Recruit People Now: Balancing Your Post-Pandemic Hybrid Hiring Strategy
Your hybrid hiring strategy will likely depend on your organization’s needs and what your workforce will look like on the other side of the pandemic.
For example, if some or all of your teams will work entirely remotely, it would make the most logical sense to complete the entire recruiting process virtually. Inevitably, bringing the candidate in for an in-person interview or office tour would waste time and money, and would likely confuse the candidate and, therefore, lead to a poor candidate experience. Instead, recruiting for these roles completely virtually and providing opportunities for human interaction and culture along the way can help candidates feel like they know what it will be like to work remotely for your company.
“How do we show candidates our company culture when we can’t invite them to the office? We send personalized, handwritten cards to candidates before their start date (as well as some swag!). We want to give them a feeling of being really welcomed into the company—which is what we’re really about.”
Ewa Zajac, Recruiting Operations Manager at Zendesk
On the other hand, if some of your teams will be working both from home and from the office, a hybrid approach would be the best fit. Virtual options save a lot of time and money in the beginning stages of sourcing, screening and interviewing, and candidates will want the flexibility to complete those initial interviews and assessments from the comfort and convenience of their own homes.
Then, when it comes to final interviews with candidates you’re very excited about, bringing them in for an in-person interview can be the final step before extending an offer. The candidate will appreciate the time you’re investing to bring them in, and they’ll get a taste of what it will be like when they work in-person. This will be especially important for roles that will be primarily in the office or in which relocation is necessary.
In the end, hybrid hiring won’t be a one-size-fits-all strategy. Whether your organization opts to keep recruiting fully virtual or works in opportunities for in-person techniques, the candidate experience will need to remain at the forefront of any model. Think about what candidates will want and how the recruiting process will make the most sense for the role you’re trying to fill.
Talent pools are important. However, expanding your talent pool amid turbulent times can be difficult. As businesses navigate reopening and hiring amid the surge of the Delta variant of COVID-19, many are struggling to fill their open roles with the talent they need: According to a survey by Willis Towers Watson, 73% of companies are having difficulty attracting employees, and 70% expect that their current challenges to hire and keep workers will linger into 2022.
Notably, the same survey found that these hiring challenges are caused by a variety of different factors, which vary based on industry and position type. For example, for hospitality, restaurant, warehouse and distribution employees, postponing their return to work and collecting unemployment when it was offered was the most commonly cited reason for difficulties in attracting staff. And, even when those extended unemployment benefits ended, hiring did not surge. Meanwhile, virtual employees present challenges based on high wage expectations, and other professionals are holding out for companies with work-from-anywhere policies.
At the same time, millions of workers are also planning to change careers: Data released by Monster showed that 95% of workers surveyed said they were considering changing jobs, while 92% said they were willing to switch industries to do so. Therefore, if your organization is struggling to fill open positions, developing a program to attract and reskill workers who are changing careers could significantly expand your talent pool.
In this article, we’ll explain why people are choosing to change careers, share common skills you should look out for in your talent pool expansion, and provide suggestions for how to create a reskilling program that will work for your organization.
How the Talent Pool is Evolving: Why Are Workers Changing Careers?
As a result of the pandemic and the tragic losses that came with it, people were faced with a reminder that every day is not guaranteed. This realization caused many to rethink their life choices and shift to prioritize their health, loved ones, hobbies and the things they truly enjoy. For many, this included rethinking their career path and goals—including exploring job opportunities that they’re truly passionate about so that they could make every day count.
Source: Prudential
As an employer, you can capitalize on this migration by offering competitive employment packages complete with work/life balance and promoting those benefits via recruitment marketing techniques. More precisely, beyond compensation and flexible work arrangements, show candidates how you will challenge them and help them grow in their career.
Building a Talent Pool: Identifying Transferable Skills in Workers Changing Careers
Fortunately, you don’t need to start from scratch when hiring people who have chosen to change career paths. Instead, focus on attracting candidates who have strong transferable skills across industries.
Transferable skills, also known as “portable skills,” are qualities that can be transferred from one job to another. Transferable skills can be used to position your past experience when applying for a new job—especially if it’s in a different industry. (Source: Indeed)
Furthermore, when you find candidates with certain transferrable skills, you won’t have to worry about training them on those. And, because many transferrable skills are soft skills, the candidate will be more malleable and will integrate well into a new job. In particular, they’ll be able to start working faster and will be more productive from the beginning. As a result, your training time can be focused on knowledge specific to your organization and the role.
Consider looking for these common transferrable skills when expanding your talent pool beyond your industry:
Problem-Solving
Workers who can demonstrate strong problem-solving skills in their previous roles will likely be able to apply that same mentality on the job at your organization. Specifically, employees with problem-solving skills will be able to identify problems, find what is causing the problem and seek out potential solutions—without you having to nudge them.
Teamwork
If the role you’re hiring for requires a lot of collaboration between team members, look for candidates who have experience working toward a common goal with others. Teamwork also encompasses several other skills, such as empathy, active listening and communication.
Communication
Communication is perhaps the most common transferable skill across all industries and job types because it’s required in almost every role. Workers with effective communication skills will be able to clearly share ideas and information both verbally and in writing; know when to ask questions; read body language; and communicate with others in a wide range of settings.
