Due to the global pandemic and the recent outbreak of war in Ukraine, businesses around the world have been confronted with ongoing challenges. These range from supply chain issues in the manufacturing, distribution, and retail sectors to the ongoing rise in oil, gas, and electricity prices, which has driven the cost of living to new highs.
Furthermore, rising prices as a result of government interventions and increases in taxation and inflation are expected to reduce consumer purchasing power significantly. Human resource pressures as companies compete for talent are another challenge for organizations.
In Ireland, for example, the labor market has returned to low levels of unemployment, slightly less than 5%, and talent competition is fiercer than ever. Although Ireland successfully attracts large US multinational corporations, it creates intense competition in the labor market for mid-tier IT and other professional businesses. This puts a significant strain on both staffing capacity and project delivery. However, this is more than just an Irish issue; we see a shortage of skilled workers in all regions and sectors as a global organization.
Hiring During Uncertain Times
Outsourcing talent acquisition is one method for organizations to continue managing talent efficiently, and it is useful in both economic uncertainty and economic growth.
Why Outsourcing Talent Acquisition?
Because talent partners provide more proactive solutions than agencies, they provide candidates better suited to open positions and more aligned with organizational culture. Furthermore, because they are strategically aligned with business objectives, they thoroughly understand the evolving skills required to propel an organization forward. Outsourcing talent acquisition also has access to robust talent pipelines, ensuring constant access to skilled candidates.
Outsourcing partners often provide greater flexibility (whether during times of growth or periods of uncertainty if the economy dictates a slowdown) because they can scale the size of their teams up and down as demand dictates.
Partners in talent acquisition instill quality in their teams through ongoing training and performance management based on data and regular business reviews. This means that improvements are constantly delivered through innovation. Furthermore, by hiring higher-quality candidates, attrition rates are reduced.
Talent acquisition partners provide a unified candidate experience from start to finish. Frequently, providers will brand themselves as the client, ensuring that candidates do not experience a service disconnect between the provider and the employer. Furthermore, talent acquisition partners view talent holistically and treat talent as a whole, which means contingent talent is treated the same as permanent counterparts.
A strong employment brand requires a consistent voice and narrative across many elements and channels in the candidate journey, such as career pages, social media, recruitment marketing, accolades, and CSR efforts. When used as a strategic partner, recruitment outsourcing can help promote an organization’s brand and position it as an employer of choice by providing personalized content tailored to the various generations of today’s workforce. This tailored approach leads to increased engagement and organic brand promotion.
Outsourcing talent acquisition can help meet compliance standards, which is especially important for multinational corporations with operations in multiple countries. It can be difficult to keep up with the constantly changing employment regulations in one country and several. Furthermore, the increased use of contingent workers brings many benefits and more regulations. Given that contingent workers now account for approximately 36% of the workforce, it is critical that compliance standards for this segment of workers are not overlooked, and talent acquisition outsourcing providers have expertise in compliance to ensure organizations do not fall foul of the legislation associated with this group of workers.
Do Outsourcing Partners Help with Digital Transformation?
Businesses worldwide have undergone various digital transformations over the last decade. However, it is widely reported that the global pandemic accelerated even late adopters’ digital transformation by three years in just three months. In spite of the fact that many organizations changed almost overnight to adopt new technological solutions to support remote and hybrid working, they typically acted without the proper planning and risk assessments. As a result, we are beginning to see some teams within organizations operating without consistent processes or outputs or with problematic communication issues.
These companies have reached a turning point where they can take advantage of the chance to put in place a more strategic solution that will use information and outside expert advice to guide their technology investments. In conjunction with structured support and staff training, this will help in more effective deployment of the technology and support the organization’s core functions, whether in a hybrid or remote environment. Suppose the company needs to consider all relevant factors surrounding the project and clearly define the reasons it is being undertaken. This can result in a poorly implemented infrastructure, putting the project’s success at risk.
The company must consider the ultimate goals during the project selection and planning stages to support effective planning. A successful implementation will eliminate task duplication, create symmetry across the organization, and ultimately improve the employee experience, which can often be delivered by a single, integrated ERP system, in our experience. We’ve seen both winners and losers over the last two years. Software companies and cloud infrastructure providers are clear winners because they have aided in the digitalization of all industries. However, some businesses have yet to fare as well, such as those in the printing industry, as events have moved online, leaving little demand for printed brochures and other collateral.
Do your talent acquisition partners provide better candidates?
In a nutshell, yes. By providing higher-quality candidates, talent acquisition partners align with business objectives and improve productivity (and the bottom line!). Outsourcing talent acquisition also means that HR teams have more time to focus on the business’s strategic needs. It’s a good option for businesses that have put full-time talent acquisition teams on hold but don’t want to see their talent pipelines shrink. Of course, it’s a cost-effective solution, particularly for organizations that rely on government agencies. Global downturns and slowing growth are currently significantly impacting the economy. Is your company able to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions?
