5 Things To Think About For Your 2021 Hiring Strategy
Currently finalising your hiring strategy for this year? Here are a few things you might want to think about.
I think it’s safe to say that 2020 was a tricky year for most. Full of unpredictability and uncertainty, a lot of industries have been forced to adapt. One more so than most is the world of talent acquisition.
For many companies, interviewing on zoom and onboarding remotely has been a totally new, if not slightly unnatural concept to get to grips with. However, this has allowed the world of talent acquisition to take a step back and focus on what’s important and rethink a few things.
So, if you’re currently planning your hiring strategy for 2021, here are 5 things that may be worth thinking about.
Connecting your EVP & Employer Branding
I see this time and time again. Businesses invest in both their EVP and employer branding and yet they rarely seem to connect the two together. One of the most effective ways to grab candidates interests and keep them engaged is consistency across the entire candidate journey — and that starts with how you attract them.
Do your job descriptions and adverts mirror your EVP? Are you promoting your EVP across to the talent you’re looking to attract, hire and retain? Your EVP should be leading your employer brand from the front, giving a clear-cut picture of what your business stands for and what benefits it promises to deliver. On the flip side, your employer brand should take your EVP and create it into the overall message and reputation of the business.
Candidate Journey
For me, the candidate journey (if you’re doing the above right) starts long before the very first outreach and doesn’t stop until long after the employee eventually leaves the business. Seeing it this way could massively save on your hiring costs. Most companies have got a good grasp on the traditional stages of the candidate journey (awareness, consideration & interest, application, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding), but what else is there to think about?
- How are your employees talking to others about you?
- Does your EVP tell the best story?
- What do your alumni say about their experience with others?
- Sometimes things do not work out with employees, but how are you dealing with that?
Getting the candidate journey right is so important. My advice would be to map every stage, so you give your candidates the best possible experience.
Churn & Employee Retention
How good are you at hiring the right people? Do you know what the cost of NOT hiring the right people is?
Churn is often one of the most overlooked factors of a hiring strategy and by far one of the costliest. According to research conducted by Oxford Economics and Unum, the cost of employee turnover is, on average, just over £30,000 per employee. So, getting your employee churn to an absolute minimum is essential.
The best way to combat this is to ask leaving employees why they’re honestly leaving. It can sometimes open a can of worms, but it’s worth it. You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken, can you?
In case you don’t know — here’s a quick and easy way to work out your employee turnover:
Employee Turnover = (Employees who’ve left / Avg number of employees) x 100
Remote Working
If 2020 has shown us anything, it’s that we don’t need an office full of employees 5 days a week to get things done. It’s actually quite the opposite. Workers have been reported to be more productive and are preferring working from home — even if it is just a few days a week. But how have you accounted for this in your hiring strategy?
One of the biggest advantages of this is your talent pools are now exponentially larger, giving you greater access to diverse talent. Not only would you have a greater breadth of experience in your team, but you’ll also get a more diverse and forward-thinking team.
Finally, even having just a part-remote workforce allows you to use the money saved in location costs to invest more in your employees, which hugely helps with staff morale and retention.
Remote Onboarding
Now, I know this has become the standard for the last 10 or so months, but I think remote onboarding has its place in a Covid-free world. Working from home and remote working isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so getting your virtual onboarding right is pretty important.
In my experience, starting by mapping out what the experience should look like for the new employee and build out a checklist, making sure you cover all bases, is a great place to start. Workable has published a pretty good starting point for a remote onboarding checklist here.
It can sometimes be tricky to integrate a new employee into the team and culture remotely, for both them and the team. A few things you could do to help with this:
- Setting up a call with everyone they’ll be working with so they can meet the different teams.
- Having a local employee (if possible) meet up with them for a coffee (when it’s safe to do so obviously). This personal touch is a great way to make them feel welcomed.
- Team building games/exercises are a great way to break the ice. Revoco held a remote escape room last month which I 100% recommend.
- Pairing them with a mentor can be really impactful for the employees’ growth and also help them navigate their first few months at the company.
If you’re looking for further advice on your hiring strategy, I’d be happy to offer my thoughts. Feel free to drop me a message!
