Why Competitors Are Beating You to the Top Talent

It’s no secret that one of the keys to succeeding in the business world is to have top talent on your team. Unfortunately, the combination of the Great Resignation and the current recruiting landscape makes hiring top talent more of a challenge today than ever before. 

Tools like an ATS Software can help you get an edge on your competitors and improve your Recruitment success. 

What’s the current recruiting landscape like? 

The current recruitment landscape favors top talent rather than top businesses. There are plenty of jobs being posted, but fewer applicants per position than employers are used to receiving. 

Some positions are having better luck than others. Temporary staffing positions, which offer increased flexibility for candidates, are currently showing an increase in success. On the other hand, strict 9-5 in-office hours seem less appealing in the wake of the global pandemic. In fact, 34% of all US workers performed gig work last year, either as a way to receive additional income on top of their current responsibilities or as a way to get their foot in the door with an employer.  

Why are your competitors thriving in this landscape? 

Some hiring managers are still thriving in this competitive hiring landscape. If your competitors are doing well, you may need to examine what they might be doing to see where you can improve. 

One thought is that they might be doing a better job branding their company. In fact, 96% of graduates from the top business schools in the U.S., Europe, and Asia say that a company’s reputation is a key factor in their decision about whether to work for them in the future. 

However, there are different kinds of reputations to pay attention to. While a brand’s overall reputation certainly matters, some companies are focusing on promoting their sustainability or social good efforts. This can help companies that are less well-known develop the type of reputation that attracts job applicants. 

Another reason competitors may succeed is that they may be pushing applicants through the process faster. This could come from:

• Easier application processes
• Fewer interviews before hiring
• Walk-in interview availability
• Less time between interviews, creating a faster turn-around time

Making the hiring process easy on applicants can not only keep applicants from being turned off from the hiring process, but can also ensure that top applicants — who may be interviewing with multiple businesses at a time — know all of their options before making their decision. 

How can an applicant tracking system (ATS) help you improve your recruitment success? 

More employers than ever before are using Data Driven Recruitment strategies to improve their recruitment process. An applicant tracking system (ATS) allows you to gather and analyze applicant data. This data could include:

• How long it takes applicants to fill out your application form
• How many clicks on your open job title lead to new applicants
• How many people are seeing your job title to begin with
• How long applications stay in your queue before they’re reviewed

You can make well-informed updates based on the information you gather.

For example, if you see numerous people clicking on your job title but not applying, you might consider whether your qualification requirements are too much. Are you turning off new college grads by asking for five years of on-the-job experience? Do you really need people in the office from 9-5, or can you offer some work-from-home hours to make the job more appealing for candidates looking for workplace flexibility? 

On the other hand, if you’re not getting leads on your job searches at all, it may mean you need to focus more on developing your business’s reputation and branding. This level of data can tell you to spend more time promoting your brand on social media, increasing your social awareness and sustainability, or visiting local job fairs so that top applicants know enough about your brand to want to work for you. 

By re-examining your application process and drawing insights from your applicants’ data, you can make it easier for qualified applicants to say “yes” to applying for your job and improve your chances of finding the right people for your open positions. 

Improve your recruitment success today

A few years ago, it was easy to hire top candidates for almost any position in just about any industry. In the past few years, the recruiting landscape has undergone drastic changes. 

Today, recruiting top talent requires flexibility and creativity on the part of hiring managers. An ATS software provides a good foundation for this new creativity. By seeing the stages in which your potential applicants turn away from your job, you can determine which aspects of your job you need to tweak to make it appealing to top talent in your industry.