Frank’s Employment

In the past week, we’ve had three companies miss out on hiring specific applicants for direct-hire positions because other companies grabbed them first. Two of the employers simply didn’t move quickly enough and the third didn’t pay enough.

Since 2009, those employers who were hiring had their pick of a large pool of unemployed workers. Now, however, that pool is much smaller and employers are now forced to compete for top talent.

In one case, a company was ready to make a direct hire offer to a candidate for a production graphic arts position. The hiring manager had a busy schedule and delayed the final interview and job offer for a week. In that week, the candidate accepted another job offer. This candidate had been out of work for over two years, but the offers were finally coming in.

In the second case, the employer was seeking a CNC Machinist/Programmer in the range of $20-25/hour. The candidate was currently making $30, but they decided to pursue him. In the span of 8 days, they repeatedly cancelled and re-scheduled a 2^nd interview. After the second delay, the candidate accepted another direct-hire offer.

The third case involved an experienced customer service person for a manufacturer of technical industrial products. The company offered the candidate $38,000 to start, but she accepted a similar job with another manufacturer at $46,000.

Overall business may not be back to pre-recession levels but the job market has been strengthening. It’s no longer a buyers’ market.

Hiring is increasing and the unemployment rate has come down to 8.5% nationally.  What does this mean for you and your company if you are looking to increase your staff?  Since 8.5% is still relatively high, it continues to be a buyers’ market for employers looking to hire, right?  No, not if you need skilled people.

In our area, manufacturing has been leading the way in hiring for the past two years.  The demand for specifically skilled employees far exceeds the available pool.  The unemployment rate varies by skill level.  The rate among low skilled employees, especially among the youth in some areas, is easily over 25%.  The rate for veterans returning to the civilian workforce is often cited at 20%.  This means that you can find low skilled Temps for your assembly department very easily.  But if you want a CNC Machinist or a skilled machine set-up operator, there doesn’t seem to be anyone available.  The reason is because you are looking in the wrong place.

Most of the skilled workers are working now.  The unemployment rate for that sector is probably less than 5%.  When you go looking for someone to come in on a Temp or Temp-to-hire basis, you are appealing only to the unemployed.  Someone who is working is not likely to apply for a Temp job, even if there is the promise of eventual permanent work.  The days of staffing your company only through Temp-to-hire are just about over.  You need to appeal to the 95% of the labor force who are currently working, and you can do that only by offering Direct-hire employment.

With Direct-hire, you can appeal to the sector of underemployed.  The skilled machinists who were making $20+/hour were laid off in early 2009.  They took whatever they could get when hiring started up again a year later, but it may have been at $14/hour.  During 2011 they were “trading up” – taking jobs that paid $18.  There are some that are still actively trying to regain their earlier pay levels, but they will only consider Direct hire.

You may be concerned because when you have done Direct-hire in the past, the people didn’t always work out.  Realistically, those same performance issues can happen with Temp-to-Hire, once the individual has completed the transition to your permanent workforce.  Either way, this may signal that you have other issues that need to be addressed.

Standard job descriptions are less and less effective in reaching best talent for your staffing needs.  Especially in a highly competitive job market, employers are turning to some innovative recruiting and screening techniques to focus their efforts on top-qualified individuals and reduce their stream of less-qualified applicants.

• Todd Raphael’s recent article for the Electronic Recruiting Exchange featured Upstream, a mobile marketing firm that used a seven-mission game to identify candidates for its gaming-related features.
• When recruiting earlier this year for a Proofreader position with a marketing firm, we intentionally inserted 10 typographical mistakes into our advertising, asking interested applicants to send their résumés plus their list of the errors.
• Another client needed a new salesperson with exceptional ability to recognize and target a sales lead. So our advertising for this opportunity included the name of the recruiter and her contact information. Qualified individuals who visited, called, or at least personalized their cover letter were given first access ~ and one was successfully hired.

What creative and innovative recruiting techniques have you found useful for finding top talent?