What is a candidate-driven market? It's good news for job seekers. Basically, a candidate-driven market means waves of hiring surges are bringing competition back to the job market.
A candidate-driven market means now is a great time to be looking for work as there are more jobs for talented creatives, but also means a tough time for hiring and retaining happy employees. A high demand for specific skills paired with the longer amount of time companies take to fill open roles is good news for job seekers, but not so great news for those doing the hiring.
Inc Magazine says “the most difficult step these days is finding employees — any employees at all. We're in the midst of one of the most difficult hiring markets of all time.”
To understand how we got here, Jibe.com shares these stats:
During the financial crisis of 2007–2009, the job market plummeted as approximately 8.7 million jobs were lost and the unemployment rate hit 10%. But since 2010, employment in the private sector has increased by 14.5 million jobs. That's an average of 194,000 jobs per month.
Recruiters agree. According to a 2016 Recruiter and Employer Sentiment Study, 86% of respondents said they would call the labor market "candidate-driven" compared to 56% in 2012.
In fact, during the next decade, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 15.6 million jobs will be added to the U.S. market. This allows current employees to seek out new opportunities and those looking for work are able to apply for roles that weren’t there during the recession.
But what does a talent-focused hiring market mean for companies? Read on.
Essentially, a candidate-driven market means there's more competition for employers. While talent competition increases, so does the willingness of workers to leave their current position for new jobs with better salary, bigger benefit packages, more opportunity for advancement, or all three.
This is in stark contrast to the employer-driven years of long interview processes and large candidate pools, Superior Group points out. "Now, rather than waiting for weeks, candidates have the option to find better, more competitive offers at organizations that are not undervaluing their skill sets and that are willing to pay market-value."
In fact, an MRINetwork Recruiter Sentiment Study showed 31% of recruiters said that candidates rejected offers based on better opportunities elsewhere, while hiring managers were deliberating.
Employers, HR departments, and Hiring Managers need to focus on creating a better candidate experience for hiring while c-suite personnel need to focus on retaining the talent they have.
Let's get started with recruiting.
First thing is first: how do you find the best potential employees?
We need to all admit the war for talent is real! Now more than ever, it's important to be leveraging your employer brand, focusing on proactive vs. reactive hiring, and thinking about creating a positive candidate experience.
How do you do that? Start with your recruiting team.
In her Talent Economy sponsored Talent10X talk, "Recruiting at Scale," Gina Contella of Reverb suggested the following four ways to identify potentially great talent:
For example, the four qualities Reverb looks for in a new hire are people who are:
But you need to know your company culture quite well to be able to recruit this way. If you don't hire for matches in company culture, it may be time to fix your process.
These three things are a good starting place for fixing your hiring process and attracting top-notch talent in a candidate-driven market.
Job candidates now no longer focus only on pay when looking to accept an offer or apply for a job. All companies have a "culture," and candidates are now attuned to researching individual companies to determine the right fit for themselves, points out Superior Group.
But what IS culture? Culture expert and Director of Talent at Sprout Social Jim Conti says:
How do you communicate this outside of the interview? Most candidates can look at your web and social pages to gauge the personality and overall work/life balance they will experience if they accept a position, so make sure your social sites like Glassdoor and Facebook are filled out completely and double-check your mission statement to attract the right candidates, then focus on interviewing for a good culture fit.
Asking the right questions can go a long way for finding a good employee/culture fit. Include questions in your interview process like:
Glassdoor also has these suggestions from their new ebook:
When it comes to compensation: know there is no such thing as a "typical rate." And second, know that you need to be competitive to attract top talent.
Don't assume there is an industry standard hourly rate for creatives. You can't compare on price alone. Rates are reflective of experience, values, individual processes, and more. An example: PicJumbo's "Play Bigger" Presentation written by Sian Richardson offers,
New Graphic Designers might only charge around $1k for a Logo and website design, with an experienced solo biz owner charging $8k+, and at the highest end of the scale, full-on creative agencies might charge $20k+. But when you put it into perspective, the levels of experience and expertise are relative to the pricing.
Do a little research and get quotes from a couple of people for ideas on rates and processes. A salary guide that breaks down pay by seniority and location is a great place to start.
Every touch point a job candidate has with your company should be as efficient and speedy as possible. Make sure you actually complete your company's application process as if you were a job candidate (from starting on your job board with a mobile device through submitting an application, resume, and scheduling an interview) to see where the kinks are.
Then, once your process is smooth, be ready to move.
Your Career Intel seconds this opinion: "Companies that drag their feet, let too much time elapse between interviews, and require too many meetings before making an offer give the competition the benefit of time." The early bird does in fact get the worm. "When employers make their hiring decisions efficiently, early offers may tempt candidates to make a deal."
Now, once you've made an offer and snapped up that top talent, how do you make sure they don't leave?
Jason Weingarten, CEO of Yello, favors these three retention strategies when it comes to keeping people on the team:
With the most in-demand talent being able to be ultra-selective in their project and job selection, it's paramount to keep your current talent and employees happy so they don't jump ship. There are easy, non-expensive ways to do that.
Being flexible goes a long way toward being liked. Workplace flexibility will help keep employees. Why not consider allowing employees to work flexible hours or remotely? Or take the team offsite and let them work from a coffee shop one day a month.
These are all great ways to keep the employee from falling into an office rut that may stifle their creativity, or even worse, lead to boredom, frustration...or a job hunt.
Once you have amazing, happy employees, what happens when you need to grow your company? Is it possible to keep your culture as you scale?
Yes! Stay true to you! In a chat with Frank Kalman from Talent Economy and Yello CEO Jason Weingarten, core values continued to come up.
Keep your values in mind as you scale. It can be scary for some when the CEO steps out of the direct hiring picture, so you need to make sure your management team knows what your values are. How can you make sure your team is hiring are managing to your company’s values and cultures?
How do you do this? Training. At Jellyvision, SVP Mary Beth Wynn makes sure managers are trained in company culture and values from the beginning.
Some steps Jellyvision takes:
You absolutely don't want to lose your company culture and values when you scale. Make sure to follow these five tips from Sprout Social's Jim Conti who grew the company from 55 employees to over 400 by creating new teams and new processes. When you start adding more employees to your team, remember to:
All these things will help you keep the core of your culture as you grow. Don't expect it to happen overnight, though. "Growth is a marathon, not a sprint," says Director of Talent for Narrative Science Katie Grinberg. "Be nice to yourself and set realistic goals," she told the Talent10X audience in her "Hypergrowth HR" talk.
You're going to have to spend money too, she says.
Prioritize your people by having buy-in from the c-suite, understand what your employees need to do their job, and focus on learning, growth, and development. Having a discretionary budget for hard skills learning, lunch and learns, and tickets to low-cost events in your community can go a long way, Grinberg suggests.
You, too, can have happy, engaged employees no matter what the workforce market looks like.
A candidate-driven market is great for job seekers, but it doesn't have to be bad for employers. Focus on valuing your company's current team and don't be afraid to ask for help when it comes to filling open positions. A staffing agency can go a long way to help cut down hiring times and fill vacancies faster, freeing you up to focus on your current team.
Don't hesitate to reach out to Artisan's account management team today. They'd be happy to answer your questions or help you hire talent.