Candidate Trends We’ve Been Seeing for Summer/Fall 2020
I was interviewed recently by Tony Restell, founder of Social-Hire.com where we discussed the candidate trends we’ve been seeing across Canada that will set the pace for HR/hiring managers in the upcoming fall season.
One thing is certain: We need to break through a lot of fear and uncertainty that workers are feeling right now. You can watch our interview here.
On paper, it may look like we are no longer in a jobseeker’s market, given the record-high unemployment rate in Canada, spiking to 13.7% in May 2020 and only coming down to 12.3% in June. And in these precarious times, companies may feel like they get to jump back into the driver’s seat again.
But that is not the case unfortunately, and here’s why:
A Globe and Mail reader’s question to me at the end of June is actually a perfect reflection of the sentiment we are seeing en masse among Canadians right now: Is now a good time to start looking for a new job? With so many layoffs, I’m not sure if anyone is hiring.
My unequivocal response will always be: Yes! (You can read that Globe and Mail article here.)
Pre-pandemic, there was a shortage of talent in the marketplace with many vacant positions remaining unfilled, and we were consistently seeing bidding wars for top talent – especially in the Bilingual French/English space. And while many companies had to adapt quickly to work-from-home scenarios, or hit pause on their businesses, as we now begin our re-opening phases, the need for talent is quickly growing again.
Still, in terms of the candidate psyche, many workers are full of trepidation right now:
- Employees are feeling nervous to move jobs, fearing a lack of stability
- They are conflicted by a sense of loyalty to their employers, and don’t want to leave them high and dry in their time of need
- Many have also discovered that they really like their new “work-from-home” arrangement. If they’d consider moving, they’d want to know they can continue working this way for the long-term
Over the past few months, we’ve seen a sharp decline, understandably, in the number of people posting their resumes online. In this climate, HR/hiring managers and recruiters need to create strategies to help Canadian workers come out of their shells to re-join the job-search process again.
So, here are four actionable to-do’s we all need to consider in order to find and secure top talent right now:
- Showcase your opportunity: Companies need to sell the benefits of their vacant positions and their brand to prospective candidates, now more than ever. HR/hiring managers need to provide a clear answer to the “why” behind a change in employer – why should someone consider a move now? What’s in it for them? How will they benefit to the point that it makes it worth their while?
- Demonstrate your financial stability : Employers need to convince prospective candidates that their company is financially solid for the long-term, and that the opportunity for which they are being considered is stable. In other words, the risk of them losing their job in the near term is very low.
- Offer work-from-home opportunity: Now that they’ve gotten a taste of what it’s like to work from home, many talented workers are no longer willing to make a compromise to full-time, in-office positions. It will be prudent for all of us to look at how our working processes can be adapted to enable more work from home offers in the future.
- Reach out to your network: With fewer candidate postings online, it has become critical today to maintain connections within our industry networks. At BlueSky Personnel Solutions, our deeply-cultivated Bilingual French/English network is arguably our strongest asset. When everything seemed to pause in the Spring, one of the first things our team did was reach out to our network contacts, simply to touch base and see how they were doing. These little touch points build stronger, long-term relationships that deliver greater ROI in recruitment, every time.
As we head into the fall, it will become harder for HR/hiring managers to identify and secure top talent in our current climate. But the opportunities are surely there, and when the right candidate and right company come together, those matches are worth every effort. That is what fuels us in our work, and it is why we believe exciting times still lay ahead.
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If you are looking to bolster your team with Bilingual French/English talent, please feel free to contact me today. You can reach me at: 416-236-3303 ext. 221, or [email protected]. I look forward to serving you!