The War for Talent: Why Hiring is Harder Than Ever (and What You Can Do About It)

If you're an HR professional feeling overwhelmed by talent acquisition, you're not alone. A staggering 44% of HR professionals at small and medium-sized businesses in the US cited talent acquisition as their biggest challenge. This is a significant shift from 2023, where employee retention was the top concern.

Why the Struggle?

Here are some of the key factors: 

• Lack of qualified talent: Nearly half (48%) of respondents struggle to find qualified candidates for open positions.
• Inefficient hiring: 26% believe their current hiring process is inefficient and misses out on top talent.
• Uncertain recruiting sources: 22% of HR professionals are unsure which recruiting channels are most effective.

Beyond these core issues, HR professionals also face a variety of challenges depending on their industry:

• Salary expectations: Candidates sometimes requesting salaries beyond budget.
• Skill gaps: Difficulty finding candidates with the exact skill sets needed.
• Limited applicants: In some cases, not enough qualified candidates applying at all.
• Work-life balance: Employee expectations for flexibility and remote work options.
• Competition: Attracting skilled workers in a tight labor market.

Finding Solutions

Here are some innovative approaches:

• Relocation for Talent: Companies can consider relocating to a city with a larger workforce.
• Creative Compensation: Unable to offer remote work, craft attractive compensation packages and understand candidate needs.
• Bias-Free Hiring: Utilize psychometric assessments to minimize bias and ensure a fair hiring process.
• Value Alignment: Emphasize company culture fit by discussing values early in the hiring process.

The Future of Talent Acquisition

Looking ahead, the talent landscape is only going to become more competitive. Here are some additional considerations:

• The Boomer Exodus: With baby boomers reaching retirement age in the coming years, the workforce is projected to shrink by 19%. This creates a significant knowledge and leadership gap across industries.
• Labor Shortages: Industries like manufacturing face looming staffing crises due to high retiree-to-new-hire ratios.

Strategies for a Strong Workforce

Here are some proactive ways to address the shrinking talent pool:

• Modernized Benefits: Appeal to Gen Z and Millennial talent by offering childcare access and other relevant benefits.
• On-the-Job Training: Invest in apprenticeship programs to upskill existing employees and fill upcoming vacancies.

HeyDevs Active Sourcing Solution

Modern technologies are helping to solve many of these issues. Active sourcing continues to grow as the hot trend in recruitment, turning the traditional candidate applying to company standard on its head. 

With active sourcing, available talent create a detailed job profile that describes their talents and experience, and then are sourced by companies that actively seek them out. Active sourcing has become the standard in most of the west, and is a growing trend in parts of Asia and the Middle East. Here’s how it helps: 

• More applicants: No longer do companies post a position and hope the right candidate comes along, with active sourcing recruitment, companies can use AI, automation and advanced search filters to match them with more qualified candidates, including “passive” job seekers who normally aren’t actively applying to new jobs but are open to new opportunities. 
• Diverse talent: Since companies using active sourcing recruitment can pull from a larger and more diverse pool of talent, it’s easier for them to find specific talent they need. “Skills-based” hiring is proving itself to be as effective as traditional hiring methods, meaning more and more recruiters are using networks of talent which can be searched and filtered using very specific skill sets. 
• Removes the human bias: With more of a focus on skills and smart matching, recruiters can leverage technology to not only find the best talent for a job, but also eliminate other factors that might influence hiring like sexual orientation, age, race and more. 

HeyDevs is the leading active sourcing platform for the APAC region, connecting recruiters with top tech talent in one of the fastest growing tech sectors globally. HeyDevs solves these common hiring challenges with a simple yet flexible smart filter search function and discover talent smart matching system. This allows recruiters to let the HeyDevs system recommend potential talent based on their job description, or for them to search for very specific qualifications including salary, location, skills and more to pinpoint and narrow down talent in creative and efficient ways. 

About HeyDevs

HeyDevs is a revolutionary new platform that empowers developers to take control of their careers, connect with other developers and find job opportunities that align with their goals and interests, without ever needing to apply for a single job! With HeyDevs, companies compete for you, not the other way around.

For developers, HeyDevs offers invaluable resources including our specialized swipe-to-work function, anonymous profile, CV builder, and customizable search criteria, with the ability to connect and chat with prospective employers completely on-site. 

For businesses, HeyDevs offers tools to maximize the recruitment process, saving time and money, with a talent pipeline that streamlines a majority of the hiring process directly on the platform, eliminating the need for recruiters or headhunters so the hiring process can be handled with HeyDevs as the only medium between employer and candidate, all powered by smart matching to ensure the most relevant matches are provided first. HeyDevs is a truly unbiased hiring platform, delivering a diverse pool of talent that hides information such as avatar, age, and gender, focusing solely on experience and skill, paving the way for a more inclusive workplace.