3 Things Large Companies Need To Know About Recruiting (Right Now!)

In talking with my recruiting peers, something is becoming very clear: big companies haven’t yet realized they’re in recruiting trouble. A new study by LinkedIn surveyed over 10,000 job changers in the last year. One of the biggest takeaways? Top talent’s choosing to leave larger, established companies for smaller, more entrepreneurial ones. RELATED: 4 (Silly) Myths About Employment Branding

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Golden Handcuffs Aren’t Cool

One of the reasons for this shift is the perception of what it’s like to work for big companies, also known as their, “employer brand.” Top talent don’t like (or, respect), formal work structures, lack of creativity, and inability to see the direct results of their efforts - all of which are often associated with larger employers. They want to break free of the golden handcuffs of traditional employment and prefer the partnership mentality many smaller companies offer. In fact, this type of business model, where the focus is on the employee working “with” the employer and not “for” them is a rising trend. Check out this Inc Magazine article on the rise of the “lifestyle employer” and how they’re attracting the best talent.

3 Things Large Companies Need To Know About Recruiting (Right Now!)

My advice to big employers is to understand, accept, and most importantly, build recruiting strategies to deal with the following:

1. The Talent Shortage is very real.

The retirement rate of Baby Boomers (70M) is outpacing the backfill of qualified Gen X talent (46M). The result is the need to make a dramatic shift in recruiting and retention of Millennials (77M), in order to keep businesses in business.

2. The rise of the 'sophisticated job seeker' means companies must understand talent wants to work "with" them, not "for" them.

All major life decisions and purchases are now researched on the internet. Choosing to leave one company to work for another is no different! The result? Candidates who need to see third party credibility of your Talent Brand, Recruiter Brand, AND Employer Brand. Yes, all three are aspects of your company that must be showcased to get the best talent to want to work with you. Meet the ‘sophisticated job seeker’ who is disrupting recruiting as we know it.

3. There is no time left to start the process of building a 2.0 recruiting strategy from scratch.

Companies that have not been early-adopters will have to find shortcuts. Industry events focused on cutting-edge recruiting techniques and best practices, like LinkedIn’s Talent Connect, show how other companies have done this so late-adopters can learn from their mistakes and not reinvent the wheel.

Don’t Believe Me? Ask Your Recruiters!

For any managers at large companies reading this and thinking, “That’s not us. We’re okay finding talent,” I encourage you to spend some time with your recruiters and learn what lengths they are going to find talent. Their jobs have gotten exponentially harder. Time-to-fill rates for open positions are climbing too. Before you start to see recruiter turnover (a sign your recruiters feel the company hasn’t given them what they need to succeed in the job), consider the above and start building your strategy to win the war for talent!

P.S. - Looking for an easier way to attract top talent?

Our ‘featured recruiter’ platform on CAREEREALISM is helping recruiters build their credibility and get more candidates to connect with them. We also offer companies a way to showcase their employer brand by creating Sneak Peeks into their company.