40% of CEOs today believe their business will not be economically feasible in a decade without significant change.

Economic and wider global instability alongside the ongoing cost of living crisis pave a challenging path for leaders over the year ahead. Driving business transformation and innovating new, more diverse product and service offerings across the wider industries will require the right leadership and talent to fuel success across this time of change. 

Labour and skills shortages remain major disruptors to long-term profitability. However, bridging talent gaps at senior and executive levels is not without its risks.

Benefit 1: Avoiding making a mis-hire

The cost of recruitment can spiral when mis-hired employees enter the workforce, particularly at senior levels – such as those that DSA specialises in. 

Business disruption and hampered team productivity can erode continuity and organisational profitability, inevitably leading to a repeat recruitment process and additional costs of interim recruitment or extra pressure on team members while the recruitment process takes place.

According to research, mis-hires are most often made due to the following five factors:

1) Pressure to quickly fill a position
2) Difficulty finding qualified candidates
3) A focus on skills over attitude
4) Lack of tools to find the right person
5) Incomplete background check

Solution: Invest in hiring accuracy

Hiring accuracy is crucial when engaging with any recruitment partner. Take the time to assess your recruitment partners’ fill-rate, as well as their time-to-fill. This will help demonstrate the reliability of their approach and the breadth of their candidate network.

Retained executive search solutions like those provided by DSA help organisations in the logistics and transport sector achieve a high standard of hiring accuracy due to each consultant’s dedicated approach to every client. At DSA, our consultants go beyond drawing from our candidate pools, to actively headhunting for the perfect hire.

Successful and accurate hires are made when organisations are well-equipped with the right network, resources and expertise to build a comprehensive and informed talent process.

Benefit 2: Building a persuasive candidate experience

Candidate experience describes the way your company processes applications and connects with candidates across the recruitment process. It can also involve ‘employee value propositions’ or EVPs, where organisations presents reasons for candidates to consider your organisation. 

Building out an EVP means investing time and resources into your recruitment brand identity and communicating this out across channels like social media to reach your candidates. 

However, mapping out a holistic candidate experience with an accurate and aligned EVP strategy for your roles can be challenging when internal resources are already allocated and time is limited.

Solution: Collaborate to build your candidate experience

Working with a trusted recruitment partner who can invest the time to collaborate with you and to tailor a targeted recruitment strategy and EVP offering can mean gaining access to more passive talent. 

In senior and technical positions such as those that DSA specialise in, the active candidate market can be limiting. We work collaboratively with our clients to headhunt ideal candidates and win them over with tailored and meaningful candidate experiences. 

Benefit 3:  Cultural fit and retention

Finding a candidate who not only fits in with your wider team, but is willing to stay, is particularly challenging given the volatility of the overall recruitment market. 

Surveys show that the after-effects of the great resignation continue to echo, as many employees in the UK say they plan to leave their organisations this year. 

Meanwhile, skills shortages mean that top talent with niche skills is in high demand, and attrition is high.

Solution: Use the right tools to find the right person

Research into mis-hires indicates that both a focus on skills over attitude and a lack of tools to find the right person is a key driver behind hiring the wrong person.  

Overcoming this means using the right tools, such as reliable psychometric assessments and objective interview processes, to determine cultural fit and attitude as well as ability.

Whether you’re actively looking for more people, or thinking about the next steps for your business, DSA can help you in all aspects of your work. Contact us to day to see how we can help you: info@dsaexecutive.com. 

14 April 2023

Adapted from original article by SRG.