Recruiting in 2022: Q&A with Lisa Ludmer
Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple Inc. once said, “Recruiting is hard. It's just finding the needles in the haystack.” Though this has been the case for quite some time, recruitment has changed significantly during the pandemic, and many of the changes are likely to stick. You may have heard that it is now a candidate’s market, with organizations everywhere struggling to find and retain top talent.
This month, Luisa sat down with her trusted advisor and recruitment expert, Lisa Ludmer, a seasoned Executive Search Consultant. Lisa specializes in assisting organizations with identifying and attracting the talent they need. It’s clear now more than ever that employees are aligning themselves with organizational values. To better understand recruitment in 2022 and navigate through these challenges, Lisa shared helpful tips to attract and retain top talent.
1. What would you say is the biggest recruitment challenge in today’s market?
Recruitment today is comparable to the housing market – it’s all about supply and demand. Since there is a short supply of candidates and such a high demand for talent, organizations need to understand how they can attract that candidate over their competitor. With a short supply of candidates, most of them have higher compensation expectations. Companies need to be willing to meet those expectations, but also need to ensure they are not putting a strain on the internal equity of the company. When internal equity is disrupted, employee retention suffers. Organizations must understand this and come up with solutions to address this dilemma – for example, a signing bonus.
2. How do you attract the candidates to the organization, so they are interested in this role versus the competitors?
Employers today must be like salespeople. They need to come together as a team before the candidate comes and discuss ways to create consistency in their messaging. Employers need to ask themselves, “what makes this organization better?” Altogether, identify the benefits, career growth opportunities, vision, and strategy. Then, come up with facts to sell the candidate on the organization. It’s important to be clear and present the best “value proposition” to the candidate to highlight what they would value from working for your organization.
3. How do you ensure there is a right fit between the employer and the candidate?
It’s very important for both the candidate and employer to ask the right questions. The organization needs to fully understand what their culture is, and what the candidate is looking for. The overall fit needs to be recognized before the first interview. There should be nothing the organization doesn’t know about the candidate, in terms of culture, values, career goals, and there should be nothing the candidate doesn’t know about the organization.
4. Why is it important to have skilled and trained interviewers and decisions makers part of the recruitment process?
In the interview, it’s important for the candidate to feel important and already a part of the organization. You need to ensure they are hearing the messages about the company from the top, whether it’s directly from the CEO, or their potential future colleagues. It’s also important that the messaging is consistent. Training team members on how to best present this to the candidate and demonstrate that “value proposition” may attract them to your organization over your competitors.
5. Why is it important to have and communicate a long term plan with the candidate?
We want to make sure the employer has a career path for the candidate. Not only will this help sell the candidate on the organization, but it tells them you are planning on investing in them. We also want to make sure the candidate isn’t motivated solely by money. Remember: if the motivator is money, they are not a right fit. It’s important to establish that career path early on so the candidate knows what is in it for them long term. If the candidate comes across another opportunity in the near future, maybe offering more money – they’re more willing to stay because their long-term career goals are satisfied and are clear to them.
To continue the conversation with Lisa Ludmer, feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn.