NAVIGATING SHALLOW TALENT POOLS IN 2022

Without question, Australia is experiencing unprecedented shortages of corporate finance, investment banking & investment management talent.

Numbers Executive has seen a marked increase in professionals receiving multiple offers, lucrative buybacks (from their current employer) AND, an increase in employment contracts being accepted – only to be rescinded when a better offer presents the following week.

It’s fair to say, it’s a fantastic time to be a jobseeker in the sector!

As a hiring manager, can anything be done to mitigate this? Whilst there’s never an “absolute solution”, keeping the following in mind might prove useful :

1. Grow your own – Can you target talent who bring some of the skills, AND… the potential to be developed / trained opposed to a resource who perfectly matches the job description (AKA the purple unicorn). In our experience employees who feel challenged and feel they are yet to master their job, enjoy it more and usually for a longer period of tenure.

2. It’s a two-way street – When interviewing, more than ever it’s a two-way evaluation process. As such, know your organisation’s unique selling points, take the time to review the applicant’s resume in detail and provide specific examples of how the position will support their professional development – both now, and in the future.

3. Understand the size of your potential talent pool in order to understand your probability of attracting the talent you want. This can be achieved via a collaborative mapping exercise with your recruitment partner (internal or external).

4. Review your budget – Whilst it’s not all about remuneration, salaries have moved in the past 12 months due to the imbalance of supply and demand.  As such, do your research on comparative salaries at the level you’re hiring and ensure the budget matches (and appeals to) the talent pool you’re targeting.

5. Act decisively – If you interview someone you like, benchmark them against your internal team or past processes and make a call.  Timing can be the difference between getting back to business or enduring a long, drawn-out recruitment process.

6. Sponsorship – Historically sponsorship has been perceived as too time consuming and costly. In current conditions, it might be worthwhile taking your search offshore to access a larger talent pool with less local competition.

Recruitment will always be a mix of Art and Science – a combination of understanding your market, the timing of your process, the personalities involved.. and of course, a little luck!

On that note – good luck!