Effective Hiring in 2022: How to Hire the Best

Supply chain issues and labor shortages: 2021 was the year of the monkey wrench. Some of these problems have persisted into the new year as we’re still feeling the aftershocks from the massive earthquake. 

Unemployment is back down under 4% here in America, and yet available job postings continue to grow in number and continue to go unfilled. So many people went through career changes over the last couple of years, and some industries or vocations have been left shorthanded. 

Finding, hiring, and retaining employees have become some of the top challenges facing all employers, especially small businesses. So, companies like ours are left looking for ways to face this challenge. 

Here are some things we have noticed about the market, some things we are doing, and some things we’d recommend if you are in a similar position:

Adapting the Hiring Process
It’s a buyer’s market out there. Top talent has changed their view on the way we work, and there has been a shift in values. In some cases, people are looking to maintain a hybrid in-person/remote work schedule. But that’s not necessarily possible in many roles. Some jobs simply must be done in person. The supply/demand curve is out-of-whack, so employers have to be more attentive to the needs and wants of job seekers. 

If you’re struggling to fill a position, and the candidates are self-selecting out of your application in favor of other, more enticing opportunities, then the level of play has been raised. You need to focus more on making your job postings more attractive, creating a positive interview experience, and getting competitive with salary and/or benefits. 

Attract More People, Attract the Right People
Going off of salary and benefits, it’s important to be transparent about them in your posting. 55% of job seekers said that the most important thing to them (when reading a job posting) is seeing a salary range and details regarding benefits. 

If you’re keeping those cards closer to your vest, then some potentially perfect candidates may be scrolling right on by your posting in favor of similar ones that are transparent with that information. And those other postings might actually be offering worse compensation/benefits packages than you! They’re just being open about it out of the gate. 

Candidates are being pickier when it comes to where they want to spend their time. People talk a lot about company culture; how it’s hard to define, how it’s a gut thing, and how hard it can be to create one that stands out to potential new hires. If you’re a small business, then you know what you want your culture to be and what you want your workplace to feel like–but that’s not always obvious to people in the interviewing process. 

Retaining Employees
While you might be focusing on filling your current open positions, your employees might be casting some lines of their own to see if they get any big bites. After all, if they think that there’s a decent chance that they might get an offer for more money, better benefits, and a more flexible work schedule, then they’d be silly not to test the waters, right? 

We all have to recognize the state of the market and compete accordingly. If you’re not adapting your workplace to entice your current as well as future employees, then you’re only going to end up with more unfilled job postings. 

It doesn’t always come back to salary and benefits. It comes back to creating a place your employees are excited to come to every day. It’s not just about doing good work, it’s about how you go about doing it, and how you treat your employees. 

Here at AccuDock, we want our employees to feel like they’re a part of the family. We want to foster an environment of creative problem-solving. We hire people that we trust will do excellent work, and so we like to point them in the right direction and let them take their own approach to get it done.  

Conclusion

Times, they are a-changing, and a rising tide lifts all boats. But if you’re treading water, it can feel difficult to keep your head above the surface. 

As employers, we have to recognize the shift, have to adapt to the market, and have to find ways to stand out. Things you can do right now are: make salary ranges and benefits packages visible on all job postings, have one-on-one meetings with your current employees to talk through goals and satisfaction levels, and make sure you’re attracting the right people. 

If you’re a current job seeker and think that AccuDock sounds like a place you might enjoy working, then check out our careers page!