Uncertainty abounds in today’s labour market — and many companies are grappling with unmet staffing needs amid an economic downturn, making it imperative for employers to act quickly and effectively. When it comes to sourcing and hiring the best talent, this is a time to consider trading in a traditional hunt approach for a more strategic “talent access” system, starting with refocusing your target areas.
- Challenge
During a recession, identifying and hiring top talent can be a real struggle.
As a result of market uncertainties, lack of insight or access to ideal candidates, and increased competition in the hiring process, many companies stumble with navigating an unsteady employment trajectory.
- Opportunity
As the tech industry faces a downturn, causing many companies to announce layoffs, the aftermath is leaving a surplus of skilled workers looking for employment.
How can companies take advantage of this pool of talent and ensure they are hiring the best candidates for their open positions and keep growing in these hard times?
- Gaining access to a wider range of candidates with a variety of skills and experiences
- As laid-off workers are prone to being more driven to succeed in their new positions, productivity and work ethic are likely to improve
- Taking action to help those negatively affected by the recession and giving back to the community will, in turn, build a positive reputation for the company
The recent layoffs in the tech industry have resulted in a significant number of highly skilled professionals becoming available for new job opportunities. Companies can take advantage of this situation to hire top talent who were previously employed by major tech firms such as Meta (11.000 layoffs), Amazon (10.000 layoffs), Twitter (50% of the workforce), Tesla (3.500), and Google (laveled 10.000 employees as “underperforming”). These professionals have a wealth of experience and skills that can be valuable for any organization. Despite the current downturn in the tech industry – in Europe we are talking about an average of 20% layoffs among large companies – companies should consider investing in their workforce to secure their long-term success.
As bad as it may sound for the tech industry, not everything is as it seems, and companies can find strength in a difficult time.
Full overview of the talent that is available across job types, roles, companies, locations.
https://layoffs.fyi/ – Have created an excellent tracker for tech companies that have made redundancies since COVID Started:
One of the headline names would be Meta, who announced their first redundancies since the company was formed. It is estimated that 350 staff in Ireland have been let go with an estimated 650 in London. It is believed it’s recruiting teams have been heavily effected as it slows’ down hiring plans into 2023, alongside some of its business teams.
First reported in the New York Times, the Amazon layoffs would amount to the biggest reduction for the company since it was founded, representing 3% of its corporate staff and over 10,000 staff. Redundancies will be made across the business, but are set to primarily come from the devices division, human resources, and retail, the report says. Amazon currently employs some 5,000 people in Ireland, but it is not yet known how the news will effect staff across europe.
Tech giant Twitter has begun a process making redundancies across 50% of its 7,500 workforce globally. Dublin, Brussels and London have been effected. It’s unclear if employees in Twitter’s other European hubs—Hamburg, Madrid, Utrecht, Paris, Berlin and Manchester—have also been affected. It is believed a layoff’s focus around software engineering. Source
Stripe is to cut 14 per cent of its staff worldwide as the global downturn continues to hit the tech sector. The group employs 500-600 staff in Dublin, but has not provided a breakdown on the redundancies for specific offices or regions. Source
Klarna, the buy now, pay later giant, planned to lay off 10% of its global workforce back in May. The majority of roles affected were based in Stockholm, Sifted analysis showed, while when it comes to departments, the talent acquisition and engineering teams were hardest hit. Source
Wayflyer, which provides financing for ecommerce companies and achieved unicorn status earlier this year, laid off 40% of its global workforce. Around 200 jobs will be affected, which includes 70 in the Irish startup’s Dublin HQ.
How we can access that talent for them using advanced data driven sourcing approach
We are not marketers or recruiters. We are technologists first and data scientists second. Relying on our data-driven approach, we solve this for our clients by doing things differently:
- To fill any role, we need enough potential candidates:
- Interested in working for our client’s company, within their budget and selected location.
- Who we believe are qualified to fill the position our client requires.
- Currently seeking employment or potentially interested in a move.
- On average this number is 117 candidates.
- Solution:
Our Data Scientists do detailed analysis of our client’s criteria and establish the potential talent pool – we call this a Talent Intelligence Report.
Here is an overview of our process:
Based on data from 69 paid subscription databases and publicly available information, we will provide the analysis for our Account Manager who will manage the search. In cases where more than 117 potential candidates are identified, we will proceed.
Otherwise, we make a set of recommendations to our client as to which variables they should consider adjusting in the job specifications and why – this enables our client to make a calculated decision to move the parameters, expanding the potential talent pool and increasing the likelihood of filling the position.
Our recruiter will review the candidates in detail, in order to come up with a long list, which will then be filtered. Using a library of automations, tailored for different types of candidates, job types, industries, and locations the recruiter together with the Account Manager select the most suitable candidates for our automations to reach out to.
A sample would be as follows:
The automations will be set to contact the candidate through a series of emails and possibly texts over the course of 5 days, resulting in either progressing to the next stage or stopping, based on their response rate.
Our system tracks what is opened and clicked throughout the interaction and calculates the engagement score. If there is a high engagement score, but no communication from the candidate, the system prompts the recruiter to call them.
With the above filtering, we narrowed down our 117 candidates to 80, a quarter of which will be interested in our offer – we will be proceeding to book screening calls with them.
This will lead to a screening of 15 applicants based on company and culture fit, CV and motivation.
The top selected will be reviewed in detail by our Account Manager who will listen to the screening and review the notes. If they agree with the recruiter’s assessment, then the CVs will be submitted to the client for review.
- Result
When a recession hits, it is common for companies to cut costs by reducing their workforce. However, for businesses that are proactive in hiring during this time, they can come out of the recession better prepared for the future. By building a highly skilled workforce, they can cope with the challenges of the downturn and ultimately thrive. The knowledge and experience that employees bring to a company can add significant value, both in the short term and in the long run.
By using our unique data driven technology, we are able to identify the most qualified candidates for our clients. We are also able to remove the administrative workload that can come with manual recruitment methods and instead focus on building meaningful relationships with potential candidates. In contrast to conventional recruitment methods, automation and data science allows our team to connect with a wider pool of suitable candidates which was not possible before.
Posted in: Allen Outsource / Spain
