If you strip away industry differences, most Managers across Australia are facing the same hiring challenge when recruiting talent for their teams and you may be surprised to find that its not due to a lack of candidates or lack of talent.
The real issue is finding the right capability at the right time without derailing budget, timelines or team momentum.
On paper, hiring is a relatively straightforward process to follow from defining the role, going to market, assessing the candidates and finally making an offer, however, in reality its far messier. Roles are often expected to solve multiple problems at once. For example, marketing staff are expected to work across brand, performance, content, digital, automation and analysis which ultimately leads to broad, vague and unrealistic expectations of employees.
This results in either attracting candidates who are too generalist to create meaningful impact, or you miss out on high quality specialists because they don’t tick every box.
At the same time, salary expectations have shifted, with many businesses still operating on outdated benchmarks, creating friction early in the recruitment process. Strong candidates disengage quickly and hiring managers are left wondering why ‘good people are so hard to find’.
The Managers who are hiring successfully right now are doing one thing differently, which is instead of compiling a list of responsibilities, they are getting laser-focused on what the role actually needs to deliver a clear commercial outcome.
Is the priority revenue growth? Brand repositioning? Sales generation? Customer service delivery?
When there is clarity around the purpose of a role, everything else becomes easier as the quality of applicants increases which in turn helps speed up the decision making process
Another common trap when struggling to find the right hire is trying to find a permanent solution for what is essentially a short term capability gap. Not every project or business need requires a full time hire and in some cases, bringing in a specialist on a freelance or contract basis can solve the immediate problem without long term risk.
Ultimately, the hiring challenges facing Managers today are less about the market and more about the alignment between expectations and budget; between role scope and business priorities; what’s wanted and what’s actually required.
Achieving the right balance will ensure that hiring becomes far more effective and a lot less frustrating with new hires moving the business forward as opposed to just filling a gap.