Since the beginning of last year, the number of positions offered that provide a signing bonus has more than doubled.
As firms struggle to fill positions, bonuses, whether one-time or performance-related, are now used in 16% of job postings.
According to data from Adzuna, the proportion of recruitment ads providing incentives increased from 13.6%, or 90,345, at the start of 2021 to 16%, or 190,333, this month.
According to Paul Lewis, the chief customer officer for the job search engine, the increase in incentives was pervasive across industries. Since January 2021, employment advertising bonuses have increased proportionately in the retail, IT, and customer service industries due to the skills shortages made worse by the epidemic.
Lewis said: “To recruit and retain talent in the wake of the Great Resignation, more firms are providing a bonus in addition to basic pay.
While certain businesses, like sales, have continually given commission structures, the practice has taken off, and incentives are now offered in fields with a labour shortage.
The compensation system appeals to companies because it gives them greater flexibility to adapt to changing economic situations while motivating employees.
Four more strategies to streamline the recruiting process
Simac Konkader, a business coach, says that although it’s a competitive employment market, finding your next great talent requires more than simply enticing bonuses. The first step is to enhance your recruiting process.
One of the major issues for SMEs is how to stand out in a sea of individuals who have likely used the previous two years to reevaluate their jobs and what they want from a job and are now more demanding than ever.
Candidates’ expectations for flexible working, perks, career routes, and purpose have increased as the number of job openings in the UK hit 1.3 million in the three months leading up to June 2022, up over 432,000 from the same time in 2021.
But it doesn’t mean you won’t find your next game-changing employee; you’ll need to up your game in terms of luring them in. Here is what I recommend.
#1 – Treat the hiring process as when hiring new clients or consumers.
Unsuccessful applicants would have a favourable impression of you based on their experience with you throughout the hiring process, which says a lot about the working environment in your company.
But why don’t so many businesses spend as much time, energy, and goodwill on how they handle applicants as they would on attracting and enrolling new clients?
I was worried that, of the 1,500 respondents to a study conducted in June by the employment software startup Greenhouse, 70% had experienced ghosting after interviews, yet 60% said they would reapply to a business if they had gotten positive feedback.
More alarmingly, 61% believe that hiring practices generally need to be improved; 65% say they won’t submit a job application if it takes more than 15 minutes to complete, and 53% believe they will hear back from employers on their first application within a week or less. 73% of respondents desire comments. What KPIs do you have about these figures?
Would you anticipate a potential consumer demonstrating an interest in your product and service for more than 15 minutes? Before responding to them, would you put them on hold for more than a week? Or would you completely ignore them? I didn’t believe that.
It may seem like a large commitment to have your hiring process mirror the phases of your customer marketing & onboarding experience. Still, it will set you up to get your next employee from the 65% of talent in the UK that Greenhouse’s research indicates looking for a job.
#2 – Review your staff perks and promote them loudly
According to 33% of the 1,000 SME workers and employers polled in England in December by employee benefits platform Sodexo Engage, the biggest engagement motivator is better employee benefits. Naturally, higher income was at the top of the list for 45% of respondents, while 36% ranked a better work-life balance as their main concern.
It is necessary to assess your employee perks and how they are explained throughout the hiring process, starting with the initial job advertisement.
Provide some examples of how hybrid working and flexible hours already benefit some of your team members if you provide them. As a result, prospects feel more relatable and can see themselves working with you.
Additionally, if you provide limitless vacation days, swappable bank holidays, birthday off days, extra annual vacation days, or something more unique like sabbaticals. Even if you may not have the large funds of your business competitors to provide the most abundant advantages, consider what you can do that would significantly benefit individuals.
And try to be as open as you can. Given that open negotiations sometimes favour males and may maintain wage discrepancies, sharing a salary range, for instance, indicates one aspect of how you’re fostering a more fair and inclusive workplace.
Similarly, if you provide extended parental leave, ensure everyone knows about it rather than forcing prospects to ask what may be a difficult issue.
These little actions show the sort of culture you’re fostering and that others would like to work in.
#3 – But resist becoming frantic…
Even in a competitive hiring environment, you shouldn’t immediately latch onto the first individual who expresses even the slightest interest in your company out of concern that you’ll lose them to the next attractive offer. It’s important to make sure your applicant’s priorities, values, and expectations align with yours. I’m not advocating taking too much time; you will need to act quickly to avoid losing your prospect to another suitor.
A strong showing in a series of interviews using your toughest panel and the skills shown on a CV may have you writing a contract before you can say, “You’re hired,” but they never tell the whole picture and may still cause disappointment months later.
For this reason, I advise SMEs to employ tests like DISC or HireSense for the last round of hiring. A candidate who takes the DISC behavioral exam will get a score based on traits including dominance, influence, stability, and conscientiousness. Meanwhile, HireSense aids in understanding a candidate’s motivational, cognitive, and behavioral tendencies.
However, I would advise against utilizing these to hire a carbon clone of what you currently have since you may not be creating the optimal atmosphere. The easiest way to use evaluations like these is to start by identifying the gaps in your company’s operations and how a fresh perspective may be beneficial.
#4 – Systematize your business
How can you keep your recruiting efforts from being inconsistent, which wastes time and energy? Typically, 80% of what happens in your organization can be organized into a framework, leaving 20% of it that needs your control.
Even though your recruiting process sometimes appears to be “gut instinct,” it still involves a procedure. One exists, whether it exists in your brain and is scattered everywhere, is partially recorded and followed to some extent, or both.
Streamlining your recruiting procedures provides two key advantages as part of a larger company endeavor.
One benefit is that it takes less of your active management, giving you more time for the significant exceptions that require you to intervene.
And two, it enables consistency, allowing you to enhance your efforts via efficient recruiting process monitoring, assessment, and benchmarking. Similar to the adoption of practically any successful business system, this may provide enormous rewards and significantly increase your chances of hiring.
ActionCOACH, a business coaching company, was founded by Simac Konkader.
