Recruiting Top Talent in a Competitive Market

Guest Contributor: Christopher (Chris) J. Bilotta, CPRW, Resource Development Company, Inc.

Company owners, senior executives, and hiring managers are fully aware that the current environment for recruiting talent at all organizational levels is extremely difficult.

With the national unemployment rate below 4 percent, it’s definitely a candidate’s market. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. economy has created around 19 million jobs since January 2010. In the same period, the U.S. population has only grown by approximately 18 million people.

The oldest members of the Baby Boomers started retiring in 2011, while the youngest members are 54, and likely to begin retiring sometime in the next decade (the average retirement age in the U.S. is 61.3). In addition to finding people to fill key roles right now, companies also have to look at the medium-term future, and hire with succession planning and retention in mind.

Given these conditions, if recruiters and hiring managers are serious about finding top, reducing time-to-hire, and increasing their success rate, understanding what makes specific candidates tick and might compel them to consider a new opportunity is critical.

Here are some things to contemplate as you learn more about a person during the interview process.

• Take time to consider who your candidate is, and where he or she is on the career ladder.
• Sell the mission, not just the company or position title—especially for more seasoned candidates.
• For younger candidates, leveraging compensation and title may be effective in grabbing initial attention, but the sense of mission will be important to keep them engaged through the recruitment process.
• While perks and benefits are viewed as nice to have by a majority of candidates, they’re typically not a high enough priority for most candidates to be valuable as part of your recruitment messaging.
• Keep in mind that, while candidates may have things in common with one another, their needs will be very different based on the individual. As such, researching candidates at the individual level, rather than making assumption based on function or age, is the key to making genuine connections and better hiring decisions.

Through our customized recruiting services, DVIRC has helped hundreds of manufacturers meet the challenge of identifying, evaluating, and recruiting the right people.

About Chris Bilotta

Chris joined Resource Development Company, Inc. (RDC) in 1994 and became president of the firm in 2001. He has extensive business experience in finance, information systems, and human resources. Before joining RDC, he worked at both privately owned and publicly held companies ranging from entrepreneurial ventures to Fortune 500. He received a BS in Business Administration and an MBA from Drexel University, and is also a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Pennsylvania. He is a member of Drexel’s LeBow College of Business MBA Career Services Advisory Board and was named the Board’s Chair in 2006. In addition, he is an ex-officio member of the LeBow Dean’s Advisory Board.