Job openings are getting more and more difficult to fill. This is especially true when recruiting for engineering, scientific and technical positions. A warning sign appears when jobs are not filled for more than 45 days. Yet there are some recruiting tips to help avoid this problem.
The Labor Department confirmed the difficulty of filling job vacancies with recent figures showing U.S. employers had 7.136 million unfilled jobs in August, their latest data month. This is the first time in recorded history employers surpassed seven million unfilled jobs!
All these unfilled jobs are extending most employers’ recruitment times. Efforts to recruit engineers, scientists and other technical candidates are even more challenging.
This leads to a major lesson I learned over my 30 years of recruiting, which still holds true. There is a key job recruitment warning sign you should heed when a job remains open for more than 45 days!
Vacancies open this long usually means that the hiring company either:
a) Is offering too low salaries,
b) Is being unrealistic about their required job tasks or
c) Has some major systemic problems within the organization.
3 Recruiting Tips To Assist Your Job Staffing Efforts
I recommend three major job recruitment tips to avoid having a critical job opening stay open too long. This is especially for engineers, scientists or other technical talent.
First, as I shared in my last article “Engineer Job Shortage | Focus On Engineering Needs NOT Wants”, you must focus on job Needs NOT Wants. This especially applies when recruiting an engineer, scientist or technical candidate. Demand for this talent is now astronomical while supply is limited for these key technology employees.
In the article, I shared three steps to help you focus on needs versus wants, which include:
1. Study current, successful employees’ jobs tasks and formulate them into a pie chart. For example, a Manufacturing Engineer may spend: a) 50% of their time on Lean implementation including Six Sigma, Kaizen and Continuous Improvement b) 30% on line balancing and c) 20% on special projects.
2. Focus your job description only on those job skills most relevant to job success and what formulating the pie chart uncovered (i.e. what you actually NEED).
3. Set realistic goals and expectations. For example, don’t require 10 years Lean manufacturing engineering experience when a recent mechanical engineer graduate with 2 Six Sigma internships could successfully perform your job.
Second, survey your company to see how it stacks up to your competitors. Research what your competition is doing to recruit key employees such as engineers. How does that differ from your own recruiting efforts? This can include the salaries, benefits and unique perks they offer versus your staffing offerings.
Third, provide systems to anonymously survey your internal employees. Encourage your employees to use these systems. Your own employees can provide a wealth of knowledge on what you doing right and what you are doing wrong to aid in your recruitment process.
You may include providing rewards for best practices that result in major cost savings for your company. Design the system so that all employees can feel free to contribute without fear of retribution from their managers.
Remember, a job open over 45 days is always a Red Flag. We are currently in a ‘War For Talent’ for many key engineers, scientists and technical employees. I have shared these three tips to help you improve your overall recruiting efforts especially for technology talent vacancies.
Need professional assistance? Feel free to contact me today at 312-944-4000 to discuss your goals in recruiting key engineer, scientist or other technical personnel. Or click here for my full contact information.
