Quality candidate shortage continues in 2006

The use of creative recruiting will rise as traditional techniques continue to be more and more ineffective.

Employee referral bonuses and new-hire sign-on bonuses will grow in popularity and amount. Previous staff will be begged to return. Retired employees will be coaxed out of retirement.

Marketing and public relations techniques will be employed. Creating brochures, conducting open houses, preparing press releases, sponsoring events, attending trade shows and joining organizations for networking will become routine practices. Radio and television advertising will expand. Job openings will be posted on billboards and in Laundromats and grocery stores.

Lawsuits will begin in regard to stealing associates from other companies. More businesses will turn to headhunters, since retained search firms do not have legal repercussions when contacting jobholders currently employed by corporations.

The number of individuals in human resource departments will multiply. Personnel departments are currently staffed to execute only the traditional, easy recruiting methods, such as placing help-wanted ads in newspapers. However, the use of aggressive recruiting techniques will require a significant increase in man-hours. Enterprises that do not have a human resources department will have to keep up by starting an HR department or outsourcing the function to a human-resources consulting firm.

Operations managers and hourly workers alike will be held accountable for the recruiting function. No longer will the human resources department bear all of the responsibility, as a team approach will be required.

Salaries will begin to increase and wage wars will start. The type and amount of benefits will broaden in order to appeal to the diversity of individuals in the job market.

In the area of retention, expect to see an increase in turnover as people realize they no longer have to put up with poor pay and bad supervision. Also, look for more savvy management practices as organizations discover that strong leadership habits lead to happier employees who stay put.

Management training programs will become extremely popular, both to improve the skills of existing leaders and to groom hourly workers to become supervisors. Corporations will find that it's cheaper and easier to home-grow managers than to execute creative recruiting ideas.

Better selection techniques will be used as a preventive measure against turnover. New employee orientations will increase in terms of length of time and depth of content. Entrance questionnaires, exit questionnaires and attitude surveys will be used to determine why team members come and go. Problems identified will be addressed.

Job market conditions in 2006 will continue to be a challenge, but companies focused on strategic recruiting and retention will come out ahead of the game.

Lynne Haggerman is president/owner of Haggerman & Associates, a retained search, outplacement, in-house management training and human resources consulting firm.

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