As marketers know, you ignore demographics at your peril. As baby boomers, there were so many of us we competed for a space in the family car, in the classroom, for a job. Gen X’ers competed to be seen or heard when we wouldn’t give up our jobs. Millennials are a bigger cohort than boomers, but there aren’t enough of them at the right levels to fill all the jobs we are vacating as COVID makes us rethink how we are spending our time. Demographics made it easy to hire for the last 40 years, but has flipped how we need to recruit today.
Vistage Speaker Chris Czarnik drove this point home last week in his talk: Winning the War for Talent. It used to be you wrote a job description with a list of requirements intending to cut down the number of applicants you had to review. Hiring was sticking your fishing rod in a stream popping with trout. Because it was like that for 40 years, we thought it would always be that way. Not so anymore.
The cost of a bad hire has always been high, but the cost of no hire is hitting many companies pretty hard right now. It is challenging us to transform everything about how we hire. Entry level wages are going up everywhere. Bonuses for referring a new team member are growing. Smart companies are using their marketing messaging not just to attract new customers but to attract talent.
What is your unique selling proposition for talent? How do you get them into the top of your hiring funnel? Why would they buy you as their next employer? If you had a billboard in front of your location (or on the first page of your website) what would it say that would get the right person to ask to learn more? That is your challenge this week or this month…..come up with a unique message that attracts people with the attitude and skill set you need. The old way is over.
Image courtesy of Convenience Store News.