Everyone agrees, there is a major skills shortage in the engineering sector. This creates significant competition for candidates, and a battle for talent that employers can’t afford to lose.
With an already complex recruitment process, the addition of this skills shortage, the struggle is only multiplied. Discover some of the top recruiting tips below 👇
A strong employer brand is critical.
One of the essential tips for effective recruitment is building a strong employer brand. Reputation is important, so worth keeping an eye on sites like Glassdoor for employee reviews and in a wider context, sites like Google reviews too. If customers can trust a company to do the right thing, it follows that employees are likely to be able to as well. With an established brand, a company is then in a position to compete for the best talent. Since talent is sparse in a skills shortage, businesses must sell themselves to skilled individuals via their branding. Branding should reflect the company’s values and run consistently through the hiring process. Such consistency speaks volumes and supports a positive decision making process for those in demand candidates.
Speed up your recruitment process – remove any unnecessary stages.
Another one of the top tips for recruitment is to streamline your recruitment process. Plan to succeed so you can efficiently align internal processes. The candidate journey needs to run as quickly as possible, as top talent won’t be on the job seeker market for long. Even if an employer is yet to decide between hiring a candidate, they should remain in contact with them. Without regular communication, they’ll soon forget the company and be snapped up elsewhere. The last thing any organisation wants is to lose the ideal candidate due to dragging out the recruitment process.
Create and use an employee referral scheme.
An employee referral scheme is an organised and structured programme in which employees can endorse candidates for open positions. This is an excellent idea for sourcing skilled individuals, as talent recognises talent. If a company already has a talented and experienced team, chances are the team members will have previous colleagues of the same calibre in mind. Companies might also provide incentives for employees to engage with the referral scheme, such as perks and bonuses. These will be a small price to pay for the recruitment of top talent.
Look for candidates with transferrable skills.
As previously mentioned, the skills shortage stems from shifting practices that adjust occupational demands. Therefore, employers should keep the skill shortage in mind from the initial stages of recruitment. For instance, a company should source candidates with transferrable skills to avoid the skills shortage impacting it further. This is because their role may need adjusting should the demands of their job change. With this being said, you should clarify the potential of this happening so your candidate isn’t hit with any unwanted surprises regarding their responsibilities.
Change up your process for recruiting engineers.
After all, you can’t do the same thing multiple times and expect different results. If the skills shortage is impacting your ability to hire the right talent within reasonable timescales then try BMS. We’re incredibly successful in delivering candidates for engineering roles. You can get started with your recruitment process today, by uploading your vacancy.
We look forward to helping you optimise your recruitment process in attracting and attaining top talent.