Leadership
While leadership skills are especially vital for leadership roles, such as managers and above, they’re also important for people to possess across the organization. That’s because leadership skills contribute to an employee’s ability to take the lead, get a team on the same page, delegate when needed and see a project through to completion.
Adaptability
Workers who are adaptable and flexible will be able to adjust as deadlines, teams or processes change. They’ll be able to pivot and learn new skills when needed, while also maintaining a positive attitude and ensuring goals are still met.
Technology Literacy
If you don’t want to teach your next hire the basics, look for candidates who have experience working with common business tools and technologies that will easily integrate into your business function. Similarly, if your organization is embracing more digital tools, it’s also important that your candidate is comfortable learning new technologies and software to improve efficiency and evolve with your organization.
While the list above highlights some key transferable skills, there are numerous others that might fit into your organization and the roles you’re looking to fill. Check out this list from FlexJobs for more.
Building a Reskilling Program for Workers Changing Careers
Attracting and hiring candidates with transferable skills will allow you to skip basic training on those qualities. However, because many of these hires will be coming from different industries, you’ll likely still need to provide some reskilling training for non-transferable skills to help them adjust to the new role.
Plus, employees expect training to come from employers. In a survey from Prudential, when asked who was most responsible for helping them develop the skills they need (aside from themselves), workers most often ranked employers as number one (33%). Likewise, when asked about the top ways that employers can support workers’ learning, workers most often said flexible schedules (78%), followed by employee-offered training (71%) and on-demand courses (71%).
But, what type of training will work for your organization? Well, that depends on what types of roles you’re looking to fill. According to a report by CompTIA, candidates have different preferences regarding training methods based on the type of job they’re seeking.
Consider these three steps to help you build an effective reskilling program:
1. Identify Skills Gaps
When hiring candidates from different industries, there’s no doubt that they’ll require some additional skills training to be able to be successful in the new role. So, identify what those key skills are so you can build your training program from there. Then, rather than spending time on transferable skills you already know your candidate possesses, focus on skills unique to the job and your organization, instead.
2. Develop Specific Skills Trainings
Once you’ve identified the key areas that will need to be covered, develop trainings specific to those needs. These trainings should encompass a variety of reskilling methods to fit the individual needs of your new hires, including:
a. On-the-job training:Employees can take on small projects and learn from real-world experience.
b. Online learning:Virtual courses can be taken at any time and are a great way to speed up the learning process. They provide a lot of content in a digestible form that anyone can grasp.
c. Blended learning: Combine online courses with in-person training to maximize the benefits of both. Employees can engage with instructors in person and come equipped with knowledge and questions from online training.
d. Peer learning: Employees can learn from one another through collaboration and job shadowing. By observing what someone’s day looks like, employees will get a good sense of what will be expected of them day-to-day.
3. Measure Success
Leverage surveys, discussions, post-training assessments and candid feedback from trainees regarding the value they found from the reskilling trainings. Do they feel like they’ve learned something new? Do they have the knowledge to put new skills to use? Are they implementing what they’ve learned on the job? Once you find out, revaluate and improve your training program regularly based on the strengths and weaknesses that employees identify.
Marketing Your Reskilling Program to Your Expanded Talent Pool
Now that you’ve assessed the transferable skills to watch for and developed a reskilling program for workers who are changing careers, it’s important to make that program known to these workers: Utilize recruitment marketing techniques on social media to promote your roles and share that your organization is offering reskilling to employees from a variety of industries. In job ads, highlight the fact that hires will be provided with reskilling training to ensure they’re successful in their new role. This—in conjunction with a strong employment offer and benefits—will help your business stand out above others in the competitive search for top talent.
U.S. employers added 210,000 jobs in November, missing analyst expectations and providing mixed signals about the state of the economy. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2%. Year-over-year wage growth remained high at 4.8%.
The Numbers
210,000: The U.S. economy added 210,000 jobs in November.
4.2%: The unemployment rate fell to 4.2%.
4.8%: Wages rose 4.8% over the past year.
The Good
November’s jobs report is confusing, but there is good news. The labor participation rate, which has been largely flat, ticked up in November to 61.8%, the healthiest number since the pandemic began. As the New York Times reports, there was a large increase in labor force participation by both Hispanic men and Hispanic women, some of the hardest hit demographics. Additionally, the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%, despite the relatively weak jobs numbers.
The Bad
The headline number of 210,000 jobs significantly missed analyst expectations. As MarketWatch reports, economists had predicted a gain of 573,000 new jobs. The retail sector lost jobs, while the leisure and hospitality sector, which has led job growth in recent reports, showed a gain of only 23,000. Despite the strong growth in 2021, the economy still remains 4 million jobs short of pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, rising wages still point to a labor shortage, as wages in labor and hospitality soared 11.8% over the past year.
The Unknown
What makes November’s jobs report so confusing is the survey data used to come up with the 210,000 number. The Labor Department relies on two separate surveys to make those estimates, one of employers and another polling households. In November, employers reported 210,000 new jobs, but households reported that 1.1 million more people were working than the month before. Experts quoted in the New York Times say a gap that large is unprecedented, and it provides a much cloudier picture about the health of the economy.
