Everyone knows running a business is tough. There are many ups and downs that come with it. Talent shortages are one of the many downs that comes with it. Workforce shortages can hold a company back from growing. Also, it risks the loss of existing customers and clients. Thankfully, there’s key ways you can overcome talent shortages. Below, we pulled together 5 ways to help you overcome talent shortages.
Plan for the future
Positions open up all the time within companies, which can leave employers scrambling to fill essential positions. However, being proactive about your hiring needs allows you to overcome a potential candidate shortage. Luckily, hiring managers can identify the success and risks factors to help fill positions. This can include key behavioral traits, effective recruitment practices, and problems that lead to employee turnover. Once they understand this, they can help your company hire qualified candidates to fill roles more efficiently.
Partner with a staffing agency
Sometimes hard hiring times call for extra measures. If traditional recruiting methods are not working for a company, they can look into alternative options. The best way to do so is to partner with a staffing agency. By partnering with a staffing agency, you’ll have access to a larger candidate pool. While not every candidate can be a perfect fit for your position, many can quickly pick up new skills. Most agencies have candidates go through background screening solutions and talent assessments to help streamline the hiring process. Also, they also go out of their way to learn more about your company. Which in return, helps them send the best candidates your way.
Build your company stronger from within
Does your company have any plans to backfill an important role? Are there any key employees that are cross-trained and can step in if necessary? By having your employees learn additional skills, you can increase their value to your company. Hiring the right candidates is always important, but it’s also important to help your employees grow and develop within your company.
One effective way to do this is to implement career pathing early on in the onboarding process. This allows employees to see what opportunities your company can offer each of them in the long run. Also, it helps identify what types of skills they need to learn in order to move into those positions. Also, you can provide mentorship opportunities for employees at all levels of the company. If you’re strategic about your recruiting efforts, you can get the help of your own team and keep growing your business to get the hires you want.
Create an employee referral program
It’s no secret that the most successful hires are referred by existing employees. This is why developing a well-structured employee referral program can make a huge difference when needing to fill an open position. The easiest way to help encourage this is to offer clear incentives to all employees and keep track of where your best referrals came from. By doing this, you’re able to give existing team members an opportunity to get involved and grow your team more efficiently.
Look into freelancers
Freelancers have been changing the way that companies find talent. By looking into freelancers, you are open to a much wider pool of potential candidates. Also, hiring a freelancer might be beneficial if the position only needs to be filled for a short amount of time or if you’re uncertain about making a full-time hire just yet. You also might find it beneficial to outsource to that same person in the future if your team ever gets too swamped during a project.