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As the economy recovers and more Americans get vaccinated, there has been an increase in job opportunities available. What employers are finding, however, is that fewer candidates are applying. Fewer candidates are responding to job postings, which is a full 360 from a year ago, when unemployment rates were at their highest and job opportunities were far and few in between. So what is the cause of the “candidate shortage”?
A recent USA Today Money article¹ reports that many Americans are concerned about changing jobs during the pandemic due to financial and health risks. It is a “safe” option to stay with the company they are currently with. Others are happy with the unemployment benefits they are receiving. In some cases, workers are making more money “unemployed” than if they were working. They do not have an incentive and are not motivated to go to work when they can earn more money by staying at home. This has caused staffing and recruitment companies to focus their strategies on reaching candidates who are already working. Recruiters have even started approaching competing companies to recruit skilled workers and lower-middle-level managers, which is often a tactic for recruiting high-level executives.
As recruiters and recruiters come up with new strategies for finding candidates during the “candidate crunch,” your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is an important resource that can’t be overlooked. Not only are there multiple tools you can use in an ATS, but it hosts hundreds and in some cases even thousands of candidates right in front of you! In this article, we’ll delve into a handful of useful tools to take advantage of in your ATS.
Reference reports
The first important piece of information you can pull from your ATS is a reference report on your candidates. In the last 3 months, through which source are most of the candidates entering your database? Is it through a job board, social networks, cold calls? Looking at this information can help determine what is “currently” the best source for you to recruit candidates. You can then focus more of your efforts on fonts that currently perform a little better than others.
Using lookups and pipelines
Both the search capabilities and the pipelines in your ATS are powerful resources for you when searching for candidates. As noted in the introduction, your ATS may have hundreds or even thousands of candidates at your fingertips. Using your searches and pipelines in your ATS is a great place to start your candidate search.
Pipelines are a useful tool when building a list of “top” candidates. If you already have a pipeline built, this would be a good place to start. If a pipeline hasn’t been created yet, you can start creating a pipeline that includes the top leads you want to communicate with. Pipelines can be broken down by industry and/or position. Breaking down each pipeline by industry or position will help you recruit for current positions and will also be helpful in the future when you’re recruiting for similar positions. These will be channels of talent that you continue to add and update, not just one-time use. That way, you’ll always have easy access to the best candidates based on the industry and/or positions you’re recruiting for. Once you add the initial candidates you want to include in your pipeline, you can use the search capabilities in your ATS to add other qualified candidates.
Some popular searches you can perform include searches by skills, position, employment history titles, location (if there is a specific location you need to hire for), and last contact (if you want to narrow your search based on the last time you contacted a candidate). Another useful search option is to perform a full text search for keywords. A full-text search goes through your database looking for certain keywords in a candidate’s profile, including their resume. This is useful if you want to search by position to see which candidates have held a similar position. As you search and find candidates, add them to your pipeline.
Automated Workflow Surveys
You have your pipes built; you can then send an automated workflow survey to these candidates. Sending out a survey will help narrow down your list to determine which candidates are interested in a job. The survey results will help save time from reaching out to unsought candidates. Some ATS solutions will have an integration that allows you to send an email or text message that includes survey questions. Based on their survey response, they will automatically receive a follow-up email that matches their response. If this option is not available to you, you can easily submit a survey to your pipeline through a platform like Survey Monkey® or Google Forms®. These responses will not be automated or recorded in your ATS and will require a little more manual work, but you will still be able to get the same end result.
Examples of simple yes/no survey questions you could include to gauge who is interested in speaking:
- Are you open to changing jobs? (if they are working)
- Are you open to work? (if they don’t work)
During the “candidate shortage,” it might also be imperative to offer an incentive to candidates, according to the industry. You can offer incentives based on performance, attendance, referrals, and more. Incentives can not only entice someone to work with you, but can also help increase employee engagement to work with you longer.
Incentives may include:
- Subscription to streaming service for one year
- $X worth of groceries delivered to your home with your choice of what you would like!
- Monthly or yearly food subscription service
- Free tickets to a local sporting event or attraction
- During the holidays, you can offer a free turkey dinner for Thanksgiving or a special treat for the holidays.
If you decide to create an incentive program or use an existing one, you can include a question in your survey that relates to the incentive program:
- Would you be willing to work if you could receive a one year Netflix subscription to attend?
Including a survey question that links to the incentive program allows you to see if they would be willing to work if there was an additional incentive versus no incentive at all.
Follow-up communication
Once your survey results are available, you’ll want to send a follow-up communication to candidates who said they’re interested in a job. If your ATS has a built-in integration, similar to the one above, the following email may be sent automatically at a scheduled time based on which candidates said “yes.” If you don’t have an automation tool, you can create an email or SMS template in your ATS to send a follow-up message to these candidates. In the message, you can include information about the job, the incentive program (if you’re offering one), and a way for them to reply “I’m interested.”
In some cases, you may even be able to include a “job acceptance” link within the communication. Some ATS mobile apps also allow a similar “job acceptance” feature where you submit a job directly to a candidate through the ATS mobile app and they can accept a job that way.. Including a link to accept the job offer will conveniently place candidates without any additional effort on your part. It’s also convenient from the candidate’s perspective because all they have to do is click the link to accept the job offer.
*Your survey follow-up message can take many shapes and forms depending on the tools available to you.
Social Media Post
Lastly, to complement the outreach above, you can also use the social media tools in your ATS to post the job description within your network and encourage others to share. During the current “candidate shortage,” references can be especially helpful for those who are hesitant to change jobs during the pandemic. Seeing someone in your network share your job opportunity can give them a boost of encouragement and confidence to work with your recruiting and staffing company.
Decrease in candidate shortage
The “candidate shortage” can bring a variety of obstacles to staffing and recruiting. Using your ATS candidate pool, along with taking advantage of the robust tools available, will help lessen any candidate shortages you may be facing. Finding the right candidates in your ATS who are open for work is key and following up on a convenient way to accept a job offer will place candidates faster and easier. Lastly, remember to use your Benchmark Report to tap into the sources from which the most candidates come from to keep a steady stream of new candidates. Soon your candidate shortage may turn into a candidate surplus!
Sources:
USA Today Money¹