Published on February 13th, 2023 | by Bibhuranjan

Overcoming Labor Shortages: Top 5 Tips for Recruiters

Recruiters are having a tough time hiring qualified candidates from the talent pool for available job openings. Due to labor shortages, employers have to work in an understaffed organization, and the results can be disappointing.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S.A had 11.3 million job positions and not enough workers to apply for and fill those job positions.

With rising competition in the market and the prevalence of factors like the Great Resignation, inflation, and recessions, the staffing and recruitment industry is facing the problem of worker shortages in the labor market.

Keep reading to know more about what labor shortage is, what causes it, and how recruiters can overcome it!

What is Labor Shortage?

Labor Shortage refers to the insufficiency of candidates or applicants for a vacant job position in an organization, market, or economy. Occupational shortage implies a situation when the demand for workers for a particular job role is high, but the supply is relatively low.

The labor shortage doesn’t occur simply because of the high number of jobs compared to lower job seekers but because of the complications raised by the different factors of the hiring process.

There are two basic types of labor shortages, and these are:

Quantitative shortage: This type of shortage occurs when the quantity of workers in the market is low.
Qualitative shortage: This type of shortage occurs when the quality of the labor in the market is poor.

Let us know what causes such a situation!

What Causes Labor Shortage?

The labor market is going through many work-driven and structural changes, primarily because of workers’ shortages. Despite recruiters putting in a lot of effort in the recruiting process, there is a labor shortage. Recruiters may have this question: Why is there a labor shortage?

Here are the reasons why the problem of labor shortage occurs:

Demand for Better Packages: Let’s admit that people wish to make more money. With factors like inflation to combat, workers wish to be provided with higher wages and better salary packages. So, apart from well-paying jobs, workers also look for jobs that guarantee beneficial packages, including health checkups, medical expenses, retirement plans, bonuses, etc.
Need for Work Flexibility: Post the pandemic era, workers have an increased demand for jobs that offer location and time flexibility. Even if the employers increase the base salary, workers wish to work a job that allows them to work from the comfort of their homes and at a convenient time.
Aging Workforce: With most people reaching their retirement age, companies are losing experts and talented employees once they retire. Recruiters need help finding quality candidates who can fill higher-level positions at an organization.
No Growth and Development: Most candidates look to grow professionally by improving their skill sets. Employees will likely avoid working at an organization without growth and skill development.
Great Resignation: Among all the problems that the pandemic brought, it also introduced us to the great resignation, and recruitment agencies are still trying to deal with its negative impacts. With millions of workers resigning, hiring managers need help finding suitable candidates to fill open job positions.

Now that you know the causes of the labor shortage, know how to overcome the situation!

5 Tips on How to Solve a Labor Shortage Problem

1. Improve the Hiring Process

It’s more important than ever for recruiters to enhance and improve the quality of the recruitment process. A seamless and convenient hiring process attracts potential job seekers from the candidate pool.

Effective recruitment includes quick screening, timely interview scheduling, and a great candidate engagement process. Boosting the candidate experience and ensuring a smooth onboarding process are crucial during the recruiting process.

Automating the recruiting process can work wonders for your recruitment business. Recruitment automation streamlines the entire hiring process by fast-tracking it.

The best way to achieve this is by investing in an applicant tracking system that can automate and centralize your recruitment workflow.

2. Showcase Positive Company Culture

Most employees don’t prefer working at a company where the work environment gives a negative vibe. Therefore, promote a positive work culture at the organization so that employees and potential feel good about working there.

Work on building a positive environment by having a shared set of values, beliefs, and attitudes that guide your organization. Provide support to the employees, even on the personal front, so they feel cared for at their workplace.

A strong company culture boosts productivity and employee engagement making the job likable to workers and solving the labor shortage problem.

3. Offer Work Flexibility

Many companies talk about maintaining a work-life balance, but only a few provide facilities for employees to balance their professional and personal lives. As a result, most employees look for jobs that offer a work-life balance.

Companies should offer work flexibility to professionals, especially in a remote setting. Let your employees work from the comfort of their homes at flexible hours. You can obviously track the number of hours they have worked but let the workers decide the period.

A flexible work arrangement empowers employees to work efficiently and makes working more enjoyable.

4. Work on the Skill Development of Employees

A primary reason why candidates refuse to take up a job or employees resign from a company is that they feel there needs to be growth and development taking place.

Every job professional is constantly seeking growth opportunities at their workplace, and if they aren’t provided with the same, they wouldn’t be willing to take up the job.

Offer skill development programs to the workers. Moreover, do promote the employees to higher positions if they are doing great work. This is the best way to ensure their growth in the company and their professional lives.

5. Offer Competitive Salary Packages

This is a competitive world, with competition from all walks of life. To retain its workers, an employer should provide a good base salary. Every individual needs a well-paying job to survive in this competitive world.

Apart from providing great salary packages, HR managers and recruiters can plan a way to provide superior benefits that cover health-related facilities, retirement plans, outbounds, etc.

Remember to offer a salary equal to more than the industry standard of the job title and job role.

Cover Image by Freepik

Tags: applicant tracking, hiring, labor shortage

About the Author

Bibhuranjan Editorial Officer, technofaq.org I'm an avid tech enthusiast at heart. I like to mug up on new and exciting developments on science and tech and have a deep love for PC gaming. Other hobbies include writing blog posts, music and DIY projects.