The term “talent acquisition” is not usually even brought up until a company reaches significant growth, say 100 employees, but lacking a TA plan can cost you regardless of size. In smaller companies and those growing their way to 100, meeting recruiting needs is often handled by an HR Manager, department heads or the Owner. In each case, this is usually something they remember at the end of a long day after having barely kept up with all of their main responsibilities. Jobs get posted here and there. Everyone is told to reach out through the grapevine. Yet the results are disappointing and…
How does this affect your bottom line and what can you do about it? The answer to the first part is clear: NOT GOOD.
- Presumably you are hiring because you are unable to keep up with current or forecasted business. Not enough people to get the job done obviously reduces customer service levels and results in unmet deadlines and breaking your principle to “under-promise, over-deliver”. Your reputation suffers and your forecasts change for the worse. Perhaps you even have to turn away much wanted business.
- Your local competitors who put more effort into TA scoop up the best professionals, placing them at advantage. These are AV professionals with both the hard and soft skills making their employer look like rock stars.
- Just keeping your current number of employees will be a challenge for everyone in 2021 & 2022. Deloitte Consulting LLP recently projected
“The challenges multiply with the increased risk of talent movement—44 percent of millennial workers will be looking for a new job in two years, and are 25 percent more likely to search for a new job than non-millennials.” —Deloitte Consulting LLP
So, what can you do about it? There is a small window of time between when a quality AV professional has a bad enough day at work to look elsewhere and when they get hired by their new employer. The best ones have usually been courted by a recruiter before that window even opens. Therefor, the whole model of posting jobs and sifting through applications is a recipe for failure, attracting only recently terminated professionals for the most part.
Talent Acquisition programs for small to medium sized integrators can bear immediate fruit and long-term success and they don’t all cost you an arm and a leg.
- This first one is nearly free in fact. Called an Applicant Tracking System, it’s really just your own in-house, searchable database with contact information and resumes for every AV professional anyone at your company comes into contact with. Let everyone in your company add people with their own login and offer them some financial bonus if your company ever hires one they add. Your company can look here first when you need to make a new hire, and over the years it will include a huge number of the professionals in your markets!
- Hiring a dedicated, experienced full-time Recruiter is most practical when your hiring needs are consistent over the course of a year, say one new hire a month. This can cost you $55,000/year plus a per-hire bonus or much more by region, but a capable full-time recruiter (or team of them) can certainly earn their keep, depending on your current size and recruiting needs.
- Engage a Recruiting Agency that specializes in AV. HireSparks AV Recruiting has been building our own ATS since 2005 in North America, the U.K. and even Australia and New Zealand. In fact, it’s the only agency that caters only to Audio Visual Manufacturers and their Integrator Dealers. HireSparks, like most agencies at large charge no up-front fees. Your agency will invoice your company for a % of each new employee’s salary on their first day of work and offer a money back guarantee that they work out for a given number of months. If your hiring needs are urgent and or unpredictable, an agency is the best of these three choices.
Contact HireSparks AV Recruiting at (833) 2HIREAV or www.hiresparks.com
