Can you believe we are rapidly approaching the end of 2021?
As we close out this year and move forward to 2022, I thought it would be a good time to share some of the critical trends we are seeing in recruiting.
Inflation is not just affecting your food and gas prices.
Not surprisingly, wages have increased by 4.6% in the past 12 months.
The labor force participation rate is down 1.7% since before the pandemic – retirements, child care, less immigration, the rise of the gig economy, COVID fears, and other factors resulted in millions of people leaving the workforce.
And it’s not just wages. The cost of job ads appears to be skyrocketing!
Supply and demand never lose.
With more open jobs than unemployed workers:
- The cost to acquire candidates skyrockets.
- Job slot prices are doubling or tripling.
- Minimum bids on job boards are jumping up every quarter.
- We’re spending more to get the same (or worse) results.
Not good!
But the answer isn’t just “spend more money” – the answer is “spend your money smarter!”
Could the calvary return in January? (or maybe sooner?!)
All is not lost. According to a recent article published by Goldman Sachs, they see trends that will help our candidate shortfall as we turn the page on 2021:
- Job vacancies will normalize to pre-pandemic levels – with unemployment trending toward 3.5% by the end of 2022.
- What will cause it? Savings running out, immigration increase, retirements slowing down, child-care burdens easing
- Workers are returning to the same industries they were working in pre-pandemic, so not all of them are switching!
On top of those long-term trends, we are starting to see positive trends of candidates returning to the job search:
- 85% of our staffing clients are getting better results (lower cost per application) from their recruitment budget in November compared to the previous two months.
- In just the last week (Nov. 8-14), we have seen a 20.4% increase in applications compared to a 31.1% decrease in application cost.
Little + Little + Little = BIG Results!
We always tell our clients there is no “silver bullet” that will magically solve their recruiting challenges. But there ARE a lot of little things you can do that will add up to big results for your company. Here are 4 ways to gain a recruiting edge over your competitors in early 2022:
1. Analyze Your Apply.
How long of an application process do you really need to get candidate information? Staffing agencies should embrace the quick apply to have a leg up on their competitors in the industry and outside the industry. Reduce friction!
2. Research Job Titles.
Do your job titles reflect candidate searches? For example, we made a change of Warehouse & Production to two alternate titles – Warehouse Worker and Warehouse – Hiring Immediately. One week later, this client had 154% more applies at a 74% lower cost per application.
3. Adjust Your Jobs to Budget Ratio.
A constant message from job boards is to “spend more” to get the same results you received months ago. We’ve seen success with putting more jobs into the same budget. A healthcare client jumped up from 100 jobs per day to 175 jobs per day and received 110% more applies at 50% lower CPA – keeping the same budget!
4. Schedule a Recruitment Marketing Review.
At Haley Marketing, we offer a free recruitment marketing review. We’ll look at your hiring challenges, review your current recruitment marketing, and provide specific ideas to help you attract more—and higher quality—talent. If you’re interested in scheduling time before year-end, call us at 1.888.696.2900 or email [email protected] and let us know!
