Times have changed. They’ve changed not only in the past 20 years, but they’ve also changed in the past 10 and even five years. In fact, it seems as though times keep changing more rapidly as we go along. As a result, the rules that once applied to the employment marketplace no longer apply today.
There are two dramatic changes that have occurred in the marketplace during the past 10 years:
- We have become more of a consumer-driven society.
- We are clearly now in a candidates’ market.
You might ask yourself what these two things have in common. The fact of the matter is that they have a lot in common, and those commonalties help to explain why you could be experiencing difficulty finding top candidates for your organization’s open Animal Health jobs and/or Veterinary jobs.
Setting the stage
If you’re not experiencing difficulty finding top candidates, then you should count yourself lucky. According to a recent Human Capital Institute report, 69% of respondents are having difficulty filling critical positions. In addition, only 20% indicated that they have a strong talent pipeline for critical roles. That’s just one out of every five. Are you the one? Or are you one of the other four?
The two dramatic changes listed above are more pronounced for the Millennial Generation. That’s because they grew up while these changes were taking place. As a result, their impact upon them is much greater than, say, Generation X. What does this mean?
- Candidates, especially younger candidates, have a “consumer mindset.” They’re used to having a multitude of options, along with the power to make whatever choice they want.
- This mindset has carried over from that of the larger economy to that of the employment marketplace. As a result, candidates are used to having a multitude of options when it comes to Animal Health jobs, Veterinary jobs, and their career opportunities.
- Bottom line: candidates are accustomed to being wooed, either by merchants that are attempting to make them customers or by employers that are attempting to make them employees.
What it also means is that if your organization is still using the Animal Health and Veterinary recruiting and hiring tactics that it was using 10 years ago, then those tactics are woefully outdated. If you still believe that the only people who have anything to prove during the hiring process are job seekers and candidates, then there should be no question as to why you’re having trouble hiring.
What you should NOT do
Taking all of this into consideration, what course of action should your organization take for the procurement of top talent? Simply put, your hiring team should think less like a hiring team and more like a marketing team. You should think of job seekers and candidates as your customers and the opportunity to work for your organization as the goods or services that you’re hoping they will buy.
With that in mind, this is what you should NOT do:
- Expect that top candidates are going to flock to you just because you have an open position.
- Expect that any candidates are going to flock to you just because you have an open position. (Even taking this for granted is a risky proposition in this market.)
- Leave candidates “high and dry” during the interviewing and hiring process, without communicating clearly about where they stand in that process and what the next steps are.
- Act as though the candidate must sell themselves to you without you also having to sell yourself to the candidate.
- Disrespect either the candidate’s confidentiality or their time during the interviewing and hiring process.
- Low-ball the candidate during the offer stage of the hiring process.
Committing one of these infractions would be bad enough, but unfortunately, there are some organizations that commit more than one of them. From the candidates’ point of view, considering their upbringing and their mindset, these infractions make it easy for them to make up their mind. They’ll simply disregard your opportunity and your organization.
And they won’t even have to think that much about it.
What you SHOULD do
There are two main things that marketing teams strive to foster in their customer base: trust and loyalty. If a consumer does not trust a corporation, then that consumer will not buy anything from that corporation. By extension, if a candidate does not trust your organization, then that candidate will not want to work for your organization.
Then, once a consumer buys something from a corporation, the marketing team of that corporation strives to retain their loyalty. They want the consumer to buy from them repeatedly. Once again, by extension, once an organization successfully hires a candidate, that organization should strive to maintain that candidate’s loyalty as an employee. In short, it should strive to retain the employee.
Thus, your organization’s efforts should be broken down as follows:
Employer branding—This represents your company’s continuing efforts to promote itself and its mission within the employment marketplace. This is absolutely essential if your organization wishes to become an “employer of choice” within the Animal Health industry or Veterinary profession. Top candidates must know who you are and the things for which you stand. They should be intrigued by your employer branding initiative. This is how you foster trust with top candidates.
Recruiting and hiring—This represents your company’s efforts to identify, recruit, and hire the best Animal Health and Veterinary candidates in the marketplace. Whereas your branding campaign is more informational in nature, your hiring campaign is more intentional and proactive. You should engage candidates throughout the entire process and continually “sell” the benefits of both the opportunity and your organization. This is how you foster and cultivate trust with top candidates, with the ultimate goal of hiring them.
Times have most definitely changed. Candidates today view the world and the employment marketplace much differently than did candidates 10 years ago. It’s imperative that your organization change with the times, especially in regards to its Veterinary recruiting and hiring practices.
This is where an experienced search consultant can help. Animal Health recruiters and Veterinary recruiters are “in the trenches” day in and day out. They know what candidates are thinking, and they know how those candidates view the world. Even more important than that, they know what motivates them.
In today’s consumer-based economy and consumer-based marketplace, knowing what motivates top candidates—and how to motivate them—holds the key to successfully hiring them.
We help support careers in one of two ways: 1. By helping Animal Health and Veterinary professionals to find the right opportunity when the time is right, and 2. By helping to recruit top talent for the critical needs of Animal Health and Veterinary organizations. If this is something that you would like to explore further, please send an email to stacy@thevetrecruiter.com.