The talent war is on – 3 ways employers can stay competitive

The perfect storm of Covid-19, Brexit and looming recession has led to a war for talent affecting a range of UK sectors.

Warehousing and logistics have both been particularly badly hit. A survey by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT UK) found that a massive 86% of companies had experienced shortages of warehouse operatives over the last 2 years. A total of 60% reported struggling to hire enough drivers.

The intense competition for skilled workers has prompted many employers to offer higher starting salaries, benefits and compensation packages. But what happens when your company reaches the top end of what it can pay, or market-leading salaries simply aren’t enough to attract the best talent?

Employers will need to find other ways to stay competitive. Let’s run through a few recruitment tactics to help improve your hiring processes and get ahead in a cut-throat hiring market:

1. Understand and meet candidate expectations for work-life balance

The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a major shift in employee attitudes towards work, and there’s no going back. A report by Gartner found that 65% of people have re-evaluated the value of life outside of work. In a candidate’s market, this means they’re looking to join organisations which prioritise work-life balance.

The most obvious place to start if you want to attract these candidates is by offering some form of remote or hybrid working. But you can also go deeper, speaking to your current employees about managing burnout and stress – and finding out how they want to work.

2. Widen your talent pools

When skilled candidates are hard to find, you need to look harder. Rather than relying on previous pools and pipelines, employers should be looking to tap into new networks and expand their talent pools.

Working with specialist recruiters is a time and resource-saving shortcut, as they have access to talent pools you don’t.

You may also want to adjust your selection criteria and hiring strategy, in order to tap into non-traditional sources of talent. Put some work into your diversity and inclusion policies, and you could find that it opens up a whole new talent pool.   

3. Review your employee benefits

Your budget for salaries may be stretched to the limit, but there are plenty of other benefits you can offer as an irresistible incentive for new hires. We’ve already mentioned flexible working, but there’s also learning and development opportunities, fast-track career progression, job security, commuting support, health and wellbeing benefits, social schemes and much more.

And lastly, don’t forget about retention. If you can adjust your working conditions and even your culture to meet the needs of your current staff, and really listen to their feedback, they’re more likely to stick around. And this means less pressure to hire.

Need specialist support hiring for UK warehousing, manufacturing, or food and drink production roles? Get in touch with our expert team here at Quest Employment to start your search.

 

 

 

Back to Blogs