In recent years, changes in the labor market have been more and more frequent, and employers, as well as candidates, have had to keep up with these changes. Candidates are becoming more and more selective and it’s a challenge to attract middle and top management as well as juniors. How was the first semester of 2023? What trends can be seen in recruiting and motivating candidates? Cristina Scărlătescu, BIA HCS Recruitment Manager has an overview of the labor market.
How was the first semester of 2023 from the point of view of employers? What trends can be seen to attract candidates?
In 2023, we have seen a greater focus on employee retention, but also on attracting new talents to their teams. They take into account any new benefits appearing in the market that could be motivating for employees or candidates. Recently, in order to attract as many candidates as possible for vacant jobs, there is a tendency to make more and more transparent the benefits that a company offers, in order to satisfy the candidates’ desire to have access to as much information as possible about the job at the time of application: posting salary information on the job descriptions, respectively detailing the benefits offered.
It also takes into account the trend of posting a large number of job ads on the first day of the week, hoping that the job ads will have more visibility among candidates.
What changes have you noticed in the last time in job ads?
Recruitment ads are also not that common anymore, with employers making efforts to create attractive, personalized, and compelling ads in front of candidates. Greater attention is also paid to strengthening the employer brand, as candidates are interested in associating their professional experiences with strong brands.
At the beginning of this year, we noticed a very large number of new businesses that appeared in the Romanian market, but with great visibility in other countries. The professional opportunities offered by these start-up companies are not very attractive for candidates and, thus, the companies must make a great effort to build and consolidate a reputation in the Romanian market and to attract candidates suitable to their needs.
What could employers do to shorten the recruitment process?
We have noticed that many employers have bundled several stages of the recruitment process, or even eliminated many of them, in order to shorten the recruitment flow, and so that candidates are no longer dissatisfied with long recruitment processes.
What priorities do candidates have when analyzing a job offer?
In 2023, hereafter, the candidates’ attention remains focused on selecting those jobs that offer them professional development, but even more they weigh the benefits that the companies offer, and the order is as follows: of a financial nature (salary, meal vouchers, bonuses, transport facilities, holiday vouchers, etc.), working conditions (possibility to work remotely/hybrid, flexible working time), medical (subscription for medical services), free time (extra vacation days).
How is the demand and supply in recruitment this year? What can we do better?
In 2023, we notice the imbalance between demand and supply, the challenge in this context is the construction of a consistent strategy for approaching passive candidates, for any level of positions (not only for middle and top management positions, as in previous years). Even for junior positions, employers no longer expect the old recruitment methods to have the desired results. Thus, they realized that they have to be aware of all the new social media channels and use them.
In conclusion, we believe that the first half of 2023 led us to be more creative and innovative, and to be closer to our customers. Recruitment projects were not at all easy to manage, taking into account the large number of existing opportunities, but also the ever-increasing selectivity of candidates. We have had to constantly add new “ingredients” to our recruitment process so that the projects are completed with the hiring of valuable candidates.
READ ALSO:
The steps of collaboration with BIA to recruit people for your team
THE STRATEGIES YOU NEED TO IDENTIFY, RECRUIT AND MOTIVATE PASSIVE CANDIDATES