‘A Great Reassessment.’ ‘Labor shortage.’ ‘The Great Resignation.’
For all of their clever wordplay and endless coverage, headlines are doing little to quell the fears of employers everywhere hoping to uncover some yet-untapped wealth of talent.
But for countless organizations, every stone overturned yields little human capital, and still, life – and business – go ever forth.
So businesses are relegated to a Goldilocks quandary: Demands are high, available talent is low, and no one seems just right.
All of the current extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, hiring has always boasted its own inherent challenges and obstacles.
Hiring is – and has always been …
- Time-consuming: For marketing specifically, it takes a median 41 days from submitting their job application to starting their first day on the job.
- Expensive: The Society of Human Resource Management found that the average cost per hire is just over $4,000.
- Competitive: It’s simple supply and demand. The U.S. has 8.4 million unemployed – and 10 million job openings.
But when current circumstances are considered, the numbers are even more discouraging.
Of nearly 1,200 employers surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management, 73 percent said they’re seeing a decrease in applications, and roughly half of the organizations said they’re seeing an increase in the number of applicants failing to reply to a request for an interview.
Changing Your Hiring Lens
Consider the case for companies like Uber and Airbnb, which found that the gig economy could provide a more reliable income than the unstable mega-institutions during the collapse of the global economy in 2008.
We could even consider the case for our organization.
Started in 2010, BELAY took advantage of both opportunities afforded by an economic downturn by not only creating a remote workforce, but also by disrupting the traditional workforce models in providing other businesses access to immediately deployable remote workers.
Necessity is the mother of invention – and this labor market is no exception.
The organizations that survive this hiring drought will have done so because they reimagined their approach to – and expectations about – hiring by bucking ‘how it’s always been done’ and considering some of the following unconventional hiring approaches.
Ask yourself: Can you …
- Contract first, hire second. If you don’t have the budget to hire a full-time employee or if you’re not confident that you’ve figured out exactly what you need, consider contracting the role first. This approach allows you to grow into the role financially, determine what you need the role to do for the organization, and find the right person for your full-time position while limiting the risk to your organization. Not everyone needs to be a full-time W2, so maybe the social media manager you need can be a fractional part-time contractor, even if temporarily. Outsourcing is a means to fill a need – typically more quickly than a traditional hire – while only paying for what you need, and nothing you don’t.
- Meet people where they want to be. And for most, it’s not in an office.It’s estimated that by the year 2022, 53% of the U.S. workforce will be remote. For comparison and perspective, just five years ago in 2017, roughly 5.2% of the workforce was remote. The workforce moved an entire decimal place in just five years. According to research, 21 percent of employees said that they wanted to work remotely full-time under normal circumstances, while 68 percent wanted a hybrid environment – and only 11 percent wanted to be on-site full time
- Reimagine incentives. Women tend to be more reliable and loyal employees, yet the burden of childcare tends to fall more on women, with Covid-19 only exacerbating those burdens. Employers can gain a competitive edge offering out-of-the-box incentives by partnering with providers of daycare, after-school, and drop-off and pick-up services to help alleviate these barriers to employment.
- Restructure your 40 hours. The Harvard Business Review suggests that structuring your 40-hour workweek as four shifts of 10 hours each – instead of a regular five-day workweek – can reduce the time employees spend commuting by 20%. And that says nothing about the ‘overwhelming success’ other countries have found recently trialing a four-day workweek.
A Case Study: The Great Outsourcing
As it so happens, we’re intimately familiar with several of the above alternative approaches to hiring. We’ve walked that walk with a remote workforce for 11 years, and attribute our 40% growth in 2020 to our adaptability and innovation.
Because not only are we in the business of modern staffing, but we also subscribe to the very business model we sell, backfilling roles with the very contractors that fill our bench.
Our 1,500+ contractors are immediately available to help innovative organizations willing to think – and hire – outside the box with a talent pool that includes …
- Social Media Managers These are professionals who live and breathe social media. We’re talking people for whom every ping, ding and red-badge notification gives them anticipatory butterflies as they eagerly engage with your clients – and future clients – online.
- Virtual Assistants Our Virtual Assistants are dedicated professionals who bring experience and expertise to everyone they serve with a knack for being resourceful, helpful and proactive, and a gift for organization, planning and problem-solving.
- Virtual Bookkeepers Most people don’t love spreadsheets – but some do. For those who don’t, our Virtual Bookkeepers and Accounting Clerks arm our clients with clear, simple, and updated financial information. Have financials so good your CPA sheds a tear.
- Website Specialists Your website should be your most profitable asset, not your most painful. Make prospective customers happy – and convert them to actual customers with a powerful website that can position both you and your company as the solution your prospects need.
Stop Settling. Start Hiring
BELAY has the right person ready to help you grow your business – without the added stress of having to do everything on your own.
So now, instead of managing minutia better left to someone else, leaders can spend more time doing what only they can do: Growing their organization.
And to help get you started with The Great Outsourcing, download a free copy of ‘Hiring Isn’t Hard: 9 Secrets That Make It Easy’ today so you can reap the benefits of a remote workforce tomorrow – and every day thereafter.
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