It's a Seller's Market for Job Seekers

It’s the biggest shortage of skilled workers in decades. Students, recent grads, and professionals alike are in high demand as companies compete for talented workers.
  
Companies have long been accustomed to creating job ads that will weed out the hundreds of applications they expect to receive.

But that is changing as the demand for talent exceeds the number of people looking for jobs and David Gammon, vice-president of recruiting systems at Brainhunter, says forward-looking companies are adapting to the change by marketing themselves to perspective employees.

"It has become more of a candidate's market," he said. "It used to be that employers could be very picky and now it is the candidates who can pick and choose."

When there was no shortage of candidates, employers could be hugely demanding, beefing up the job requirements far beyond what they actually needed to fill a position simply because the talent was available.

Companies that continue to do that are losing in the competition for candidates, according to Gammon.

"Right now it is trending back towards a candidate's market and companies that aren't prepared for that and think they can just throw open their door and people will come in are finding the people are just not out there," he said.

The days of PhDs driving cabs are fast disappearing and employers now have to determine exactly what their requirements are instead of parading out a wish list in the hope of attracting overqualified candidates.

"We're just starting to see the switch and some employers haven't really caught on," said Gammon.

"You can see it in the job descriptions -- they say, 'must have this, must have that.'
"But other employers are starting to say, 'It would be nice to have . . . .' "

That shift is making job recruiting now as much a marketing exercise for the company as a call for qualifications.

"Instead of trying to make sure you only get a few qualified, interested candidates applying, it becomes more about marketing to get people to look at your position," said Gammon.

Brainhunter, a recruiting company that specializes in information technology and engineering jobs has also created software recruiting platforms that can be tailored to specific requirements and are used by such organizations as the Canadian Professional Sales Association to power their job sites.

Gammon said the company's staffing division in IT and engineering is seeing a shortage of candidates for those positions.

The problem of matching up employers with the right candidates led Brainhunter to step up its software for searching databases so that it no longer relies only on keyword searches but enables employers to zero in on specific skills and other attributes.

Gammon said keyword search can miss prospective candidates and in a hotly competitive market, he said, even a few hours lost in identifying the right candidates could mean they have already been snapped up by the competition.

"If I call myself a programmer and you are looking for a developer, you may not find me," he said. "If you are looking for a sales director, I may have been an assistant in sales and in another job an assistant to a director and that will show up in your search for a sales director."

Gammon said companies must be realistic not only in the job requirements but also in describing their work place.

"I would suggest companies tell the honest truth about what's great about your work place," he said.

"They are looking for people who fit it, it is more about who they really are and who do they want working for them."

Companies can vary widely in their offerings and it isn't to their advantage to fudge on the truth about their working conditions.

"I've seen ads go out that were looking for programmers to work 12 hours a day and make lots of money, with very little in benefits and little in anything else," said Gammon.

"There is an audience for that. But other companies can sell their offices as a great place to be because they have in house daycare and flexible hours.

"You have to decide who you are as an employer and market to that group because you want people who will fit in."

Sales are another area where top candidates are in high demand and where choosing the right person for the job can make a big difference to the bottom line.

Bronwin Kempers, spokesperson for the Canadian Professional Sales Association, said fitting into an organization isn't the top priority.

"Sales is one profession where there is a lot of turnover," she said.

"Finding the top talent is always a challenge and you are not just looking for people to fit into an organization but you want to make sure the correct person is selling the product or service you are offering.

"That is the challenge, making sure you have the right person in place and finding out sooner rather than later is key. If you find out months later you have the wrong person, revenue is lost in that time."

Delivering on targets is a key measure of sales success, said Kempers.
"When you have targets in place to meet you need somebody who can deliver," she said. "It is not always about finding out whether a person is a good fit for the organization.

"You need to make sure you have the right person who can deliver because it will directly affect the bottom line and you will come up short if you don't get the right person."