Hiring managers certainly don’t have an easy job. Filling positions at a company can be tricky in the best of circumstances, and there may be evidence that the current workforce represents anything but the best of circumstances.
But why is hiring so difficult, and what’s causing it to get more challenging? The process itself has always been complicated, and not knowing the best practices and methods can result in your corporation having far too many unfilled positions. The next time you’ve got spots at your company to fill, consider this information on current hiring trends.
Millennials stir the pot
Companies have had years to prepare for the arrival of millennials in the workforce, and now that this generation makes up the majority of workers, the effect they’re having on the job market is increasingly apparent. For one thing, more millennials means you’ll be recruiting more often. According to a study from Jobvite, millennials are more than twice as likely to seek a new position after just three years on the job than their older coworkers.
But millennials aren’t just looking for jobs more often, they’re doing it differently, too. Conventional job postings have been a mainstay of recruiting for years, but the younger workforce is looking elsewhere, including internal referrals and even social media.
Changing methodologies
These changes to how and where job-seekers go to find work is crucial for hiring managers to understand. Just like applicants won’t be able to find work if they look in the wrong places, businesses will have similar trouble recruiting if they don’t use the proper channels. Many hiring managers are already catching on, with the Society for Human Resource Management noting that 65 percent of survey respondents indicated taking to social media to recruit applicants.
While millennials use social media to find work, hiring managers can use these platforms to investigate and vet applicants. In fact, the SHRM noted that 92 percent of hiring managers already use social media for this purpose. Still, companies are still looking at an average time-to-hire of 31-60 days. In today’s fast-paced business economy, you don’t have the luxury of waiting two months to fill a position.
Most important is the fact that recruiting isn’t a part-time job. Even if your company doesn’t have open positions to fill, your HR services team should be scouring these channels, as top talent can come through at any time.