“I have always been willing to spend the time it takes to hire the “right candidate”.  But even with high rates of unemployment, finding that “just right” candidate has been tough!”

You’re not alone!

Once you’ve decided that you need to hire, there is always time between when you make that decision and when you actually put a new hire in place.  In today’s candidate short marketplace, that time has dramatically increased.   Some hiring campaigns can take double the time they took just 2-3 years ago.

We know your pain – our clients tell us about it regularly when they call us late in their hiring process and need our help to minimize the impact of a job gone unfilled for too long.    2-3 years ago, a job unfilled was not a big deal.  In today’s environment, most teams are busy enough that being short one or two people, can have significant impact.  Not only is there increased pressure on each team member to pick up the pieces, but in many scenarios, there will be significant costs associated with the overtime required to just keep up.  And if that “waiting to hire” period is extended too long, frustrated and over worked employees easily become targets for competitive recruiters.  In fact, being short staffed for too long often turns into lost customers, not just a tarnished reputation.

Bottom-line, managing all the issues that can grow out of being “short staffed” is never fun for managers or their team, and in today’s market, the solution doesn’t always come quickly.

Here are some ideas that we recommend to clients when they are feeling the crunch of being short staffed but want to stay committed to “hiring right.”

1. Get ahead of the game as much as possible. If you know you have one or two people on your team that don’t quite measuring up, notify your recruiters of potential openings before its time to terminate and replace.  In today’s market and particularly in high turnover job categories, we recommend managers continually “pipeline” for potential talent.  Partnering with a recruiter who is willing to help you build and maintain those talent pipelines is critical.   In the areas of your company where there are ongoing productivity or customer contact requirements, we recommend customers consider a strategic staffing model where they keep a component of their workforce in an “auditioning” mode, ready to be hired,  at all times.

2. Consider hiring one or more temporary or interim employees to help your team get through the rough spots. Sometimes a “temp” can provide the extra arms and legs your team needs just to keep their head above water.  Bringing on extra help for your team when they are “transitioning” shows your commitment to their well being through a hiring process.

3. Consider re-engineering the work. If the work you need done is so unique or complicated that there are few to no candidates in the marketplace prepared to step into the role as you have defined it, consider the possibility it may be time to re-engineer work flow.  We all know that over time, higher level administrative or professional employees end up doing clerical work which would be better assigned elsewhere.  Recognizing that you are under staffed, can be the opportunity you need to re-engineer how work gets done by permanently delegating work differently as a way to improve overall productivity.  Keep in mind the more skills you require of the candidate, the longer it’s going to take to find and hire the right employee.  Re-engineering work also provides your existing employees with more ways to leverage their specialized talent.

4. Make sure everyone on your team knows (is reminded of) the long term benefit of your commitment to “hire right”. Let them know up front the realities of the current candidate market, and remind them of what will happen if you bring in the wrong person.  Provide them with your best guess as to how long it is going to take for you to find an employee who will move the team forward and keep them posted.  Bottom-line, don’t assume they know why it’s taking you so long to hire.  Get their buy-in to your hiring approach.

5. Provide short term rewards for individual employees who are most impacted, or the entire team, if the extra work is equally spread. Rewards can range from a bonus, to a team activity they would all enjoy, to some time-off when the new hire is up and running.

Hiring right and hiring quickly are important goals, but in today’s marketplace these goals can’t always be achieved together.  We encourage our clients to get prepared for the realities of today’s candidate short marketplace and have a plan in place to minimize impact.  If you have questions about the availability of certain types of candidates in the current marketplace, ask our Partnership Development team for help to better understand the current marketplace and candidate availability.  They can help you plan for the length of time it takes to hire right, plus offer ideas for you to get through the hiring process without overly impacting your current team.  Strategies that focus on preparing for issues, rather than reacting to them, are always the preferred solutions.

PACE Staffing Network is one of the Puget Sound’s premier staffing /recruiting agencies and has been helping Northwest employers find and hire employees based on the “right fit” for over 40 years.

A 5-time winner of the coveted “Best in Staffing” designation , PACE is ranked in the top 2% of staffing agencies nationwide based on annual surveys of customer satisfaction.

PACE services include temporary and contract staffing, temp to hire auditions, direct hire professional recruiting services, Employer of Record (payroll) services, and a large menu of candidate assessment services our clients can purchase a la carte.

To learn more about how partnering with PACE will make a difference to how you find and hire employees,  contact our Partner Services and Solutions team at 425-637-3312, email us or visit our website.