Today’s hiring market has become increasingly competitive as the amount of job vacancies continues to rise. According to data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2023), job vacancies in May 2023 remain 89.3% higher than they were prior to the pandemic in 2020. What does this mean for employers? Essentially, your potential candidates have more job opportunities available to them than ever before making it quite challenging for employers, like yourself, to attract and retain top candidates.
So, where should you start in finding, attracting and retaining the most suitable candidates for your business? Let us provide you with a few free ‘tips’.
The AHR team firmly believe that a quality recruitment process derives from the crucial document that is the ‘Position Description (PD)’. If you create this document in a detailed and comprehensive manner, then it can be utilised as a benchmark to guide you through the recruitment process, assist in the development of advertisement, the assessment of candidate suitability, and decreases the likelihood of discriminatory language or implications within these. To learn more about developing quality PD’s, see our page on Position Descriptions or download our 7 Helpful Tips for Writing Position Descriptions.
Within a PD it is pivotal that employers be more open minded in how they approach role expectations, focusing more upon the requirement of ‘transferable skills’ that are generalised and can be utilised across sectors. This is opposed to a focus upon ‘acute skills’ which often requisite specific qualifications or candidate experiences that are explicitly stated and exact of a role. By focusing upon ‘acute skills’ you are further reducing your talent pool and potentially overlooking suitable candidates! We encourage you to be open minded in your development and consideration of the skills and expectations, using language that is broad but relative, and to also apply this mindset when assessing candidate suitability. For example, instead of setting a requisite of a Certificate III in Professional Writing and Editing, stipulating that the role requires someone with experience in research, writing, and editing skills.
The AHR team can equip you with the tools, templates and checklists required to review your specific circumstances. We can do it with you, working together to develop an overarching framework that will allow us to give you timely and business specific advice to see you remain compliant with workplace legislation. Or, we can do it for you, stepping in as your HR and WHS department, developing and implementing a strategy that will enable you to focus upon your other business priorities.
We assist many Tasmanian businesses to navigate the new hire process, equipping them with the resources that align with unique business needs and HR best practice. We can work with you to develop position descriptions, job advertisements, candidate selection criterion, interview questions, pre-employment assessments and more. Call our specialists today on 1800 577 515 to receive a complimentary consultation, in which we discuss and advise necessary tools and strategy.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2023, May). Job vacancies, Australia, 2020 – 2023. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/jobs/job-vacancies-australia/latest-release
